You were not alone on that one at the time. Just looking at the numbers, it seems he struggled a bit with GR this year, but that's not an indication of much.

Thanks for the reminders on the larger D-men they drafted. I completely forgot about Moberg, and didn't know anything about Regula.
- Chunk

As inter-division rivals, the Hogs play the Griffins more than 10 teams a season so I saw a lot of Veleno. He really never stood out in games except the times when he did crack the scoresheet.

He will take time to develop and may not be a top 6 center but a dynamic middle 6 is still pretty good. Very talented but still adjusting to the pro game.

The Griffins best player by far was Seider. The Wings got a steal by that surprise pick.

If he continues his current development trend, Seider could be in the mold of a Hedman-type of all-around defender.

Ironically, wasn't Saad also reacquired in the Panarin trade for the exact same reason of cost certainty for more years?

My preference is to retain Saad and have a gut feeling that his camp won't play hardball again (you never know, though, especially if his dad is at the table).

Don't think it's that unrealistic for him to re-sign at no more than his current $6M salary.

While valuable as a 200-foot power winger with scoring punch and PK prowess, he hasn't pushed the envelope enough during his 2nd tour of duty in Chicago to warrant a substantial raise.

I would go $5.5-$6M for more years or $6.5M for less years to keep him in the fold. Can't see him going that low.
- AEL_Fox

Really? His hands are harder than a guy in a strip club.

Bowman and Colliton having their year-end presser now:


@BenPopeCST

Bowman: "We're going to have a similar group back next year. Not the same group, we're going to have some new faces." Implies the new faces will mostly be prospects/AHL promotions, though.
- Tyler Cameron

The real question is "Does Stan like this team?"

This goes back to what Tyler mentioned about the Hawks direction. They got 5 veteran defenseman signed for at least 2 more years with a cap hit of about $25M. Keith and Seabs have NMC's, de Haan is injury prone, Maatta is a 3rd pairing guy and Murphy a 2nd pairing guy.

They also have several defenseman - Beaudin, Mitchell, Carlsson, Regula, Kalynuk who should be NHL ready within a year or two, if not next season. Then there's also Boqvist who I don't know is ready for the NHL after his play during the recent playoff games. 4K is in the mix too.

So do the Hawks go young by trading a veteran or two to make room for the kids and begin going through their inevitable growing pains? Maintain the status quo by keeping the vets? Or trade a D prospect to help improve another area?
- boilermaker100

I can see the Hawks moving a veteran defenseman or buying out Maatta. But I would like to tap the brakes on too many moves with young or old defensemen. Let them compete in camp. If the young guys do not make the big club let them develop a little in the minors. If a young guy's play screams he is ready for the NHL then you will have options of moving another veteran for cap space.

The Hawks will be a marginal playoff team next year (if that). No need to rush anyone or make knee jerk reactions (forward, defender or goalie.

Bowman and Colliton having their year-end presser now:


@BenPopeCST

Bowman: "We're going to have a similar group back next year. Not the same group, we're going to have some new faces." Implies the new faces will mostly be prospects/AHL promotions, though.
- Tyler Cameron

Suter and probably Mitchell in. Smith and a veteran D out?

Buffalo desperately needs a 2C. A deal around Strome and Ristolainen(or Jokiharju) appeal to anyone? Or for a completely different direction, Strome for Ryan Strome. Hawks get a more typical 3C they need; Rangers get the more typical 2C they need.
- DarthProbert

Our Strome is as much a 2C as Nylander is a top 6 Forward.

@BenPopeCST
·
13m
Bowman on the goalie situation: "We have an idea what we want to do. Now we're going to talk to the agents and see where that goes."

"There's no question Corey
- Tyler Cameron[Crawford] played excellent for us" in the playoffs.

I'll leave you guys to head to Twitter for the entire scoop, but some interesting tidbits coming out in the presser.

Looks like 50 will be the 1st choice for goalie. Incentive laden contract? 2-3M base plus 2M in incentives?

One name not mentioned in any of the mailbag questions and answers was Brendan Saad. He's another piece of the off season puzzle Stan has to figure out what to do with.

He's got a limited no trade (he can list 10 teams to be traded to) kicking in sometime this off season. I know he's a valuable top 9 solid 2 way winger, but I think if the Hawks trade him that will be a strong signal that a rebuild is on.

Would he allow a trade back home to the Penguins? Rutherford has indicated changes will be made to the Penguins. Maybe Saad will be amenable to a home town discount contract extension with the Pens.

But Pens have cap problems of their own so they can't just bring in a 6M salary in return for prospects or picks. Some salary would be coming back. Maybe a dead contract like Bjugstad, one year left at 4.1M in return as long as the Hawks also get back a pick and a decent prospect or young forward or two such as Teddy Blueger (1 year at 750K then RFA) who could slot in at 3C making Strome available.

