Last week we started a series of What Ifs in the history of the Chicago Blackhawks. Our first looked back at the 2005 NHL Draft, and if the Blackhawks had selected Anze Kopitar instead of Jack Skille. The butterfly effect of that draft likely impacted the following two, in which Chicago selected Jonathan Toews and Patrick Ka✅ne.
Let’s stay with the dynasty and consider another crucial player, and the moment he could have left the Blackhawks earlier than anyone would have liked.
The Blackhawks had just won their first Stanley Cup championship in nearly five decades, but the exodus off the NHL roster was enormous. Because of a failed fax machine (we’ve been told), the Blackhawks had too much money on the books. A flurry of trades began almost immediately after the parade, and gutted the winning roster.
Du🦋stin Byfuglien, Ben Eager and Brent Sopel were traded to Atlanta. Colin Fraser went to Edmonton. Andrew Ladd and Kris Versteeg were gone, too. And the Blackhawks had more cap headaches coming.
On July 9, 2010, defenseman Niklas Hjalmarsson signed a four-year, $12 million offer sheet with the San Jose Sharks. That $3.5 million AAV absorbed most of the Blackhawks’ remaining cap space, and they were still headed to arbitration with goaltender Antti Niemi.
It didn’t take long for the Blackhawks to match the offer sheet and retain Hjalmarsson. Chicago had one week to match, and they did it three days later.
“He does everything you look for in a defenseman,” Joel Quenneville . “You can never have enough defensemen around, and having a predictable defenseman in this day and age is hard to find. It fills that need and void that possibly could have been there.”
But that raises the question: What if the Blackhawks had let Hjalmarsson go to San Jose?
The initial response is easy: it would have been catastrophic for the Blackhawks. At the time, Hjalmarsson was only 23 years old and had 110 regular-season games on his NHL resume. He was just beginning a journey into becoming a core member of the Blackhawks’ blue line. He developed into arguably the best defensive defenseman of that decade.
Former Blackhawks — and, now, Hall of Fame — defenseman Doug Wilson was the general manager of the Sharks at the time and he knew he saw a great player and a financially vulnerable team in Chicago. He made a strong play to hurt the Blackhawks’ cap situation and help his team get better.
For the Sharks, the addition would have been potentially game-changing. The Sharks were a really good team at the time; they lost to the Blackhawks in the Western Conference Final in 2010 and made it back to the WCF in 2011. Adding a shut-down defenseman like Hjalmarsson to their offensive group with Joe Thornton and Patrick Marleau could have been enough to get them to the Stanley Cup Final — and, maybe, win it all.
Instead, the Canucks won the Western Conference in 2011 and then lost to the Bruins in the Final.
The trickle-down of the Hjalmarsson decision would have likely impacted the Blackhawks’ goaltending situation as well.
The sta♔rting goaltender on that Sharks team that made it to the WCF in 2011: Niemi. The Blackhawks walked away from his arbitration settlement, largely because of their cap situation. He signed with the ಌSharks soon after.
Corey Crawford had appeared in seven NHL games before training camp in 2009. Ma📖ny (including me) think he out-played Niemi during the preseason that fall. But Crawford could go back to the minors easier than Niemi, so the NHL roster spot went to the guy who had to stay.
If the Blackhawks had kept Niemi instead of Hjalmarsson, that may have led to Crawford leaving the organization when his contract expired after the 2010-11 season. Which raises the next What If question: would the Blackhawks have won two more championships with Niemi instead of Crawford? I would argue no — largely because he would have been behind a defensive group lacking Hjalmarsson. And, frankly, I believe Crawford was the better goaltender.
