21 Blackhawks / NHL Thread

[GRADEN]

The league? I think there are just a couple teams that stand out; Knights, Aves, Flyers really have deep and talented groups. Canada? You know what, I like the Canadiens a lot. Goaltending and a lot of grit on that club. The Canucks and leafs are more talented, but gonna be tough playing against the flames and Canadiens all the time.

I’ll say it’s the Flyers year.... Carter Hart emerges as the top goaltender in the league and their insane depth carries them through tough games.


Blackhawks 21

L1: DeBrincat - Strome - Kane
L2: Kubalik - Suter - Shaw
L3: Janmark - Kurashev - Wallmark
L4: Carpenter - Kampf - Highmore

Absent: Carl Soderberg (Kurashev in)

Taxi: Pirri, Hagel, Quenneville
1 year away: Entwistle, Teply, Morrison

D1: Keith - Murphy
D2: De Haan - Mitchell
D3: Beaudin - Boqvist

Absent: Nikita Zadorov (Beaudin In)

Taxi: Carlsson, Kalynuk, Lindholm
1 year away: Regula, Krutil

Training camp takeaways:

1. Ian Mitchell is ready... everything about his game says he will be a steady and reliable top 4 pairing blue liner. Big point producer? I doubt it, but 25-35pts a year and really good puck mover is what I see from him.

2. Phillip Kurashev is a lot closer than I thought... I think if Soderberg stays out that he could see some early action either centering a 3rd line or spelling some on wing in the bottom 6. His versatile style lends well to circling and also playing net presence.

3. The top and bottom lines are completely set.

4. Our goalies are bad... and from what I saw it’s actually Kevin Lankanen that appears like he has the most talent and ability.

5. Our coaching staff is pretty well rounded... Crawford, Brookbank, and Mitell are all very direct and know these guys well.

6. With expectations really low, I expect at least some time for guys like Wyatt Kalynuk, Cam Morrison, Nicolas Beaudin, and Brandon Hagel.

7. That in that 25-30 game mark Stan will start listening to offers on both Connor Murphy and Calvin De Haan. Expect all the 1 year deal guys to get talked about as well.... Pirri, Wallmark, Soderberg, and Janmark.

8. I noticed something too.... that the clock for a future with the team on Quenneville has expired. I don’t see him in any way making it to the end of this year with us.

9. While our division is good, the top teams have big flaws, the 4 middle teams are inconsistent, and us and DET have nothing to lose.

10. And lastly, the biggest thing I noticed is that Kirby Dach is around and hungry to chat up his team and be seen. Heck of a leader.

56 game short season against the same teams.... yea TBL will be rough 8 games but redwings / panthers / predators etc could be series in which we do better than expected.

Final prediction 22-26-8 52pts

4th worse in league

1. Redwings - D Owen Power
2. Devils - LW Aatu Raty
3. Kraken - C Matt Beniers
4. Blackhawks - D Carson Lambos
5. Wild - D Simon Edvinsson
6. Ducks - C Kent Johnson
7. Kings - C Dylan Guenther
8. Blue Jackets - C Chaz Lucious
9. Sharks - D Brandt Clarke
10. Panthers - RW Simon Robertson

It’s an extremely good and top 50 heavy draft. The top 15-20 players are all top tier talents this draft year.

What I think our stats will look like:

1. Kane 53 games - 55 points
2. DeBrincat 55 games - 43 points
3. Kubalik - 48 games - 36 points
4. Strome - 51 games - 35 points
5. Keith - 55 games - 26 points

Delia 22 starts .906 2.91gaa
Subban 22 starts .897 3.12gaa
Lankanen 13 starts .908 2.85gaa
Tompkins 1 start .825 5gaa

Standout young players:

1. Ian Mitchell 48 games 5/17 - 22points
2. Phillip Kurashev 17 games 5/3 - 8points
3. Brandon Hagel 15 games 3/3 - 6points

[GRADEN]

Predictions:

MTL, TOR, CAL, VAN in
WIN, EDM, OTT out

COL, VGK, STL, SJS in
MIN, ANA, LAK, AZ out

TBL, NSH, CAR, DAL in
CBJ, FL, CHI, DET out

PHI, WAS, BOS, NYI in
PIT, BUF, NYR, NJD out

Div Playoffs

4 VAN over 1 MTL
2 TOR over 3 CAL
4 VAN over 2 TOR

1 COL over 4 SJS
2 VGK over 3 STL
1 COL over 2 VGK

1 TBL over 4 DAL
2 NSH over 3 CAR
2 NSH over 1 TBL

1 PHI over 4 NYI
3 BOS over 2 WAS
1 PHI over 3 BOS

Frozen 4 re-seed

1. COL 2. PHI 3. NSH 4. VAN

Colorado 4 Vancouver 1
Philadelphia 4 Nashville 2

Flyers over Aves 4-3
Conn Smythe Carter Hart

[TNBT]

GRADEN, thanks for starting this thread and for keeping the forum at least somewhat active over this last period of I don’t even want to guess how many months, while I’ve been going through a pretty turbulent time in my personal life. I’m hoping to be able to be in a position to start posting again far more frequently. What were your thoughts on the season opener today against Tampa? Not very pretty to look at. It was always going to be a struggle eve at full strength, but injuries to key players really killed any chance we had. I’m just so glad we re-signed Strome.