I really don't think it's a matter of affording. They have the cap space to make it work. I'm interesting to see what Stan's goal is for that cap space though.

I don't understand why they could'nt resign crwaford

IDK why we didn't sign him either. I hope there's simply a misunderstanding and this gets corrected immediately.

Any idea on what the plan is with Smith now that we can't buy him out? LTIR? Buried in rockford? or do we have to keep him up in the NHL

We'll see how it plays out. I'll be pissed if it turns out Crow was willing to sign 2 years at like $3M and Bowman wouldn't go above 2.5M. I'll be fine with it if Crow wouldn't go below $5M and the Blackhawks wanted to make other moves like trade Strome, sign Wallmark or Jankowski, Kahun?
I get (almost) all goalies were at one time AHL'rs and rookies, but with the shots against on this team last year, even a .910 sv % isn't going to win a lot of games.
Good luck to Crow, it was a great 13 seasons!

I personally never liked the buyout option. We can "rip the band aid off" in 1 year and get our full $3M in cap back next year. IF he's healthy....I'd waive him and send him to Rockford. WAY too many new faces down there which isn't a huge problem, but AHLers aren't exactly Top Dpairs and Top line forwards. Smith can help them become true professionals in how they go about their careers. Not just on the ice stuff, but off the ice too. Eating Healthy, proper ways to both train but also be ready for games. I'm a firm believer in veteran leadership up and down the farm system. It can't just be coaches. It's just like Soupy going to London and helping Boqvist breakdown game film.