Blackhawks 'can't just go get Ryan Kesler'

TSN analyst Ray Ferraro was on Team 1040 in Vancouver Tuesday afternoon, in part discussing the Chicago Blackhawks falling short of the Los Angeles Kings in their Western Conference Finals series so far.

In noting the Blackhawks' need at second line center, Ferraro offered this:

"I think what happens is, when teams fall behind there's this inclination to say... what's wrong, how do you blow it up, how do you make it better.

"Well, they've got a fantastic young player in Teuvo Teravainen - the Finnish kid who was just fabulous at the World Juniors. So next year he's 21. He's going to come over and play his first full year. He came over and played a little bit this year at the end of his season in Finland. He looks like he should be a No. 2 center.

"Now, is he going to be that next year? I don't really know, but the Hawks are going to need their young guys to continue to play bigger roles because very shortly, they're going to have to re-up Kane and Toews. And they're going to take up a bigger chunk of their salary cap. So those young guys are going to have to produce.

"They can't just go get Ryan Kesler, for example. Where do you fit $5 million on the payroll? There's just no cap room unless you trade back money going the other way.

"And so it's not an easy fix for them, but it's not like they need five different players. They need a couple of players throughout their lineup that can give them a little more juice, maybe a little bit different look. They might look for a more physical defenseman that gives them a better balance, but the Hawks play the speed. You can't turn the Hawks into the Kings because that's not the way they're built. Patrick Kane's not going to run anybody over.

"So you got two choices: build around what they have or get rid of all of that skill and try to be something else. For me, I'm more liable to think the model is what you have and that for Chicago is skill and speed. You can't tell me they can't win with it because they just did win."

Source: Team 1040