Lots to cover in this blog. So much going on this week which would have been the first full week of the regular season if we could miraculously turn back the clock to healthier times. On the docket:
* End of the Corey Crawford era
* Goalie options moving ahead
* Qualifying offers and RFAs
* Are the Blackhawks retooling or rebuilding?
* Expectations with the free agency period
* Recap of the 2020 draft class
* Best player available revisited again
Let’s hop to it!
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COREY CRAWFORD
The Corey Crawford goaltending era is at its end as the Blackhawks formally parted ways with the double Stanley Cup champion. For many, this decision was inevitable while there are others who wished to see him retire as a career-long Blackhawk.
Something to consider is that just because a player rounds out their career elsewhere doesn’t mean that this ending diminishes what they mean to their original franchise. I see this to be the case for Crawford as well as Niklas Hjalmarsson and Marian Hossa.
There are many arguments on whether Stan Bowman was being inflexible -- rightfully or wrongfully -- with contract terms that started and ended at $3.5M for a single year. According to former Hawks goalie Scott Darling in a
Daily Herald interview, he heard through the grapevine that Crawford was willing to re-sign.
Whether or not that is true is water under the bridge now. So is lamenting whether or not it was the right choice to trade Robin Lehner at the TDL. Both decisions are made. The Hawks are forging ahead.
Putting aside the Olli Maatta trade as simply a transaction to create more cap space, cutting ties with both Crawford and Lehner could be that first monumental step in the proclaimed path toward youth. Lehner isn’t old for goalie standards at 29 years old but he has played parts of ten NHL seasons already.
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GOALIE OPTIONS
With
the Athletic reporting that the Hawks are planning to retain Malcolm Subban and the Rockford trio of Collin Delia, Kevin Lankinen, and Matt Tomkins are already under contract, the Chicago crease is shaping up to have this foursome vying for the starter and backup roles.
However, something to ponder is whether this is truly a new era in Chicago goaltending to hand the reins to the youth or just a placeholder season to buy time to decide on a longer-term goalie solution at a later date.
Or could Subban, Delia, Lankinen, and Tomkins be battling for the backup role only because Bowman has a hankering to go shopping in free agency or has a trade up his sleeve to snag an established starter with a proven track record?
Assuming the Hawks stay in house with goalies, my wager as of now is that Subban ends up earning the starting job with Delia backing him up. Lankinen and Tomkins split time equally in Rockford.
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QOs & RFAs
Crawford was the lone UFA so all attention now is on the RFAs: Dylan Strome, Dominik Kubalik, Drake Caggiula, Slater Koekkoek, and Subban.
The Athletic is also reporting that Strome may be re-signing at $2.5M AAV for 2 years while Kubalik may be re-upping at 3 years for $3.75-$3.9M AAV. I wouldn’t be terribly upset with either deal. To be critically nitpicky, though, I think Strome and Kubalik’s AAV are respectively $0.5M and $1M too high.
Caggiula and Koekkoek weren’t given qualifying offers. However, it is important to note that this doesn’t mean that the Hawks don’t want them. Instead, Bowman could be seeking to retain them at less than what they earned in 2019-20.
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RETOOL OR REBUILD?
As alluded to earlier, is the youth movement in full effect?
Many readers on these boards commented yesterday in the message board that they hope this to be the case yet think this decision should have been made a year or so ago.
What will be the litmus test on settling the debate of whether the Blackhawks should retool on the fly or start from scratch with a total rebuild?
It is obvious that the free agency period that starts in a few hours will be one indicator. So will any trades on the horizon.
Assuming Strome and Kubalik remain Blackhawks and pretending that Koekkoek is re-signed but Caggiula isn’t retained, here is what the lineup would look like today:
Saad - Toews - Kubalik
Nylander - Dach - Kane
DeBrincat - Strome - Shaw
Highmore - Kampf - Carpenter
Suter
Keith - Murphy
de Haan - Boqvist
Carlsson - Seabrook
Koekkoek
Subban
Delia
Besides the Maatta departure opening up a spot for Lucas Carlsson, no free agent signings or trades would create space for any prospects to crack the lineup. Would this denote a retool?
The converse theory would be that dipping into free agency and making trades to create space for any free agents would start to shake up the roster. Would this constitute a rebuild?
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FREE AGENCY PERIOD
The free agency period starts today at 12:00 noon EST. Unless Bowman has no interest in investing in a goalie with experience and instead wants to splurge on free agent forwards and/or defensemen instead, that would be rather deceptive and frustrating.
The Blackhawks need to pick a lane and stay in it. The team should either continue to retool on the fly or go with a complete rebuild. It’s either/or, not both/and. Mixing the two complicates matters.
My prescription for the free agency period is to lay low and let other teams duke it out first. Why?
For one thing, my preference is for the Hawks to build from within and supplement the youth corps with shrewd signings if there are vacancies opened up by trades or players like Andrew Shaw, Calvin de Haan, and Brent Seabrook who may regress back to long-term injury status.
Another thing is that the Hawks don’t have the cap space to go shopping for high-priced players. If there is a free agent signing to be had, make wise and thrifty choices rather than big splashes.
While you never know with Bowman, I feel much differently this offseason due to the professed new direction of the team after John McDonough was fired as team president. Danny Wirtz as well as Bowman have said in a few interviews that the organization is headed toward a youthful and innovative direction.
