Niemi is worth far less than most Blackhawks fans think. Sorry, he's just not that great. He's good, but he's not worth big time money. He looked better than Huet because the defense cleared his rebounds more often (Niemi's rebound control was horrendous for much of last year including the playoffs). His GAA and sv% in the playoffs were respectable, but not amazing. 6th and 5th place in the playoffs respectively.

Huet obviously won't be playing with the Hawks next year, but Huet was also a lot less horrible than Blackhawks fans think. Don't get me wrong - he is not worth $5.625 million by any stretch of the imagination, but he's hardly the horrible goaltender Hawks fans treated him as when they booed him at the victory parade despite his 26 wins.

Campbell I agree with you on. He's not worth his contract, but he's much better than hawks fans credit him for. His value to our transition game is huge and his speed was an essential part of our offensive depth. With one pairing having Keith, and another having Campbell, we almost always had a good puck moving D-man on the ice to get the puck to our forwards. He's not a $7+million man, but he's much better than Hawks fans give credit.

It's interesting to see all the new folks playing armchair GM already. They act like they've been watching hockey their whole lives and spend all year booing a guy like Sopel until suddenly he's their hero because finally the announcers talked about all of his blocked shots in the playoffs. The guy led the team in blocked shots per minute on ice by a VAST margin all year long from the very beginning.