Mark Spector

Mark Spector is a columnist for sportsnet.ca

The Hawks have already shipped out Byfuglien and Frasor.

With most teams looking to build a Cup contender, the champion Blackhawks are dismantling theirs.

LOS ANGELES -- Here at the National Hockey League Entry Draft, the very site where successful franchises are built, Chicago GM Stan Bowman carefully pries apart a Stanley Cup winner.

Flying around, like seagulls at the dump, the other general managers are picking off a Dustin Byfuglien here, a Colin Fraser there. One opposing GM drooled over the possibility of having big Andrew Ladd on his team, a 24-year-old, 6-foot-2 winger who already has two Stanley Cup rings but may be too expensive for Chicago to hold on to.

“He's the kind of guy you'd go down a dark alley with. He'd have your back," the GM said Thursday morning. “His numbers don't begin to tell the value he brings to your team."

A few hours later, Edmonton Oilers GM Steve Tambellini faced the media on the eve of the biggest decision of his tenure in Edmonton. He'll select Taylor Hall, or perhaps Tyler Seguin, with that coveted No. 1 pick Friday at the Staples Center, and in doing so -- if Tambellini is lucky -- perhaps one day he'll find himself dismantling a Stanley Cup champion himself.

“Boy, the ultimate goal is to have a chance to lift the Cup. Once you get to that end…" he said, his thought trailing off.

In Marian Hossa, Cristobal Huet and Brian Campbell, Tambellini recognized, Chicago signed “some big-time free agents. Because they recognized that they had a chance to win at that time.

“So you're paying a price at the beginning to build this thing properly. But at the end you're also paying a price financially to know that I can only maybe sustain this for a year or two. Then you have to start unloading. You're choosing: who actually are your core, and how do you go forward? There's a price on both ends no question."

It really doesn't seem fair, that a team like the Blackhawks -- a Original Six, iconic franchise that hadn't won a Cup since 1961 -- should have to so rapidly begin trading away players. But on Wednesday, they sent Byfuglien to Atlanta along with defenceman Brent Sopel and forward Ben Eager. Later that night, Fraser was shipped to Edmonton for a sixth-round pick.

You can not lament that bit of economics, however, if you enjoy the parity that has come out of the new economy. Because they are one in the same.

“I had to do the same thing when we won (in Anaheim)," said former Ducks GM Brian Burke, who now runs the Toronto Maple Leafs. “We had to make some decisions after we won, and they weren't pleasant. It's not fun to have to peddle guys after they've helped you win."

Burke admits he is one of the GMs who have hoped to strengthen their team at the Blackhawks’ expense. While Atlanta, and to a far lesser extent Edmonton, have found some luck there, Burke said nothing has yet made sense for him.

His stated goal is to add a Top 6 forward in trade for Tomas Kaberle. The problem is, of course, that Chicago has to take back draft picks and prospects. Acquiring Kaberle's $4.25 million cap hit defeats the purpose of what the Blackhawks are trying to do -- get under the salary cap in time for next season.

So it is truly impossible for Bowman to make the savvy trades that will keep Chicago atop the league. It's players out for draft picks in.

“This is what happens when you win. If you're near the cap, you have to make some changes. I don't feel sorry for Chicago," Burke said. “I think Stan has done a real good job of addressing the problems in a timely manner. But do I feel sorry for him? No."

You feel more sorry for all those people who spent the better part of $200 on a Dustin Byfuglien jersey, frankly.

But it wasn't many years ago when fans in Calgary, Edmonton, Buffalo and other smaller markets had the same problem. They'd spend for a jersey for their team's superstar, and the first chance he got he would bolt for a team like Toronto, New York or Detroit, with payrolls that ballooned into the $80 millions.

So the game has changed, yet the pain stays the same.

The difference is, everyone gets a chance to win now.