The Official End of the Christobal Huet Era with the Blackhawks

The day has finally come. The Chicago Blackhawks owe Christobal Huet no more money.

Huet was signed on the first day of free agency in 2008. His four-year deal was worth $22.4 million and along with the contract given to Brian Campbell was a sign the Blackhawks wanted to win again.

Unfortunately for Huet, his stay in Chicago lasted only two seasons. He has spent the last two years on loan to HC Fribourg-Gotteron SA of the Swiss National League A. The reason for this was to relieve the Hawks salary cap issues.

Huet was carrying a $5.625 million cap hit. That is a lot for a guy who ended up being a backup goaltender. He was beat out by Nikolai Khabibulin in his first year and Antti Niemi is his second year with the team.

While not great, he wasn’t ever truly bad. During his two seasons he went 46-29-8 with a goals allowed average right around 2.50. Those are pretty comparable numbers to Corey Crawford.

Crawford is 63-35-13 with a 2.51 goals allowed average in the past two seasons.

So now that he is gone the Hawks find themselves with some money to spend. While his salary was no longer counting against the cap it was still money being spent.

What that means is instead of paying out about $10 million to guys not on the NHL roster they only are paying out around $4 million. Alexander Salak and Rostislav Olesz are the two guys in the minors being paid NHL contracts at the moment.

The Blackhawks currently have 20 players under contract and have a little more then $6 million in cap space. Would that be enough to lure Ryan Suter or Shea Weber from Nashville?

It’s possible. Either would look great protecting the blue line for the Blackhawks.

What do you think Hawks’ fans? How should the Hawks spend their money this offseason? Sound off below.