Chicago Blackhawks Rumor: Interest In Karl Alzner

The rumor mill doesn’t get anytime off this time of the year with the draft and then free agency in the NHL.  The latest rumor comes from a guy that doesn’t even cover the Chicago Blackhawks full-time anymore. 

When I first jumped into this blogging thing, the two Chicago Blackhawks reporters you followed the most were Jesse Rogers (who is a Chicago Cubs reporter now) and Chris Kuc (who is just a United Center reporter now basically)

Anyways it was strange to get a rumor from Kuc today via Twitter.

The reason that any rumor about defense makes sense right now for the Chicago Blackhawks is that their defense in it’s current state is for lack of a better word a bit wonky!

You have one player on defense that you trust in Duncan Keith, and another one that you think you can trust most nights in Brent Seabrook. After that there is a lot of promise, but no one I totally have faith in, and to make things better or worse depending on how you look at it.. Michal Rozsival is still around.

Alzner is a left handed shot which really isn’t need on defense, and has a good +/- ratio but doesn’t score a lot of points either.   He’s played for the Washington Capitals since the 2008-2009 season and is a unrestricted free agent come July 1st.

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The thing about the rumor that I don’t like is that Kuc says the Hawks would need to move things around to fit him in which I don’t think any Chicago Blackhawks fan is ready for.  If you ask me, we go into the season with the roster we have now, and if Stan needs to something we will have the LTIR Hossa money space available at that time after it’s determined what the real need of the team is.

It’s a catch 22 really, Pay me now or pay me later.  I don’t know if I’m a fan of this deal, but Alzner seems like the kind of player Stan would sign on the cheap if the deal is right.  Other teams are interested so hopefully they overpay and the Hawks can take their attention elsewhere.

Next: Tribute to Niklas Hjalmarsson

What do you think of this rumor? Let us know in the comments section.