What a nice surprise to this morning. I got the notification on the walk to work that Alex DeBrincat had signed an extension to stay in Chicago for another 3 years after this season.
You've seen the cap hit at $6.4M AAV but it's always nice to do a deeper dive into how the deal is structured in its entirety. Thanks to CapFriendly, here's a look at Alex's contract:
The two things that stick out to me is that last year at $9M in salary. This is the amount that Stan Bowman will be required to base the qualifying offer on coming out of this deal.
The reality is that after 28 goals in year one, followed up by a remarkable 41 tallies last season in his sophomore season, Alex DeBrincat would have been in line for $8-9M next year if he was to keep up this pace.
Therefore, this has to be considered a win for Bowman and the Hawks. They now have #12 under contract for significantly less on a bridge deal until 2023.
Speaking of 2023, this summer will be even crazier now with this deal. The second factor that stuck out is that when DeBrincat's 2nd contract is up, as is Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane and Duncan Keith.
It will be a pivotal time in Blackhawks' history as this team could look very different depending on the state of the franchise at this time.
Regardless of whether they resign all 4 of these core pieces, they will have a total of $32.9M coming off the books with those players.
In fact, Brent Seabrook is the only Blackhawk to have a contract that extends past the summer of 2023.
We don't need to think about that now, but needless to say, it will be a very interesting time.
All in all, a good day for the Blackhawks today.
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Now, on to the game that will FINALLY be played today at 1pm CT in Prague between Chicago and Philadelphia.
Chicago has a couple of players banged up and it looks like Connor Murphy and Calvin de Haan won't be available for today's game.
Kirby Dach is still getting back to 100% so as expected he will not play.
The lineup - including the starting goalie - will be announced after the morning skate by Jeremy Colliton.
I think it's safe to say the Hawks will look something like this at puck drop:
Nylander – Toews – Kane
DeBrincat – Strome – Shaw
Saad – Kampf – Kubalik
Smith – Carpenter – Caggiula
Keith – Gustafsson
Maatta – Seabrook
Gilbert – Koekkoek
Crawford
It isn't even a question to me that Crawford will get the start. He looks healthy and dialed in this preseason and it's his net to lose.
Also, all signs are pointing to Dennis Gilbert will play his 2nd NHL game. Great for him, especially after playing such a strong game vs. Berlin. He'll look to build off of that.
Dominik Kubalik will play his first NHL game ever in front of family and friends in his home country. What an experience.
What will the opponents look like?
Well, they will have a familiar face behind the bench, Alain Vigneault. Blackhawks fans are used to that smirk from the Vancouver Canucks rivalry era.
Coach AV's lineup will look something like this:
Giroux - Hayes - Voracek
Lindblom - Couturier - Konecny
JVR - Laughton - Twarynski
Raffl - Bunnaman - Pitlick
Provorov - Braun
Hagg - Gostisbehere
Sanheim - Niskanen
Hart
The Flyers finished outside of the playoffs last year with 82 points – good for 6th in the Metropolitan Division in 2018-19.
They were 17th in GF and 29th in GA. The later should improve with the arrival of Carter Hart in his 1st full season.
It should be a great matchup and the Flyers will be looking to shake off their preseason loss to Lausanne HC.
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Hockey isn't just back for the Chicago Blackhawks, but the organization has another season opener tonight with the Rockford IceHogs.
The ‘Hogs begin on the road as they take on the Iowa Wild tonight at 7 pm CT.
They have announced their official roster to begin the season. It consists of 27 players – 16 forwards, 8 defence and 3 goalies:
FWD – MacKenzie Entwistle, Alexandre Fortin, Brandon Hagel, Mikael Hakkarainen, Matthew Highmore, Reese Johnson, Philipp Kurashev, Dylan McLaughlin, Nick Moutrey, Jacob Nilsson, Aleksi Saarela, Dylan Sikura, Tyler Sikura, Tim Soderlund, Kris Versteeg and Anton Wedin
D – Nicolas Beaudin, Adam Boqvist, Lucas Carlsson, Dennis Gilbert, Holm, Chad Krys, Jack Ramsey and Joni Tuulola.
G – Collin Delia, Kevin Lankinen and Matt Tomkin
I have my AHL subscription ready again this year and will be covering the IceHogs closely this year.
I am even stepping up the coverage this year by adding a little help along the way from a guest contributor. I will have more details on that next week.
In case you missed it, Kris Versteeg was named the captain this year. Ver-beauty was in full effect in accepting this honour:
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I know you fine folks are all pumped as well for today's game. This offseason has felt very long.
I would love to hear from you on the message boards with your predictions:
* Prediction on the outcome of Hawks/Flyers game?
* Who will score the first Blackhawks goal of the year?
* Who will score the first IceHogs goal of the year?
Lastly, I'll leave you with some highlights. Congrats Cat on the contract and pumped to have this guy in Chicago for the next 4 years!
Let's go Hawks... and IceHogs!
TC
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