Also I doubt if the Hawks will be a playoff contender next season, so Saad would be one of the top rental forwards next TDL. Maybe he would be traded at that time.
- boilermaker100

Or maybe Stan signs Saad 2@$5 to ride out the flat cap?

I saw an interview with Adam Boqvist from his draft year and he said he has always played with his brother. Maybe Jesper could be acquired from NJ in a prospect for prospect swap. Not sure who the Hawks send the other way. Also, would love to see them get Georgiev. Seems like a backup with starter potential. Wonder if Virtanen could be picked up as an inexpensive reclamation project too

A few ideas as to what trades may look like:

Sikura and rights to Koekkoek for Virtanen
Saad for J. Boqvist and a 2nd?
Strome for Georgiev and Howden
2nd/3rd round pick for Jost
- ikeane

Pass on Virtanen but think you could package Sikura and rights to Koekkoek for someone better.

Trading Saad for Boqvist is a good starting package but would want one of the Devils three 1st rounders (18th or 20th, fat chance they get 7th) instead of a 2nd, especially since Jesper has some injury history.

Strome for Georgiev and Howden could be possible. Howden is strong at the dot and on the PK. May be best as an excellent 4C but capacity to play 3C until a better option develops (i.e. Kurashev or possibly even Suter). Colliton still loves him some Kampf so that must factor in.

Jost for a 2nd or 3rd? Yes please.

Bowman and Colliton having their year-end presser now:


@BenPopeCST

Bowman: "We're going to have a similar group back next year. Not the same group, we're going to have some new faces." Implies the new faces will mostly be prospects/AHL promotions, though.
- Tyler Cameron

Bowman said this before and it's not a surprise to anyone. Cap-wise we know some contracts have to go, I just think it won't be who we expect. I could see the Hawks moving on from Saad, Murphy, 4K, de Haan, Smith, Maatta and The Drake. Certainly not all of them, but 2-3 for sure. I'm a big fan of Saad and Murphy, while I'd hate to see them go they woul bring back the best return. Maatta is an interesting case, he played very wel in the playoffs and he's young. He might be worth keeping but his recent play may make it easier to trade him rather than buy him out.

I'm keeping my expectations realistics, but I am excited to see what Mitchell, Suter and Kalynuk do in training camp.

@BenPopeCST
·
13m
Bowman on the goalie situation: "We have an idea what we want to do. Now we're going to talk to the agents and see where that goes."

"There's no question Corey
- Tyler Cameron[Crawford] played excellent for us" in the playoffs.


--

I'll leave you guys to head to Twitter for the entire scoop, but some interesting tidbits coming out in the presser.

Sounds like they want to bring CC back. For the right price I'm on board with this, but they still need to address the long term goaltending situation.

Our Strome is as much a 2C as Nylander is a top 6 Forward.
- rpeters01

Strome will be the 3C if he's with the team next season. His situation is extremely interesting. Strome is an RFA without arbitration rights, although it's not the Hawks style (and the wrong thing to do) the Hawks could just make a QO and tell Strome to take it or sit. Strome's QO would be $874,125.

I can see the Hawks moving a veteran defenseman or buying out Maatta. But I would like to tap the brakes on too many moves with young or old defensemen. Let them compete in camp. If the young guys do not make the big club let them develop a little in the minors. If a young guy's play screams he is ready for the NHL then you will have options of moving another veteran for cap space.

The Hawks will be a marginal playoff team next year (if that). No need to rush anyone or make knee jerk reactions (forward, defender or goalie.
- -Doh-

Matta is the second youngest defenseman that played in the bubble. If you buy out DaHaan, you save $2 mil, next year and only have a cap hit of $700K the next. i would look to trade him for a "b" prospect, if nothing, I would buy him out instead of Matta. DaHaan didn't play much better than a 5th-6th defenseman also IMO.

Per Stan Bowman...

Seabrook will have his role "figured out in training camp"

Seabrook's situation will be very interesting to watch. However it plays out, I just hope the Hawks treat him with the respect he deserves. Plus, if they handle the Seabs situation poorly it will negatively impact the rest of the core.

In the press conference Bowman references Seabrook's desire to be an impact player and he hopes it happens. But he doesn't mention that he hopes it happens with the Blackhawks (at least not from what I read).

Trading Seabrook would free up much glorious cap space, but no doubt it will come at a cost.

Is Danny Wirtz there?

Really? His hands are harder than a guy in a strip club.
- 6628

Saad does frustrate with struggling to elevate the puck or hitting lots of posts and crossbars but he still can manufacture goals to the tune of 20-25 depending on his health and deployment.

