Ladd deal completes salary cap space clearance

The bad news is the gutting of the Stanley Cup champion Blackhawks continued on Thursday.

The good news is it should now be over.

In another salary dump, left winger Andrew Ladd was traded to the Atlanta Thrashers for defenseman Ivan Vishnevskiy and a second-round draft pick in 2011.

The Hawks also officially lost gritty winger Adam Burish, who signed a two-year contract with the Dallas Stars as an unrestricted free agent.

General manager Stan Bowman did dip into the free-agent pool late on Thursday, signing 6-foot-8, 258-pound enforcer defenseman John Scott from Minnesota to help fill the void created by with the departure of physical players such as Ladd, Dustin Byfuglien and Ben Eager.

Since hoisting the Cup only a few weeks ago in Philadelphia, the Hawks have moved Kris Versteeg, Byfuglien, Ladd, Eager, Burish, Brent Sopel, John Madden, Nick Boynton and Colin Fraser off the championship roster because of salary cap issues.

"The important thing is our core guys are back and are going to be here for a long time," Bowman said.

As for replacing the grit lost in the last week, Bowman said there is a plan for that.

"I expect a guy like Jake Dowell to have a really good chance to be on our team next year," Bowman said. "He brings a lot of that tenacity and aggressiveness to his game. We'll have to look at filling some other spots as well. There are players out there on the market that we've been calling on and are in discussions with."

The Hawks made Ladd a qualifying contract offer as a restricted free agent, but it became clear to Bowman in talks with Ladd's agent that the winger wanted substantially more than the $1.65 million he earned this season.

"It became apparent that it wasn't the right mix in terms of salary and our situation here, but I certainly wished him well," Bowman said. "He was a big part of it. He's a great kid, but we had to do what we had to do going forward."

Ladd and Burish knew changes were coming because of the cap problem and that they might not be back.

"It's easier to take having won the Stanley Cup," Ladd said. "It was a special group and we'll always have that bond with the city and each other.

"We knew the whole year that this was our one shot to do something special."

Burish got a two-year deal in Dallas worth $2.3 million after making $725,000 this season with the Hawks.

"It's sad," Burish said. "This is always going to be a special place for me. I love the guys in this organization. We won a championship together. This is a bittersweet day. It's hard for me and it's been hard for a lot of guys the last couple weeks."

Burish did leave with some comforting words for Hawks fans about next year's team.

"They'll still be awesome, I don't think anybody should worry about that," Burish said. "They'll be just fine. You lose guys and some pieces that were important to the team, but they've got so many more good pieces there and Stan will do a good job keeping that group together and bringing in good pieces."

Bowman thinks the 22-year-old Vishnevskiy, who spent most of this season in the American Hockey League with Texas and the Chicago Wolves, has a chance to make the top six on defense.

"He's a very interesting player," Bowman said. "He's got incredible skating ability. He's an offensive-type defenseman with great wheels. I think that's his best attribute. He's a player who has a chance to play in the NHL for us next year."

As it now stands after all the dealing, the Hawks have about $3.58 million of salary cap space. It would have been more if not for the $4.1 million in bonuses due Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane for things such as winning the Conn Smythe Trophy (Toews) and finishing in the top 10 in scoring during the regular season (Kane).

The available cap space will rise to about $9.18 million once Cristobal Huet's contract is off the books.

That leaves enough money to re-sign key restricted free agents Antti Niemi and Niklas Hjalmarsson as well as Bryan Bickell and Jack Skille.

Bowman said he would address the Huet situation shortly.

"I had a very brief conversation with his agent, but we haven't gone down the path at all," Bowman said. "I think we'll get to that at some point here."