I remember where I was. I was in my room about to take a nap. It was about 4:10 in the afternoon and I was exhausted because I had spent the whole day helping my Dad and Grandpa work on building an addition to our backyard deck. My Mom and Dad were about to leave to buy more parts when all of a sudden my Dad yelled my name. “MIKE, DID YOU HEAR THAT??” he yelled. I was confused. I thought something was happening outside and asked what was going on. He responded, “Saad got traded to Columbus!” Those words hit me like a ton of bricks. “WHAT??????” I loudly exclaimed. I immediately went on Twitter to discover the news was true, one of my favorite players on the Chicago Blackhawks, Brandon Saad, had just been traded to the Columbus Blue Jackets. I immediately went on a verbal rampage, cursing the Blackhawks General Manager Stan Bowman, like I’m sure a lot of Blackhawks fans did during that moment. How can he trade a future superstar who, at only 22 years old, has helped the Blackhawks win two Stanley Cup Championships?? Bowman himself said that one of the biggest priorities of the offseason was to resign Saad to a new contract. And now he’s gone. After a few more curse words, I decided to calm down and look at what the Hawks got in return. The Hawks received four players, Artem Anisimov, Marko Dano, Jeremy Morin, Corey Tropp, and a 2016 4th round draft pick from Columbus in exchange for Saad and two prospects, Michael Paliotta and Alex Broadhurst. This made me feel a little better. Anisimov is a fine center, and I have heard some really good things about Dano, who was one of Columbus’ top prospects, and Morin used to play for the Hawks. Still, I was upset that Saad was gone and thought that the trade itself was unnecessary. Then I heard the reason for the trade.

According to Bowman, Saad was asking for a new contract that lasted six years and paid him up to $6-6.5 million annually. Due the salary cap restrictions, there was no way the Hawks could give him that kind of a contract. When it became apparent that contract talks between Saad and the Hawks wouldn’t go any further and Saad would sign somewhere else the next day when NHL free agency began, the Hawks traded him. Since Saad was a restricted free agent, if he had signed somewhere else the Hawks would’ve received a first, second, and third round selection in next years NHL Draft from Columbus as compensation. Even though that sounds like a lot of picks, what the Hawks got in return by trading Saad instead is way better because they received multiple players who can immediately contribute when the season starts in October. They received an established NHL center in Anisimov, two intriguing prospects in Dano and Tropp, and a familiar face in Morin, to go along with a draft pick. That’s way better than three draft picks. A couple days later Saad signed a 6 year contract that will pay him $6 million annually, which confirmed what Bowman said was the truth. I took back everything bad I said about Bowman, and so should you.

The NHL, just like every other professional sports league, is a business. Due to the salary cap, which limits how much money a team can pay its players, teams like the Blackhawks have to trade players if they can’t afford them, even if they are fan favorites. Some fans are irrational and will condemn Bowman just because he traded Saad and they liked Saad. It doesn’t matter to them what the Hawks got in return. Hawks fans need to realize that Bowman makes these kinds of moves to help the franchise in the long run. Instead of criticizing Bowman, more Hawks fans should praise him for keeping the core of the team together and winning multiple championships in the tough salary cap era, which makes winning multiple championships in a small period of time nearly impossible. Hawks fans need to calm down.

The NHL Awards show took place in Las Vegas last night and as expected it made me want to puke everywhere. With the exception of a really moving tribute to young Canadian hockey fan Jonathan Pitre, the awards show consisted of nothing but cheesy jokes, stupid sketches, and special appearances by celebrities who have nothing to do with hockey.

I know the NHL hands out their yearly awards this way because they want to be flashy and different. For a league that isn’t necessarily super popular, why wouldn’t they? But the whole “Vegas awards show” thing needs to end. It does more harm to the league than it does good. It makes the league look like they’re trying way too hard and are desperate for attention. Not to mention year after year everyone makes fun of how bad it is. Let’s face it, the only reason they do the awards show in Vegas is because all the players and executives want to hit the casinos afterward. What the league should do to announce their yearly awards is air a special on TSN or NHL Network, hosted by several hockey analysts, who announce the finalists and then the winners for each award, and have a discussion about why they won over the other finalists. It would save the league a lot of money and would be a lot less embarrassing.

It’s not the way the awards are given out that makes me really mad, however. It’s how the awards are decided. The awards (which range from League MVP, Best Goaltender, Best Defenseman, Best Goalie, Best Coach, etc.) are decided by votes from hockey writers of the Professional Hockey Writers’ Association. I understand that. They should know more about hockey than anyone given they spend their winters watching game after game after game and have access to players and coaches before and after games. It is also a good idea not to have fans vote on the winners given the obvious bias fans have for players on their favorite teams. The MLB is currently experiencing this problem with their All-Star game voting, where many Kansas City Royals fans are stuffing the ballots to try to get as many Royals players in the game as possible even though most of them have no business going. However, the finalists for the awards are decided right after the regular season ends and are determined by what the players did in the regular season instead of both the regular season and postseason, which I think is asinine. I understand it’s a long regular season, but the awards should be determined by what the player did throughout the entire season, including when it mattered most. Some of the results last night truly shocked me, including Duncan Keith (who won the Stanley Cup and the Conn Smyth Trophy for playoff MVP) finishing in seventh place in the Norris Trophy (Best Defenseman) voting. Roman Josi finished ahead of him in fifth place. Roman Josi. Puke everywhere. Another shocking result was Joel Quenneville not receiving a single Coach of the Year Award vote despite leading his team to a third Stanley Cup Championship in six seasons. You know who did receive a vote? Randy Carlyle, who was fired as coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs midway through the season. Puke. Everywhere. The NHL needs voters to start considering playoff performances when deciding their yearly awards.

Next year I hope to see some changes in the voting process and in the NHL Awards show. Pretty please – so I no longer have to puke everywhere.

This blog will cover a wide range of sports, from hockey, football, baseball, basketball, etc. from the college level to the pro level. I look forward to giving you my insight and commentary on sports events as they happen.