Hawks like Pisani's versatility

Feeling the need to add one more veteran at forward was behind the Blackhawks' thinking when it came to signing free-agent winger Fernando Pisani to a one-year, $500,000 contract.

"We have a lot of guys here where it's going to be their first entry into the NHL as a regular and I think you have to balance it with some guys who have been through it as well," Hawks general manager Stan Bowman said. "We've got some new guys in the mix and I think it's just adding one more guy that brings versatility."

The 33-year-old Pisani can play left wing or right wing and would appear to be a potential fit on the third line with Dave Bolland.

"I like his versatility, his experience, his competitiveness - he's got good leadership skills, the way he plays the game," coach Joel Quenneville said. "I think he's reliable in a lot of ways and can help our penalty killing as well. To me that was a real good fit for us."

Pisani has been battling back spasms in the last week in Edmonton, but Bowman isn't worried.

"We've been monitoring that and he's going to be ready to go," Bowman said.

This is basically the team the Hawks will be starting training camp with on Sept. 17.

"We're not going to be adding any big-name players between now and training canp, maybe just look around and see if there's any depth things that make sense," Bowman said.

Heavy workload: Goalie Marty Turco wants to start between 55-65 games this season and feels he's at his best playing on back-to-back nights.

"I'd like to say 55 to 60 is a good number to start with," Joel Quenneville said. "Everything opens up after that.

"He plays a lot of hockey games and hopefully it's not going to be as taxing for him as other years, but at the same time we want him to be a big part of the game and it starts with the way he handles the puck."

Matter of time: At some point between now and the start of training camp the Hawks will announce they have loaned goalie Cristobal Huet to Fribourg-Gotteron of the Swiss League.

"Nothing is finalized yet. We're still working on that," Stan Bowman said. "It's looking like that's a possibility and hopefully it will work out for him and for us. We're trying to get it wrapped up, but I don't have anything new to report."

While the Hawks still would have to pay Huet's $5.625 million salary this season, the cap hit would come off the books.

Numbers game: Because Tony Esposito's No. 35 is retired, Marty Turco will wear jersey No. 30 this season.