from Mark Lazerus of the Chicago Sun-Times,

As the Hawks approach the halfway point of the season, one thing is clear: They’re still good. But they can be better. And for the second straight season, Bowman has a little cap space to work with as the Feb. 29 trade deadline draws closer. Marcus Kruger’s dislocated wrist (he’s expected to return for the playoffs) has allowed Phil Danault to make an immediate impact on the Hawks lineup, while freeing up some money for down the road. Sending Trevor Daley to Pittsburgh for Rob Scuderi freed up another million. Bowman has a little less than $2 million to work with, and he won’t let it go to waste.

It’s one of the great quirks of fate in Hawks history that they probably wouldn’t have won the Stanley Cup last season if not for Patrick Kane — their best player, the league’s leading scorer, and a leading candidate for the Hart Trophy at the time — suffering a broken clavicle in February. The Hawks lost Kane for the rest of the regular season, but they gained millions of dollars worth of cap space, which they turned into Vermette, who had three game-winning goals in the last two rounds of the playoffs; and Kimmo Timonen, who became an emotional catalyst for the team.

The question this year is, what do the Hawks need more: A No. 4 defenseman, or a bottom-six forward?...

Considering Bowman has been trying to find a No. 4 defenseman since early in the season, when it became apparent that Daley wasn’t a good fit, that’s the smart bet.

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