Blackhawks captain Dirk Graham said Tuesday he will take up to a month to decide whether to retire or return for one more season next year. “It’ll be here or nowhere,” said Graham, an unrestricted free agent. “I wouldn’t want to play anywhere else.”
Graham, who would be 36, said he is delaying his decision because “it’s a very emotional time
right now. To make a decision right now would be doing it strictly on emotion. It would be unfair to myself and the team.
“I didn’t decide last summer until probably the middle of August. It gets tougher every year physically to get prepared . . . The short season this year actually helped me.”
Sutter suited here: Brent Sutter expects to be back with the Hawks next season, the final year on his contract. “If you’re asking me if I’m going to step aside, no, I’m not,” he said. “When I was traded here, my goal was to win a Stanley Cup for the Chicago Blackhawks and that hasn’t changed at all. I still have one more year left and I sure hope I can be a Chicago Blackhawk next year.”
Top secret: The Hawks may not make many changes in the off-season, but Murray Craven believes the ones they do make will be to improve the offense. “Especially against Detroit, we weren’t able to produce enough offense,” he said. “That’s no secret. That puts a lot of pressure on the defense and goaltending. “
Pacts of all kinds: Tony Amonte and Steve Dubinksky are both getting married over the summer. Besides a marriage contract, Amonte also is hoping to sign a new player contract. This was his option year and he still doesn’t know how much he’ll be paid for it. “Hopefully we can get something done for this past year and then start working on the next few years,” Amonte said.