STATE OF THE BLACKHAWKS 2020

[GRADEN]

To say this has been an up and down / frustrating year is putting it mildly. Colliton implements an off-base dump and retrieve scheme to start the season, then is told to dump that and not retrieve it if he values his job... We immediately see dividends. Then we play great against good teams, then bad against even level competition, then run into a buzz saw of Colorado 4 games in like 10 days. Then we have a great stretch and even make our young blue liner the captain of the power play. All the while, we see numerous veterans drop all over the place: De Haan / Seabrook done for the season and Shaw / Saad out for weeks maybe months. We also see a ton of deals that we perhaps we thought we won maybe teeter the other direction; Jokiharju for Nylander - Whamy. Shaw for picks - Whamy. Even Strome for Schmaltz you could argue has turned out better for the Yotes whom find themselves firmly in the playoff mix and guess whom is their leading scorer? You guessed it. So, with all that said... we are 4pts out of the last spot. Wasn't that exhausting? Jay, James, PB, Eddie, Pat, Charlie, SCH, Powers, JR, Sharpie, and Adam all would agree I'm guessing.

So what to do?

1. Stick with it, hope it turns around little by little?
2. Blow it up, trade Kane home for 2 1sts, Reiny, and an A prospect?
3. Chip away trading: Move deals that are actually expendable: Saad / Maata / Crawford
4. Youth movement: Give big minutes to your future.
5. Go all-in! Trade assets to obtain a top 6 / top pair player to win now

Out of those 5 picks it looks like Stan is going with #4. Dach moves to second line PP time (about 30secs each time), Boqvist now plays the point on the power play.... Sikura, Quennville, and Gilbert all get minutes... So far so good, all of them are playing just fine to me as well. Kubalik looks way more comfortable as well.

What about the future? Colliton turns 35 in a week... And that would be great with a rebuild. Kane, Toews, Keith, Crawford, Seabrook, and the retries on Saad / Shaw tell me that they haven't gone that way yet. I don't think he is the best option for us here with those guys still on the ice. Lavie just was let go. He is 55 and in 18 seasons has like 1500 points, with 3 finals and a cup win. Not only that but he did so with Carolina and Nashville!!!! Imagine what he could do with the Chicago skyline at his disposal. I like his system, he has tons of experience, and would be very hungry for a chance to avenge his mutiny. I can't imagine the Hawks haven't already talked about this.

Who is in the future?

Well, we can go through every single pick or player acquired for the last 5 years or we could just talk about the players I think we actually play more than 50 games in a Hawks sweater:

Wings:

LWs Alex DeBrincat, Brandon Hagel
- I think that's about it on the left side, we are very thin. Hagel has NHL level IQ / shot right now and is very close to becoming an every game contributor. Cat should be scoring 25-40 goalies for another 8-9 seasons if all goes well. Shaw / Saad / anyone else in the system is not going to be in any long term plans I feel.


RWs Kubalik, Sikura, Entwistle, and Michal Teply
- I really like Kubalik, he can score in that mid range between the dots very well. Sikura is a decent 4th line option and Entwistle could develop into a bottom 6 enforcer / tough player for us. The guy I'm highest on is Teply. A 4th rounder that was a top pick in juniors and has just sky rocketed on the world stage. We could be talking about a 20-30 goal scorer 1 day. He is young and is likely 2-3 years away, but wow he is on track as if he was a top 15 pick.

Cs Strome, Dach, Kurashev, Highmore
- We took Dach because we had 0 centers in line... Well that's fine, I really like his game and his reach is one of the longest Ive seen in a very very long time. He needs to watch Lindros back check and stick lift back in the day... He doesn't get low right now, he circles too much, and needs to toe stop and push hard to get some momentum. Once he gets these things figured out... Could be good. Kurashev and Highmore look like decent bottom 6 centers to me... could be more, but right now they are raw.

RHDs Murphy, Boqvist, Mitchell, Regula
- Love Murphys game, Boqvist coming along right now... has tremendous ability. He is actually been held up too much I think. Mitchell actually may be our best prospect overall - he just does it all. I really feel safe with his play. Regula could be a nice 3rd pairing guy too.

LHDs Beaudin, Carlson, Vlasic, Krys, Gilbert
- NB is not disciplined right now, he is still years away to me. Carlson is a nice player, nothing too exciting but could play some time in the pros. Vlasic could be a big time D man and Krys / Gilbert are bottom tier guys I expect to get 3-5 years of time in.

Goalies: Lehner, Lankinen, Gravel
- I fully expect Lehner to get extended: say 4/30... Lankinen a full time backup at 24 and then in 2-3 seasons start grooming the very promising Gravel (19) to be the guy when Lehner starts to slow.

Draft?

IF there was a year to tank, it'd be this year! I think there is a clear 1-2-3 order and a clear goalie that should be in the top 10. Then there are 9-15 top level guys. I think that this draft could be insane.

I did a quick mock with the bottom half of the league and did an online lotto drawing so as not to just hand the Redwings Alexi.

1. Sens - LW Lafreniere
2. Kings - C Byfield
3. Redwings - RW Raymond
4. Ducks - C Stutzle
5. Devils - D Drysdale
6. Sens - G Askarov
7. Wild - C Holloway
8. Sabres - RW Holtz
9. Blackhawks - C Rossi
10. Rangers - C Lundell
11. Canadians - D Barron
12. Preds - LW Perfetti
13. Blue Jackets - C Perrault
14. Flames - C Lapierre
15. Panthers - C Zary
16. Jets - C Mysak

Any of these top tier guys could be a star. I picked Rossi for the Hawks because he brings that speed we need. You can lock in those top 3 players though... Thats the spots they'll go.

Thoughts?

[GRADEN]

Tonight’s game against Calgary / 2-1 loss

My quick hits on the game:

Kubalik is a freaking monster! He is just insane when he is out there, all over the place causing all sorts of havoc and chances. I absolutely love his game right now.

Crawford was very good tonight and he had 2 big time stops on what I would say were 90% goal chances.

Toews looked good but wow he and Kane need some better line mates.... Quenneville, Sikura, Dach, Nylander, Kampf all looked completely out of place at times... they looked like “oh I need to be in my spot” instead of “oh Toews has it here and I need to adjust to his move”...

I saw Keith make a big no-no mistake around 4-5mins remaining where he turned it over after a very slow retrieval. He was gassed and it really showed there.

Murphy was solid again... Gus and Maatta looked expendable again. Despite Smiths 2 really bad penalties he was a physical force out there.

A+ to the PK tonight and really for last 2 weeks... it looked really good.

Strome hurt... not good! We have 0 backup anywhere... move Highmore back to center and call up Hagel to slot in at LW.

[GRADEN]

Kubalik is on his way to ROY

Yes, I know he is 24 and very much not a rookie in the truest sense of the 18-20 year old ranges... but dang he could hit 30 goals and 50-55pts this season. The top 3 picks whom ARE 18 really aren’t doing much. That leaves DK to really have this thing in his grasp.