Hunwick signs with Columbus for remainder of the season.
Anyone know if Hunwick signed?
Any idea on how many doll hairs he gets for this?
The season ends next Sunday, so Hunwick will be on an NHL roster for a total of 12 days. The minimum salary is $525K/year, and the salary is paid on a 180-day basis, so (525000 dollars/year) * (12 days) / (180 days/year) = $35,000.
I think.
Good Mathing. I bet he also gets a pretty nice per diem.
Don't touch your per diem. Go to Craft Service, get some raw veggies, bacon, a Cup-A-Soup, baby you got a stew goin'!!
I knew it wouldn't be much, but that's solid. Especially for 12 days of work. Hopefully he can parlay that into the full 525k next year.
Anyone know what the Columbus fan reaction was to him in the Michigan gear?
I hope he keeps wearing it, but I'd hate for him to get shit for it every night from buckeye fans. He deserves better than that.
Hunwick was met with a lot of confusion last night. We made the trip down from Ann Arbor to see him take the ice, and in the pregame skate a lot of the fans around us were very confused as to where he came from. A lot did not even realize that Mason had been injured in the morning skate. But there were ZERO boos for Hunwick that we heard.
There are no hockey fans in Columbus. Just look at the game last night, a mostly empty arena with probably at least half Wings fans.
Can't blame them, the franchise has been a disaster pretty much from day one, and it's the end of another lost season. Even the people who go aren't going to be gulping up team news and following acquisitions. For an analogy, how much play are the Pistons getting around Detroit? I'm not feeling any excitement for them up here, and they were pretty good just a few years ago. Columbus has never been good.
March 29th, 2012 at 11:25 PM ^
And the story continues
Congrats to him, pretty nice chunk of change for finishing out the year. Also, gives him a chance to keep in the game by practicing with the pros for a few weeks. Good for him.
How can this be?? Why, he wasn't even first-team CCHA.
What a helluva story. I love it.
They offered. He turned them down.
In theory, yes, but teams tend to "encourage" their goalies to wear matching colors, as well as masks that fit the locale, so you probably won't see the maize and blue should Hunwick ever suit up for, say, the Wings or the Flames.
I'm kinda surprised they let him rock the winged mask, you would think an NHL equipment manager would be able to get the same exact mask and paint it. Maybe there just wasn't enough time. The pads though, I definitely know goalies are very particular about their personal pads, both from a sentimental and from a performance point of view. They take A LOT of time to get broken in correctly so they're not bouncey and shooting rebounds uncontrollably back on shots.
For goalies equipment is different. (As a goalie, you may say that we are different. point taken) Equipment is very personal, and not to be messed with. I can say with 99% accuracy that Hunwick will be rocking his same pads for the rest of the season. He wont break in new gear for 12 days. Think of goalie gear like a baseball glove - it needs to be broken in and you need to be used to it.
Regarding the helmet though, I doubt he'll want a new physical helmet. Same thing, being used to it. Where it will get tricky though is if they offer to repaint his current lid. If I were him I'd say "thanks but no thanks" but they may really want him to. Who knows.
Sticks - he might get new, color matching ones, those are less of a big deal.
I've heard that when a player is traded they will simply dye his pads to the new team colors, I remember when I was young the wings called up some goalie from grand rapids on short notice and he still had his dorky blue pads.
But I don' t know how well they work. Plus, Hunwick's equipment all has embroidered block M s on it everywhere... that will be harder to do. I still think painting his helmet will be easier than any other eqipment chances (besides his stick) but I doubt they'll do anything this season.
This is pretty normal fare for goalies, and Hunwick will doubtless just keep the Michigan equipment for the rest fo the year. You can't just repaint your pads or helmet--it's actually a pretty involved process. When goalies change teams they keep old equipment. Notably, Marty Turco suited up in Stars gear when he signed with the Bruins, even though he hadn't played for the Stars all year--he was in Europe.
The most notable occurance of this for Wings fans is when the Wings traded for Bob Essensa from Winnipeg ('94, I believe) and he wore his blue mask.
Goalie helmets are custom fit/made and very expensive. I'm sure there wasn't time to have one made for last night. Perhaps it won't be worthwhile for the 5 or so games remaining, but if he sticks I imagine he'll get a new one.
A few weeks ago we were wondering if he would ever get to the NHL or just be a career minor-leaguer. Well, we have our answer.
So how's he gonna finish up that Astronomy 101 class?
Seriously though I could not be happier for him. I am sorry in advance for all the bad mojo I will be sending to York and the other goalies.
JJ is such a tank for them. 30+ min a game is unreal. Origionally I felt bad for him cause Columbus blows, but I think it will work out for him because now he's a clear number one and can really show off what he can do.
Here's the Link to ESPN's pictures of Hunwick in net for warm ups: