High-profile Hawks

If you're a hockey fan in or from Chicago you've got to like how things are progressing for the Blackhawks under chairman Rocky Wirtz and president John McDonough. With emerging young stars like Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane and Patrick Sharp leading the way, the Blackhawks have become an entertaining team to watch night after night. Making the NHL playoffs next season is a reasonable expectation, not the usual pipe dream.

Now that there's a product worth crowing about, Blackhawk ownership is determined to step up how the team is marketed. With the passing last year of longtime chairman Bill Wirtz went the team's policy of not televising its home games out of fear of cannibalizing ticket sales. Almost immediately after taking charge, Rocky Wirtz announced a deal with Comcast SportsNet to televise 11 home games this season. One was a recent United Center tilt against the San Jose Sharks that was preceded by the moving ceremonies bringing estranged Blackhawk legends Bobby Hull and Stan Mikita back into the fold as team ambassadors.

The plan for the 2008-09 season, McDonough told the Chicago Tribune, is for all 82 Blackhawks games to be televised. While the lion's share of games would be on Comcast SportsNet, McDonough said the team is talking to various partners about a limited broadcast package as well. While McDonough stressed no deals are set the Tribune reported as many as 25-30 games could be on free television. Tribune's own WGN-TV is a possibility — it was the home of Blackhawk road telecasts in the 1960s and early '70s.

"We want the 20th guy on our roster to have a high profile in Chicago," McDonough told the Tribune. "The fastest way to accomplish that is through TV."