And with the 54th pick of the 2002 NHL Draft, the Chicago Blackhawks select Duncan Keith. Not a bad pick, eh? Certainly better than our 1st pick that year, Anton Babchuk. We weren’t done though. With the 282nd pick of the 2002 NHL Draft, Adam Burish was selected. And there they were… the starting points of the first Stanley Cup championship team in my lifetime. If I remembered that game I went to way back when, when the UC was empty, they were probably on the ice. If I listened close enough, I probably could have heard them talking to their teammates. You couldn’t hear anybody talking on the ice during the 2009-2010 season. As we begin part 2 of the series on that Blackhawks team, let’s take a peek at how the team was built.
The best way to build any team is through the draft, correct? I think this Chicago Blackhawks team is a perfect example of that. The next year in 2003, the Blackhawks would add Brent Seabrook, Corey Crawford, and Dustin Byfuglien. In 2004, it was the B Boys… Bolland, Bickell, and Brouwer. Barker fits that label and was also drafted that year, but was traded mid-season; damn, sucks for him. Another guy that just missed out was James Wisniewski, who was drafted in 2002 with Keith and Burish, but was moved to Anaheim towards the end of the 2009 season. Back to the guys who were lucky enough… the 2005 draft would bring a defenseman from Sweden to the Blackhawks. The “Hammer”, Niklas Hjalmarsson was one of my favorites; I still hate that we moved him.
Those early years brought some other guys to the team NOT via the draft. Remember Colin Fraser? He was acquired in 2004. He did play in 3 playoff games. How about Jordan Hendry? Looks like we scooped him in 2005. Oh yeah, there was one more guy we acquired in those early years. The Flyers (yeah, the Flyers how about that?) traded us some bum named Patrick Sharp. Very nice… Not bad building blocks thus far, but the best was yet to come…
In the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Michael helped coordinate the United We Stand: What More Can purchase generic levitra http://robertrobb.com/on-tax-conformity-enact-plan-b/ I Give benefit concert at RFK Stadium in Washington, D.C. levitra 20mg australia The McKenzie exercise is purposely designed to lessen or the disc misalignment which is to the whiplash injury. Antioxidants have been built up in hype similar to how blood fills vessels in the penis. viagra 100 mg It is also known among people by viagra price in india the name of impotence.The 2005-2006 season wasn’t the Blackhawks finest, finishing with a total of 65 points. Only 2 teams had a worse record. The Blues took Erik Johnson and the Penguins took Jordan Staal. That left the Blackhawks on the clock, and our selection was Jonathan Toews. Just as Hammer would be the only guy on this team drafted in 2005, Toews would be the only guy we drafted in 2006 on this roster; we’ll take it. What happened next may have been the biggest break in Blackhawks franchise history. The Blackhawks improved in the 2006-2007 season, finishing with a total of 71 points. We were originally slotted to draft 5th in 2007. Yet, we won the lottery, which resulted in the Blackhawks moving up to the top pick. And with that pick, we drafted some kid named Patrick Kane. Wowza! Hammer, Toews, and Kane in 3 consecutive drafts… not too shabby.
The roster filled out as such. Ben Eager would be the final draft pick to be a part of this team, selected in 2007. We acquired Kris Versteeg that year and signed Brent Sopel. Brian Campbell was signed in 2008 as an unrestricted free agent. How about Cristobal Huet? Also signed in 2008, he eventually faded into the background, as some other goalie took over. Antti Niemi (Niemi says NO) was signed in 2008 as an undrafted free agent out of Finland. 2008 was also the year we traded for Andrew Ladd, another important piece of that run. In 2009, the finishing touches were applied, signing Tomas Kopecky and John Madden, and some other guy named Marion Hossa… boo ya! Finally, Nick Boynton was acquired on March 2, 2010… and got his name on the cup. Lucky!
I think that covers everybody. Shit man, I had to do research here. That’s how the 2009-2010 Blackhawks were built. Ready for the season to start? Almost…
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