Spending in the free agent pool doesn’t match that direction. That doesn’t mean the team should avoid free agency altogether. Again, be smart with new acquisitions making sure they fit the youth movement either as youngsters themselves or as mentors who can still contribute on the ice.
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DRAFT RECAP
Earlier in the week the Blackhawks drafted the following prospects:
* Lukas Reichel (1st), LW, Berlin (DEL)
* Drew Commesso (2nd), G, US-Under-18 (NTDP)
* Landon Slaggert (3rd), C, USNTDP (USHL)
* Wyatt Kaiser (3rd), D, Andover High School (Minnesota)
* Michael Krutil (4th), D, Sparta Praha (Czech)
* Isaak Phillips (5th), D, Sudbury (OHL)
* Chad Yetman (6th), C/RW, Erie (OHL)
* Louis Crevier (7th), D, Chicoutimi (QMJHL)
Given the many excellent sites out there that provide extensive scouting reports on all players selected in the 2020 NHL Draft, I won’t take time to share full summaries on each prospect who Chicago picked.
Instead, I want to bring your attention to what I noticed as trends with who the Blackhawks drafted. What were the common denominators across all of them?
Regardless of position, skill level, upside, size, or development timeline, the threads that connect all of them are compete level, hockey sense, skating ability, and reliability in all zones. Below are some notable quotes on each draftee -- sans Reichel as he was covered in the last blog -- to illustrate these strengths.
Commesso:
* Player representative, NHL correspondent, and former AHL assistant coach Shawn Hutcheon:
“Have watched Drew Commesso since he was 14 with the South Shore [Massachusetts] Kings. He's done nothing but get better each year. Very athletic with intense compete level. [Chicago] got themselves a good one.”
* Blackhawks Vice President for Amateur Scouting Mark Kelley:
“Athletic goaltender, really good size. He’s a bright kid, he’s a student of the game. A lot of times, we don’t talk about goaltenders’ hockey sense, but with Drew, it’s obvious. [With] his IQ, he understands how the play develops. So that bodes well for him.”
Slaggert:
* Slaggert on himself:
“I see my game as a 200-foot game. I bring a lot of energy on the ice. I’m a tough player to play against.”
* Kelley:
“What we liked about Landon’s game is it’s 200 foot, compete, very responsible, he has a very good skill set, a good skater. We know he’s a really good teammate, the coach likes him, he’s a guy that you want on his team.”
Kaiser:
* Kelley:
“A little bit maybe behind the curve...Very good skater, moves the puck well. Very competitive kid.”
* NHL Central Scouting:
“Dynamic heads up, feet-moving defenseman capable of making an impact in all game situations, possesses the speed, smarts, competitiveness and composure to influence the play on every shift.”
Krutil:
* Kelley:
“Michael is a little bit behind the curve, very good skater, moves the puck well.”
* NHL Central Scouting:
“Probably can be characterized as a stay at home defenseman with good footwork and mobility but now who simply wants to transport the puck with a safe first pass and lay back, save for a role as a trailer in the play. A big body whose strong and physical keeping the crease area clear.”
Phillips:
* Phillips on himself:
“I would say I’m a two-way defenseman who has good skating and good size. I’m a guy that likes to jump up into the place and likes to use my feet to add to that second wave. But I’m also a guy who can defend in his own end, big reach, big body.”
* Kelley:
“The interesting thing about Isaak, we would go up to watch [Quinton] Byfield, Jack Thompson, and in watching them, it’s like, 'Who’s this guy?' He always caught our eye. Athletic, very good skater. Very, very competitive. He just has a great presence on the ice.”
Yetman:
* Yetman on himself:
“I'm a 200-foot centerman...I have some offensive ability, I can put the puck in the net when I need to, and I'm responsible in my own end.”
* Kelley:
“Best way to describe him is it took two years for him to grow on us, but every year we’ve seen improvement. Another one, we’d go in to see Jamie Drysdale play and it’s, 'Who’s this guy?' Every game you went to see Erie play, you noticed him.”
Crevier:
* Crevier on himself:
“I'm more of a shutdown defenseman. I have a pretty good shot too so I can make some goals and make some offensive opportunities, but I'm more focused on my defensive aspect of the game and shutting down the other team's best players.”
* Kelley:
“Very, very responsible, competitive. What you notice about him, when the other team’s best player was on the ice, Louis was on the ice to defend.”
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BEST PLAYER AVAILABLE, REVISITED (AGAIN)
Best player available is the strategy for the opening round and arguably for the 2nd round, too, if the talent is that rich to span the first 50-60 prospects. However, drafting for need is more acceptable in the remaining rounds where a team can take calculated risks.
Another angle to look at the best player available strategy is defining whether that term is based on who will reach their potential quickly even if the potential is -- pretending to use a 100-point EA NHL scale -- at a 70 or who will reach their potential in a longer timeframe but reach a 90.
Including 1st rounder Reichel, the 2020 draft class for Chicago seems to boast prospects who could be the latter more than the former. While none of them besides Reichel stand to reach top 6 forward, top 3 defenseman, or starting goalie status, some could grow to become difference makers as impact role players at the NHL level.
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See you on the boards!
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