While the remaining members of the historic Cup core -- namely Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane -- are able to control their own destiny on whether the Blackhawks retain or trade them, a pair of other top 6 forwards are at the same crossroad but with less leverage.
Dylan Strome is due a new contract this summer and Alex DeBrincat is due a new one next summer. Being in trade rumors isn't foreign to Strome as his name has been thrown around for a few years already. However, shipping out DeBrincat seems blasphemously unconscionable.
Unless there's a favorable deal on the table that most GMs wouldn't turn down, the preference is to keep Strome then kick the can down the road on whether he's good for the rebuild and can be a key cog for when the Hawks are relevant again as perennial Cup contenders.
This doesn't mean Strome deserves a monster deal this offseason like a $7M for 7 years, $6M for 6 years, or even $5M for 5 years. It would be more ideal if his next contract is 2-3 years between $4-$5M so he defers when he cashes in big once he proves this season isn't a fluke.
As for DeBrincat, the calculus is more complex as he's already proven himself the past few seasons to be an elite scoring winger in the entire NHL that virtually every team in the league would line up to snag if they could pony up the requisite boatload of high-end assets.
DeBrincat still has a year remaining on his current contract so that buys the Hawks time to make a decision on whether to give him his max pay day at say $9M for 8 years or start fielding offers which are likely to include 1st round picks and blue chip prospects.
If I had my druthers, I would split up Strome and DeBrincat from Kane to see if they can produce without #88 (credit to message board poster pdx2ord for sharing this notion). There's an emerging view that Strome and DeBrincat's offensive stats are boosted by Kane's wizardry.
The split wouldn't necessarily need to be for all of the 2022-23 season but just enough sample size to make the determination of whether to keep Strome and DeBrincat longer term or trade them. Once that sample size is in the bank, then it's okay to reunite the trio.
The advantage of eventually reassembling Kane, Strome, and DeBrincat as the top scoring line for the Hawks is that it would help amp up their stock if general manager Kyle Davidson does decide to move on from them for sake of adding more valuable futures for the rebuild.
But if Davidson feels that Strome and DeBrincat are and should be part of the new core to lead the team out of the rebuild and into a new epoch of Blackhawks dominance, then Kane, Strome, and DeBrincat could be the centerpiece as far as team offense.
And if they happen to be supplanted by a cadre of Kirby Dach, Lukas Reichel, and hopefully a few top 6-caliber prospects selected in the 1st round of the next few drafts, then that would be a great problem to have if Kane, Strome, and DeBrincat are the 2nd line or line 1B.
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Blackhawks Game Summaries
Friday Boxscore
DeBrincat - Strome - Kane
T Johnson - Toews - Raddysh
Kubalik - Dach - Kurashev
Katchouk - R Johnson - Lafferty
de Haan - S Jones
McCabe - C Jones
Vlasic - Stillman
Lankinen
Delia
Scratches:
Borgstrom, Entwistle, Gustafsson
1st Goal (0-1): Stamkos (Point, Kucherov)
2nd Goal (0-2): Point (Kucherov, Stamkos)
3rd Goal (1-2): de Haan (Dach)
4th Goal (2-2): DeBrincat (S Jones, Strome) PP
5th Goal (2-3): Colton (Cernak, Paul)
6th Goal (2-4): Colton (Paul, Foote)
7th Goal (2-5): Hagel (Colton, Paul) EN
SOG For/Against: 23/43
PP: 1-for-4
PK: 2-for-2
Faceoffs Won: 54%
Sunday Boxscore
DeBrincat - Strome - Kane
Kubalik - Toews - Lafferty
T Johnson - Dach - Raddysh
Katchouk - R Johnson - Entwistle
C Jones - S Jones
de Haan - McCabe
Stillman - Gustafsson
Lankinen
Delia
Scratches:
Borgstrom, Kurashev, Vlasic
1st Goal (1-0): Strome (DeBrincat)
2nd Goal (1-1): Carcone (Stralman)
3rd Goal (1-2): Boyd (Gostisbehere, Mayo)
4th Goal (2-2): Kane (S Jones, DeBrincat) PP
5th Goal (2-3): Gostisbehere (Schmaltz, Kessel) PP/OT
SOG For/Against: 31/35
PP: 1-for-3
PK: 1-for-2
Faceoffs Won: 62%
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Blackhawks Notebook
* Not necessarily picking on either Seth or Caleb Jones but the focus of the above tweet encapsulates many issues that depict how bad the Blackhawks defense has been this season, i.e. failed clearing attempts, lost coverage, no inside positioning, beat to pucks.
