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Blackhawks expected to officially ship Cristobal Huet’s cap hit overseas in ‘next few weeks’

Cristobal Huet

Chicago Blackhawks goalie Cristobal Huet, of France, stops a Detroit Red Wings puck in the first period of of Game 5 of the NHL hockey Western Conference finals in Detroit, Wednesday, May 27, 2009. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

AP

He’s not the first player that a team stashed overseas to bury his cap hit by any means - Michael Nylander comes to mind as one who came well before him - but Cristobal Huet is becoming the new poster child for salary cap circumvention.

Hockey fans, writers and bloggers alike can solve every cap crunch by following the Huet Standard. Is Brian Rolston’s $5.06 million cap hit too much too stomach? Ship him to Europe. How are the New York Rangers going to get under the cap after finally signing Marc Staal? That’s simple; just pay him $6.5 million to play hockey in the minors.

The funny thing is that the Huet Solution didn’t even officially happen yet. ESPN Chicago reports that the Chicago Blackhawks are close to finding a home for their orphaned $5.625 million albatross.

General manager Stan Bowman said Friday he hopes to assign Huet to a team in Europe within the next few weeks. Huet’s agent, Stephen Bartlett, told ESPN Chicago he’s in talks with Swiss team Fribourg-Gotteron.

Huet, 35, won’t be in training camp and may be claimed off waivers from the Stanley Cup champions.

Sounds like Huet might want to bone up on his German, French, Italian and Romanish. (What is, “How dare you call me overpaid!” in French?)