Making the Case for Campbell

By John Manasso

During the Thrashers' prospect development camp a few weeks ago, I watched winger Eric Boulton at rinkside eagerly chatting up Dan Marr, the team's director of amateur scouting and player development.

About a week earlier, the Thrashers had just acquired their fourth member of the Chicago Blackhawks in winger Andrew Ladd. That meant, I informed Boulton, that Blackhawks defenseman Brian Campbell had now played with six current members of the Thrashers -- nearly a third of the team -- without ever having played for the Thrashers.

In addition to the four transplanted 'Hawks now on the roster, the other former teammates of Campbell (nickname "Soup") are Boulton and Chris Thorburn, both of whom played with Campbell in Buffalo. Boulton reminded me that the Thrashers had attempted to sign Campbell in 2008 when he was one of the top free agents on the market but Campbell elected to sign instead with Chicago.

"He should've signed here," quipped Boulton, a friend of Campbell's who was his roommate on the road in Buffalo.

Which has me wondering, is it out of the realm of possibility that Campbell could still become a Thrasher? No doubt Thrashers general manager Rick Dudley, who was assistant GM in Chicago when the 'Hawks signed Campbell, would still have to like the player. As a top puck-carrier, he would seem an excellent fit for the style that he and coach Craig Ramsay want to play, a style that seeks to create as many four-man rushes as possible. He would even seem a better fit than the departed Pavel Kubina, the team's top defenseman last season who was more suited to a stay-at-home style when paired with the offensive-minded Tobias Enstrom. Ramsay wouldn't seem to mind pairing offensive-minded defensemen with each other, as he plans a risk-taking style.

The biggest obstacle, of course, is Campbell's salary. He still has six more seasons left at $7.1 million per year. But that same salary makes his tenure in Chicago uncertain. Campbell has fallen, arguably, to fourth on the 'Hawks depth chart and today is an uneasy day for the organization as Stanley Cup-winning goaltender Antti Niemi has gone to arbitration. If Niemi's award is too big, the 'Hawks will have to make more salary-cutting moves and who wants to move a rookie Cup-winning goalie?

Veteran Blackhawks writer Tim Sassone concludes today that the fact that Chicago is set to sign 19-year-old defenseman Nick Leddy out of the University of Minnesota to a contract reportedly worth $2.7 million means that the team is still shopping Campbell.

Could the Thrashers afford to take on Campbell's salary? Well, it's hard to know what the team's payroll plans are but the roster also seems in need of another defenseman with the departure of Kubina to Tampa Bay and the decision not (at least at this point) to re-sign Christoph Schubert. That leaves Boris Valabik as the sixth defenseman on a nightly basis. Maybe Valabik is ready for that role, but maybe the Thrashers want to upgrade.

If they are considering Campbell, here are some other numbers worth considering. According to the reliable Web site NHLNumbers.com, the Thrashers' salary cap number stands at $40.621 million after today's signing of Ladd at $2.35 million. With the cap being set this year at $59.4 million, that means they have to reach the salary cap floor of $43.4.

Restricted free agent wingers Bryan Little and Niclas Bergfors remain unsigned. They made a combined $1.35 million last season in base salaries. It's hard to say how big their raises will be, but Bergfors reached the 20-goal plateau and made the all-rookie team after earning only $500,000. Little's situation is more complex. He went from 31 goals two seasons ago to 13 last season with a base of $850,000.

Maybe those two sign for somewhere in the neighborhood of the $3-$4 million total necessary to get the Thrashers to the cap floor. At that point, they will have 21 players under contract, according to NHLNumbers.com, but one of them is forward Jason Krog, who may or may not make the team. It's enough to field a team, but it also includes only six defensemen. Most teams carry seven.

Perhaps most significantly, $4.7 million of the team's cap space is taken up by potential bonus pool money for Zach Bogosian and Evander Kane, who are on entry-level deals. That is not money that the Thrashers actually owe but money they might have
to pay out, which, under the salary cap saystem, counts against a team's
cap number until a player can no longer achieve the potential bonuses, usually after the season is over. It's entirely possible that both of those players will hit all of their bonus thresholds and earn all of that money. But if they don't, it's possible, though not likely, that the Thrashers would actually fall below the league's mandated spending floor.

So it's possible there is room to add Campbell, but just how much is unknowable. And, finally, there is one more factor to consider. Teams that spend beyond the midpoint of the salary range -- which is $51.4 million this season -- are not eligible for revenue sharing.

If the Thrashers were to add the salary of Campbell today, their cap number would hit $47.7 million. That would leave $3.7 million for the salaries of Little and Bergfors before the team would risk its revenue-sharing money. So even if Kane and Bogosian hit all of their bonuses, the Thrashers might be OK. However, Dudley could be playing with fire, as there are always injuries and call-ups that add to payroll throughout the year. Of course, the Thrashers also could find a way to dump salary and pick up a cheaper player to give themselves more wiggle room.

In all, it seems possible that if the Thrashers, who already have concluded two deals with Chicago, wanted to make a third by adding a little "Soup" to their mix, it could be possible.