Blackhawks could move Sharp

The Chicago Blackhawks are celebrating a Stanley Cup championship right now and deservedly so. They mopped up the San Jose Sharks in the Western Conference Finals and then held off a gritty Philadelphia Flyers team to close the deal.

Here’s the problem though. They have a lot of salary on the team and most likely can’t keep everyone together. With the the draft just a couple weeks away, it’s a tradin’ time in the ol’ NHL (we don’t know why we just wrote that like that).

So who is on the block?

“It’s going to be a tough couple weeks if players do leave,” Patrick Sharp said. “We’ve just got to enjoy right now and celebrate as much as we can.”

Funny he should say that, because he’s likely to be one of the guys available in a trade. He has two years remaining on his deal with a cap hit of $3.9 million. He’d be a hell of a deal, especially at 28-years old.

“Sharp is a guy any team would love to have,” a league executive told the Daily Herald. “He might not be an elite player, but he’s just a notch below. There are no flaws in his game.”

Sharp is a phenomenal two-way player and he’s well aware that some other team might like to have him.

“I heard all those rumors since the start of last season and took it upon myself to block them out of my mind and not read too much into it,” Sharp said. “I like to think I have a good relationship with Stan and Joel (Quenneville), and whatever happens is going to happen. I can’t make the decision on that.”

Other players who might draw some interest are Kris Versteeg, Dustin Byfuglien and Brian Campbell. Certainly not Adam Burish, however. He’s just a mouth who can’t even get on the ice. Nice to know he has time to bash one of the game’s best though.

But anyway, this much is clear: GM Stan Bowman’s phone will be ringing quite a bit in the next couple weeks. That is, if it’s not already.