Scoring prowess may have been a bit much as a descriptor, but for a speedy 200-foot player who can play anywhere from Line 1 to Line 3, that's still pretty good in my book

Or maybe Stan signs Saad 2@$5 to ride out the flat cap?
- rpeters01

Possibly.

Really? His hands are harder than a guy in a strip club.
- 6628

Why would a guy have hard hands in a strip club?

Shouldn't it be....?

Saad is a 20-25 goal scorer, nothing more - but that's enough - probably overpaid by about $1MM per at his production level. I don't think it would take any more than what he's making now to resign him - maybe move him down a little.

Suter and probably Mitchell in. Smith and a veteran D out?
- boilermaker100

What's the scouting report on Suter? Is he all but penciled in already?

What's the scouting report on Suter? Is he all but penciled in already?
- bhawks2241

This is not necessarily a scouting report per se, but in reading about him and watching the tape that is available, he is a decent skater (not great, but above average), accurate and quick shot. He seemed to score quite a bit from above the circles (but also a number of goals from the slot and in front of the goalie). He seemed to be able to set up teammates well also. Admittedly, there is not a lot of information regarding his defensive play.

Matta is the second youngest defenseman that played in the bubble. If you buy out DaHaan, you save $2 mil, next year and only have a cap hit of $700K the next. i would look to trade him for a "b" prospect, if nothing, I would buy him out instead of Matta. DaHaan didn't play much better than a 5th-6th defenseman also IMO.
- LAHawk

I would have to agree. Before the post season, de Haan was the one I would have kept before Maatta.

However, the post season was almost an audition for next season and their fortunes reversed.

Maatta proved he can still play a solid two-way game if deployed correctly.

de Haan seemed a step behind and made weak clearing attempts. It was so frustrating to see him constantly ring the puck around the boards and not be even close to clearing the zone.

A player who uses the ring-around as a primary clearing strategy can often mean they're persistently under pressure by the other team (i.e. slow) and can't think the game fast enough to see the better outlet options.

Colliton: "There's going to be a lot of opportunity [for prospects next year]. We need to get better."

Per Ben Pope twitter.

No first round choice normally is drafted just because you plan to trade him later on. Bowman most likely saw Beaudin as a piece of his puck miving new age defense. Might the fact Beaudin plays LD also caught Biwman's fancy?

I do believe, however, that Bowman may one dsy try to make his defense pairs have players whom complement each other. Yet Bowman wants to be top heavy in how many dmen are actually good puck movers. So it is a good thing if each new age dman is a deep at breaking up plays or put another way- can offset their lack of a natural physical style via smart plays and reactions.

I think ideally Biqvist Mitchell and Beaudun can be the major offensive dmen. Then along came the Wisconsin kid. And Rogula has value perhaos with bjs suze and ability playing defensively as well as scoring. So now you could have too many dmen. But they won t all be ready at the same time. You also cannot play too many greenhorn in the same lineup.

Well I do think that Moberg and Carlsson are complimentary on their pair. Vlasic and Kyrs and other collegiate prospects we have (not the Wisc kid, though) are not going to break ready soon.

So I don't think Beaudin is drafted for the reasoning you said. Only an idiot cashnstraped team like Ottawa would think that way. Thrt would likely trade a pick away if they had too many high picks.

I also want to be cautious here. We cannkt say we truly know how the lack of fan attendance is going to affect each team's revenue. We fo not even know if the minor leagues can have a season. I think a lot of teams are going to be making curious interesting moves. Expansion Draft means lots of bartering and Seattle might really make Vegas look like they didn't wind up in a real sweet position. Seattle coukd have a nice team. Don't plan Saad andcCrawfird leaving as guven. MaybevSubban. Subbannir Crawfird. Not both. And maybe one orvtwo dmen , but not a purge. Have to leave "x" amount of players per position per team avaikabke to be drafted

I would have to agree. Before the post season, de Haan was the one I would have kept before Maatta.

However, the post season was almost an audition for next season and their fortunes reversed.

Maatta proved he can still play a solid two-way game if deployed correctly.

de Haan seemed a step behind and made weak clearing attempts. It was so frustrating to see him constantly ring the puck around the boards and not be even close to clearing the zone.

A player who uses the ring-around as a primary clearing strategy can often mean they're persistently under pressure by the other team (i.e. slow) and can't think the game fast enough to see the better outlet options.
- AEL_Fox

I think we should all pump the brakes on the Maatta/de Haan comparisons right now. I give Maatta props. He stepped up his game in the playoffs. You have to keep in mind that de Haan was just coming off of major surgery and was just supposed to be coming back. He showed very well for the team when Keith was out. He's not untouchable, but he brings stability to the backend.