Defense's Fab Five should be around a while

While Blackhawks general manager Dale Tallon isn't done tweaking his defense for the present, he likes what he sees when peeking ahead to the future with what he believes is a solid five of Duncan Keith, Brent Seabrook, Brent Sopel, James Wisniewski and Dustin Byfuglien.

"We want to develop a core that plays all the way through for the next decade at least," Tallon said. "These guys are going to be a force to deal with in the future."

Take away the 30-year-old Sopel, and Keith, at 24, is the oldest of the other four.

"Our young guys have played very well," Tallon said. "Sure, they've made a few mistakes, but not because they're not trying. We're looking for the progress, are they improving an getting better, and I see that. We're in this for the long haul, and these young guys are our future."

Tallon prevented Sopel from becoming an unrestricted free agent this summer by signing him to a three-year, $7 million contract extension Thursday.

Seabrook, Wisniewski and Byfuglien all must be signed this summer as restricted free agents. Keith is signed through the 2009-10 season.

It's no secret Tallon is on the prowl to add a defenseman who could play the point on the power play.

While Tallon may or may not get the ideal guy before the Feb. 26 trade deadline, the Hawks plan to be very active in the free-agent market for defensemen this summer when the likes of Buffalo's Brian Campbell and Tampa Bay's Dan Boyle will be available should they remain unsigned.

Attention-getters: Friday's sellout (21,139) was the fourth in the last five games for the Hawks, who have averaged 20,142 for those five games.

There was concern the fans might stop coming out with the Hawks taking a seven-game losing streak into Friday's game against the Wild.

"I think our people here understand what's gone on the last few weeks with the loss of our players," coach Denis Savard said. "I don't think they're going to stop coming out."

The Hawks play only two of their next 13 games at the United Center.

Whittling it down: It wasn't too long ago that the Hawks had 11 players scheduled to be unrestricted free agents after the season.

Now they're down to seven with the departures Magnus Johansson, Jim Vandermeer and Sergei Samsonov and the re-signing of Brent Sopel.

The seven scheduled UFAs are Martin Lapointe, Yanic Perreault, David Koci, Andrei Zyuzin, Patrick Lalime, Jason Williams and Kevyn Adams.

Tip-ins: With Brent Sopel returning to the lineup Friday and Jordan Hendry getting another chance to play, Andrei Zyuzin was a healthy scratch on defense. … Denis Savard said injured defenseman James Wisniewski, out since Dec. 26 with a sprained knee, would start skating again Monday.