* Seth Jones has now set a career high for assists with 42; while he's unlikely to set a career high in goals (16) as he sits with only 5 tallies this season, he could still break his career high in points (57) with 12 games left.
* A regulation loss to the Coyotes was necessary in order for the Hawks to be eliminated from playoff contention; however, the Hawks stay alive by picking up a single standing point in the overtime loss.
* The Hawks don't play again until Thursday when they host the Kraken which will be the first time this expansion team has played at the United Center in their inaugural season.
* It was announced during Sunday's game broadcast that Chris Vosters has officially been named as Pat Foley's successor as the Hawks play-by-play person.
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IceHogs Game Summaries
Friday Boxscore
Hardman - Reichel - Connolly
Altybarmakian - McLaughlin - Busdeker
Morrison - Gicewicz - Barratt
Pour - G Mitchell - Gabriel
Phillips - I Mitchell
Kalynuk - Regula
Galvas - Beaudin
Soderblom
Gillam
1st Goal (0-1): Harper (Lacroix, Barron)
2nd Goal (0-2): Theisen (Nielsen)
3rd Goal (1-2): Phillips (Slavin, I Mitchell)
4th Goal (2-2): Slavin (Busdeker)
5th Goal (3-2): I Mitchell (Slavin)
6th Goal (3-3): Broadhurst (Speers)
7th Goal (4-3): McLaughlin (Connolly) OT
SOG For/Against: 34/30
PP: 0-for-5
PK: 4-for-4
Saturday Boxscore
Hardman - McLaughlin - Connolly
Altybarmakian - Reichel - Teply
Barratt - Slavin - Busdeker
Morrison - G Mitchell - Gicewicz
Phillips - Regula
Kalynuk - Stanton
Galvas - Beaudin
Soderblom
Morris
1st Goal (0-1): McCartney (Broadhurst)
2nd Goal (1-1): G Mitchell (Phillips)
3rd Goal (1-2): Harper (Empey)
4th Goal (2-2): Hardman (Reichel, Kalynuk) PP
5th Goal (3-2): Connolly (Kalynuk, McLaughlin)
6th Goal (3-3): Crotty (Lacroix, Somerby)
7th Goal (4-3): Busdeker (Slavin) SH
8th Goal (5-3): Reichel (Connolly)
9th Goal (6-3): McLaughlin (Connolly, Phillips) EN
SOG For/Against: 27/24
PP: 1-for-1
PK: 2-for-2
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IceHogs Notebook
* Ian Mitchell scored on a breakaway after exiting the penalty box and picked up an apple on Friday but didn't suit up on Saturday; it's unknown at time of print whether he was simply given a maintenance day or if he's injured or sick.
* Dylan McLaughlin added 2 goals and 1 assist this weekend -- including the OT game winner on Friday -- after registering 2 points in each of the previous 3 games after being cleared from concussion protocol.
* Josiah Slavin keeps ramping up his play in the AHL (7 goals and 5 assists total in the last 12 games) after his most recent stint with the Blackhawks; over the weekend he racked up 1 goal and 3 assists.
* Ryan Stanton surpassed Ville Pokka on Friday for most games played in an IceHogs uniform by a defenseman (267); captain Garrett Mitchell notched his 500th career AHL game on Saturday.
* The Hogs are back at it on Monday and Tuesday with back-to-back tilts in Henderson, Nevada to face the Silver Knights.
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Jonathan Toews 1,000th Game Ceremony
Scoreboard Tribute Video
Current & Former Alternate Captains
United Center Display
Commemorative Jersey Patch
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See you on the boards!
Sources: Chicago Sun-Times, Chicago Tribune, Daily Herald, NBC Sports Chicago, The Athletic Chicago
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