Colorado signed D. Toews to a 4 year deal with an AAV of $4.1 million.
- DarthKane

I'm skeptical over the timing of this deal.

Lot of speculation over on Ek's blog about a team or two or three (ARI, FLA, ?) relocating due to financial constraints. Houston and Quebec as possible new locations.

I think the Hawks will not contend for several years.
1) Management is looking 4 to 5 years down the road. In the meantime they will acquire young talent, develop their very young defensemen, and use there cap room to acquire assets.
2) The Hawks are bad for the next two years, because of a mediocre roster and weak goaltending. They get very high draft picks in the 2021 and 2022 draft.
3) Toews and Kane will stick around through the end of their current contract. After their deals they still could be regular contributors if the want to re-sign at much lower cap hits.
4) Keith is very tradeable and will still fetch a very good return. He he has control and is hard to figure out. He was born in Winnipeg, but I think he has some Vancouver BC connections. I could see him ok'ing a trade to the Northwest. At his age, he may not want to play with a non-playoff team for the rest of his career. Might take a trade to a contender also.
5) Seabs - How healthy he is and how much TOI he gets will determine his fate. We have to wait and see.

Side note - I have a feeling Lankinen might develop into a late blooming #1 goalie in 2 or 3 years (ala Crow). Here or somewhere else in the NHL.

It happened 4 years ago well before the pc police changed everything also he was 16 at the time still a minor in a lot of places probably more the victim speaking out vs someone being able to just find the info. Odds are against him every making it to the nhl almost surprising that AZ didn’t just cut or renounce there rights on him
- Abadseed

You know I know what a puke I could be in high school.

It does speak to character and empathy.

No so sure as a kid I would have been even this level a j off

Big picture worry - are we going to be one of those teams stuck in neutral when it comes to rebuilding? We've been at this since the Nashville sweep, when we were promised change, & wouldn't accept less anymore (kinda sounds familiar.) Bowman has more lives than a cat & his ideas of change are just picking at scabs, when the team has bigger flaws to address. What, he just now realized this offseason we need to be tougher to play against? I can't change the past, but him & Q should have been let go together. Win together, lose together. JC hasn't exactly won me over either ...
- I Am The Breadman

After that Nashville playoff sweep that's when bowman and Q both shoulda been let agree on that point but also the full rebuild shoulda started also. Unless the core 4 are traded then imo this just what been going on for last few seasons. The core four hold all the power so unless they ask to be traded then it will be a half build on the fly.

Lazerus and Powers of the Athletic asked it in their interview with Stan.

Lazerus: So just to pin you down — there’s been no discussion about asking (Toews, Kane, Keith and Seabrook) to waive their no-movement clauses, anything like that? You’re not intending to explore that option anytime soon?

Bowman: Not right now, I am not.

On your other point, as far as moving players of value, there are others besides the Core that could be traded and bring back something.
- HawkintheD

Good catch there, I missed that. I wouldn't expect them to answer it honestly and I personally think they're lying about that. I'd bet a limb that they've discussed it internally since last trade deadline especially about 7 and 2. Notice SB skipped the first part of the question. If they didnt discuss it they're not doing their jobs so I don't believe them. Wanting to trade them, finding a trade partner, and the players being willing to waive are different pieces to the puzzle tho. Who are these other players that can get the hawks a big return cuz I don't see them? Murphy or dehaan can get something but not much imo.

What scares me the most is a team-wide lack of toughness last season and, hopefully not this upcomi g season.

A driving force for this team could turn out to be three sets of mobile puck moving dmen. The development of the urgent dnen prosoects we expect to vie for those spots in the lineup, comes into a more clear focus this season.

The support of the talented dmen needs to include more players who will deliver the same mugging and cheap shots we receive - and those dmen receive. It would be very telling if our exciting newbie dmen are derailed by injury and. Specifically, concussed. We need more sandpaper and grit. I would feel better, too, if we had at least one punishing checker among the forwards.

To have respect sometimes means the other team knows we will retaliate.

Well, he also logs much more ice time than those below him, so if you correlated the TOs with TOI, DK wouldn't be near the top. It's the same reason a goalie ranks 7th.
- scottak

not really duncan was 19th in 5X5 ice time last year. at 19:22 parayko was 6th at 20:16 petry 27th 19:10 and lindholm was 48th at 18:35.

Bertuzzi just re-signed with the Wings for one year at $3.5M. He's a young competitive winger who could fit well with the direction of the Hawks.

What about trading Strome for Bertuzzi with any other assets to make it work?

The Wings have Larkin as 1C but after that the center depth is Namestnikov, Filppula, and Nielsen with Veleno on deck.

For the Hawks, Wallmark is 3C and Kampf remains as 4C. Buys time for a longer-term 3C to be identified.

Kurashev is a lead candiate internally.

Just spitballing here.

Many 1st rounders from the 2020 draft are getting inked to ELCs. Lapierre is the latest today by the Caps. Wonder if the Hawks will get Reichel signed to an ELC this summer or defer?

My preference would be to wait to spread out when ELCs expire across all prospects in the system.

That may have been a factor for Mitchell not playing in the bubble this past postseason. Not the exact reason by weighed in decision making.

