Kukla's Korner Hockey

Kukla's Korner Hockey

Johnny Oduya Not Thinking About His UFA Status

02/02/2015 at 4:28pm EST

from Mark Lazerus of the Chicago Sun-Times,

There’s very little chance, if any, that Johnny Oduya will be wearing a Blackhawks sweater when training camp opens next fall. He knows that. Everyone knows that. It’s not that he doesn’t want to be back. It’s not that the Hawks don’t want him back. The math just doesn’t work.

As an unrestricted free agent with a cap crunch looming, the Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane megadeals kicking in, and a big Brandon Saad raise due, it’s virtually mathematically impossible for a veteran, well-paid defenseman such as Oduya to fit.

Oduya gets that, even if he won’t get into specifics.

“I’ve been around a couple years,” the nine-year veteran said. “I understand the ins and outs of that.”

But the urgency Oduya feels now, with the clock ticking on his Hawks career, is no different than the urgency he felt last spring. Or the spring before that. As Toews often says, you only get so many chances to make a run at a Stanley Cup, and the championship window only stays open so long. So Oduya’s thinking about what’s going to happen between now and June, not what’s going to happen in July.

cntinued

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Paul Kukla founded Kukla’s Korner in 2005 and the site has since become the must-read site on the ‘net for all the latest happenings around the NHL.

From breaking news to in-depth stories around the league, KK Hockey is updated with fresh stories all day long and will bring you the latest news as quickly as possible.

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