We all knew this salary cap bomb would go off sometime. The fuse was lit with the qualifying offers mailing snafu last summer. And it’s really a good thing the Chicago Blackhawks did win the Stanley Cup last month because we knew their window would close soon, as they would have to begin a veteran fire sale in the very near future. That sale continued today as the Hawks let Adam Burish, BY FAR the most interesting guy on the team to talk to, go and sign with the Dallas Stars today. And when I say by far I mean BY MILES AND MILES.
The former Wisconsin Badger’s candor has made him easily one of the top 5 most written about athletes here at The Sports Bank, so it’ll be really sad to see him go. I’m not sure we’ll be writing about him too much anymore.
By Paul M. Banks
In other words, today isn’t exactly the brightest day for TSB. And when you add Burish to the Salary Cap slaughter, the so-called “fourth-liner” now increases the body count to 6 (Buff, Eager, Sopel, Versteeg and Ladd are the previous five). But hey, I’m sure within the collection of draft picks, prospects, and obscure players with little to no NHL experience that GM Stan Bowman has acquired these past couple weeks, at least one of them will have no problem telling the media about hockey groupies, how awful his teammates’ haircuts are, make fun of how dead the United Center was before 2008 and make hilarious politically incorrect jokes about Canada. And maybe even tell us what a douche juice (hola! Buzz Bissinger) the Flyers’ Chris Pronger is.
Ok, probably not.
According to ESPN Chicago’s Jesse Rogers:
agreed to terms on a two-year deal with unrestricted free-agent forward Adam Burish and will pay him $1 million in 2010-11 and $1.3 million in 2011-12…..”There was a bunch of teams interested,” Burish said. “It was a little overwhelming. I’ve never gone through this before. I was in the gym kind of working out and by 11:20 [a.m. CT] teams had been calling my agent. There were like five or six.”
Burish had mixed feelings about leaving Chicago but getting more of an opportunity in Dallas.
“It’s both,” he said. “You have that understanding going into it that it’s going to happen but every time a guy gets moved or traded everybody texts each other. It’s hard, and it’s sad. It’s a special place where you get your start.”
Burish isn’t shy about mixing it up on the ice, and he’s already targeted some of his old friends on the Blackhawks.
“[Patrick] Sharp and [Patrick] Kane. I’m going right after them,” he said.
Burish will get his first chance when the Stars travel to Chicago for a game Dec. 8.
Read the whole piece here
I’m going to miss Burish so much as an interview subject that I’m going to mourn his departure today by listening to this song on repeat for about five honors. Yes, Hawks front office, it was you who broke my heart today ;(
From the bottom of my broken heart, even though time may find me somebody new…..
Written by Paul M. Banks, President and CEO of The Sports Bank.net , a Midwest focused webzine. He is also a regular contributor to Chicago Now, the Chicago Tribune’s blog network, Walter Football.com, the Washington Times Communities, Yardbarker Network, and Fox Sports.com
You can follow him on Twitter @thesportsbank and @bigtenguru
You may also like -
I’m serious about this breaking my heart. pretty soon I’ll move on to the “Where do broken hearts go?” by Whitney Houston stage of my grief.
DALE TALLON, PLEASE COME BACK TO US. You would never hurt us like Stan did.
I just want to point out that while I will miss Burish, matching that offer would have been a bad move. Also, Stan had to hurt us because of Dale Tallon and all the bad contracts he gave out. He drafted incredibly well but hopefully for his sake he won’t repeat the same mistakes with the Panthers.
The Soupy, Huet and Khabibulin contracts jump out at me as being terrible contracts. I will say this in Bowman’s defense, and I guess of course in Tallon’s defense too- the biggest cap hits are coming from the young core. The stars growing out of their rookie contracts, and now commanding so much more money
Burish’s departure sucks from a standpoint of “he’s a likable guy on YOUR team” but from a hockey viewpoint, he’s replaceable.
Yeah, I agree that it is in part that Towes, Kane and Keith commanded so much money. I’ve heard some fans saying they should have waited until the offseason to sign the stars. Then if something went bad and they left we could then hate Stan. The way I see it is that as long as we have our core, we will be in it every year.
Well obviously I’m most upset because of the copy he provides
the All-Chicago sports soundbite team
F Ozzie Guillen
F Lou Piniella
C Adam Burish
G Joakim Noah
G Ron Zook (on strictly an unintentional comedy level)
@Pete yeah i would agree that he’s replaceable from a on-the-ice standpoint, but I have a feeling he’ll be a much bigger contributor on a team that doesn’t have an army of forwards. With the exception of San Jose, i think his role would increase and his numbers go up anywhere he went