The Chicago Blackhawks made one of the biggest splashes in the opening hours of free agency Tuesday afternoon. First was a four-year contract to goaltender Cristobal Huet, who as a trade deadline pick up for Washington was instrumental in its playoff run. The second signing was the biggest splash on the first day of free agency, inking Brian Campbell – the most sought after defenseman on the market – to an eight-year contract worth a reported $56.8 million. These signings coupled with the hopeful continued improvement of Chicago’s young roster certainly should propel the Blackhawks into the playoff picture for only the second time in the last 12 years.

The Blackhawks’ interest in Campbell was rumored way back to last year before he was moved from Buffalo to San Jose at the trade deadline. The 29-year-old defenseman’s biggest assets are his skating and passing. That combination makes him into one of the game’s best offensive blueliners with a total of 62 points last year between Buffalo and San Jose. His biggest contribution likely will come as the point man on the power play, a situation the Blackhawks struggled with last year to the tune of 24th place overall. In addition, Campbell and Duncan Keith on separate pairings give the Blackhawks an incredible advantage on team defensive speed likely unparalleled in the league.

As big as the Campbell splash may be, the Huet signing is more interesting. Incumbent netminder Nikolai Khabibulin remains under contract for one more season at the ballooned rate of $6.75 million. Complicating matters even further, the $12 million plus per season doled out to Huet and Campbell caused Chicago to eclipse the league-wide $56.7 million salary cap per team. League rules allow teams to be over the cap during the off-season but they must be under the cap once the season begins in October. So the obvious question is, what the devil are the ‘Hawks going to do?

The most obvious answer would be to trade Khabibulin and his inflated contract. Not only would that remedy the cap problem, but it would leave Huet as the lone number-one goalie and give the Blackhawks several million dollars of breathing room below the salary cap. Unfortunately, much to the Blackhawks’ chagrin, the marketplace demand for an overpaid and under-performing goaltender isn’t very high, so finding a suitor who could absorb such a large cap hit could be difficult. In addition, teams won’t be in a hurry to help Chicago out of its self-inflicted salary cap mess. Still, Khabibulin is a legit starter at an important position, and acquiring him for little can be a possible avenue of exploration for teams with goalie trouble. Teams like Los Angeles, or even Ottawa or Tampa Bay to a lesser extent, could be a possible trading partner for Khabibulin.

Blackhawks GM Dale Tallon said that the team is comfortable moving forward with a goaltending tandem of Huet and Khabibulin. More than likely, that is “GM speak” trying to drum up demand for a player. Should the Blackhawks actually decide to go that route, their other option could be to move center Robert Lang or oft-injured winger Martin Havlat. Both players have one year remaining on their respective contracts – Lang at $4 million and Havlat at $6 million – so either could be moved to resolve the cap problem. However, doing so would eliminate an experienced veteran in a young locker room, as well as deplete the roster of whatever offensive depth it currently has.

Whichever route the Blackhawks choose to go, the only clear answer is that something must be done before the start of the season. And whether that "something" is another big splash or just a small ripple remains to be seen.