Chicago Blackhawks Send Out Qualifying Offers To 4 of 7 Eligible

The Chicago Blackhawks will be handing out qualifying offers to 4 of the 7 players eligible this offseason. 

Ok, first there is a history lesson for everyone.  One of the reasons Stan Bowman is the General Manager of the Chicago Blackhawks is because of qualifying offers.

Yes, qualifying offers is a pretty routine thing in the NHL except back in 2009 when they allegedly got lost in a fax machine or whatever.

Dale Tallon, the real architect of the Chicago Blackhawks, royally screwed up sending out qualifying offers back in 2009 to players like Kris Versteeg and Troy Brouwer which started the Chicago Blackhawks ride to salary cap prison because they ended up having to pay more for younger players than they should have had to.

After that mishap the next thing you know, Tallon is gone and Stan Bowman takes over the reigns as the Chicago Blackhawks GM.

Ok, enough about the past.  This year there were 7 eligible players to be qualified and by the sounds of it only 4 will be getting the offers.  The two in the NHL that of course made sense to get the offers were Dennis Rasmussen and Tomas Jurco.

Now if the Hawks hadn’t given a qualifying offer to Jurco there would have been a real uproar since the Hawks protected him in the expansion draft this past week.  There have been stories out there that the Blackhawks have been trying to sign Rasmussen to the League minimum before the expansion draft, but he has not signed a contract as of yet so thus he gets the qualifying offer.

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The other two to get offers are from the Rockford Ice Hogs VIlle Pokka and Erik Gustafsson.  Pokka is the prospect everyone wants to see in Chicago, but he’s also the prospect that everyone says needs to improve his skating.

Gustafsson played ok in 2015-2016 for the Hawks during the regular season, but was a huge liability in the playoff series against the St. Louis Blues including coughing up the puck for the winning goal in Game #7.

The three players that didn’t receive a qualifying offer were Michael Latta, Kenton Helgesen, and Nolan Valleau.  The only surprise is possibly Latta because he could be seen as some player depth in Rockford next season.

This has to be the last shot for Pokka or he will be on the Mark McNeill path of becoming a lifer in Rockford.  Gustafsson got passed up by Gustav Forsling last year, and needs to show something in Rookie Camp and Training camp this year.

Next: Projected Lines For Next season

No real surprises, but if it was that way every year we would be saying In Dale we trust instead of Stan.