Good catch there, I missed that. I wouldn't expect them to answer it honestly and I personally think they're lying about that. I'd bet a limb that they've discussed it internally since last trade deadline especially about 7 and 2. Notice SB skipped the first part of the question. If they didnt discuss it they're not doing their jobs so I don't believe them. Wanting to trade them, finding a trade partner, and the players being willing to waive are different pieces to the puzzle tho. Who are these other players that can get the hawks a big return cuz I don't see them? Murphy or dehaan can get something but not much imo.
- ctbullets

On Murphy and deHaan, didn’t mean they would garner a big return, but could definitely see Murphy returning a 1st at the TDL if that’s the way they wanted to go.

As has been posted here quite a bit, maybe other than Keith I see the other three playing out there contracts here.

Seabrook after this coming season is owed 6m 5m 4.5m but carries a cap hit of 6.875m if the hawks got creative and paided the 2m bonus before trading him the new team(Seattle ) 13.5 for 3 seasons but have 20.6 m to get to the cap floor. Even if we got back futures for him. If jc limits or doesn’t play him enough for his liking 7 might just let it happen

JFresh
@JFreshHockey
We talk about lot about turnovers, but whose giveaways end up in the back of the net?

In the past two seasons, one man stands alone:

https://twitter.com/JFres...20900695931998208/photo/1

I felt like more then once I remember Keith just giving up a play after a give away.
- kmw4631

Not to defend Keith - he is brutal, I just hate JFRESH and all of their "unique stats" garbage that they peddle as advanced analytics.

Only one defensemen on this list (Petry - 3575) has played more minutes than Keith (3375) over the last two years. Hell, Bietto has only played 1010 minutes.

No factoring in of defense partners, goaltenders, zone starts, etc... Why is a goalie in the same list as defensemen? What's next? Ranking goal scorers by dividing their height by the MPG of thier cars? It's almost as though Tanner created this list.

Not to defend Keith - he is brutal, I just hate JFRESH and all of their "unique stats" garbage that they peddle as advanced analytics.

Only one defensemen on this list (Petry - 3575) has played more minutes than Keith (3375) over the last two years. Hell, Bietto has only played 1010 minutes.

No factoring in of defense partners, goaltenders, zone starts, etc... Why is a goalie in the same list as defensemen? What's next? Ranking goal scorers by dividing their height by the MPG of thier cars? It's almost as though Tanner created this list.
- Tanuki

My boss one day: "We're stuck in 'analysis paralysis' this BS tells me nothing."

Not to defend Keith - he is brutal, I just hate JFRESH and all of their "unique stats" garbage that they peddle as advanced analytics.

Only one defensemen on this list (Petry - 3575) has played more minutes than Keith (3375) over the last two years. Hell, Bietto has only played 1010 minutes.

No factoring in of defense partners, goaltenders, zone starts, etc... Why is a goalie in the same list as defensemen? What's next? Ranking goal scorers by dividing their height by the MPG of thier cars? It's almost as though Tanner created this list.
- Tanuki

LOL....Tanner. What a pud.

WElcome....look forward to your posts and blogs.

God speeds with this group.......
- SteveRain

He knows the group well, he posted here for a while under AEL_FOX

You know I know what a puke I could be in high school.

It does speak to character and empathy.

No so sure as a kid I would have been even this level a j off
- wiz1901

I agree that this is next level j-offery, but I don't necessarily think that something you do as a 14 or 16 year old should ruin your life (with the exception of rape, murder, etc). Now if he didn't learn from this, and change his ways, then feel free to throw him to the wolves.

not really duncan was 19th in 5X5 ice time last year. at 19:22 parayko was 6th at 20:16 petry 27th 19:10 and lindholm was 48th at 18:35.
- kmw4631

I believe the chart covers more than 1 season.

I agree that this is next level j-offery, but I don't necessarily think that something you do as a 14 or 16 year old should ruin your life (with the exception of rape, murder, etc). Now if he didn't learn from this, and change his ways, then feel free to throw him to the wolves.
- tvetter

I’d like to see the USA adopt caning for transgressions like this. No permanent damage, but they’d think twice about being an @sshole.

I’d like to see the USA adopt caning for transgressions like this. No permanent damage, but they’d think twice about being an @sshole.
- scottak

Public?

Public?
- Chunk

Lose the “l”.

Lose the “l”.
- StLBravesFan

Ouch

Not to defend Keith - he is brutal, I just hate JFRESH and all of their "unique stats" garbage that they peddle as advanced analytics.

Only one defensemen on this list (Petry - 3575) has played more minutes than Keith (3375) over the last two years. Hell, Bietto has only played 1010 minutes.

No factoring in of defense partners, goaltenders, zone starts, etc... Why is a goalie in the same list as defensemen? What's next? Ranking goal scorers by dividing their height by the MPG of thier cars? It's almost as though Tanner created this list.
- Tanuki

I agree with this. A lot of these fancy stats I believe are just created to advance a narrative. Like we traded a top 6 winger for a third pairing defenseman. Except the top 6 winger is probably third line with his new team and the third pairing defenseman is a top 4 With his new team.

Solid deal

I can’t believe how stacked their young blue line is.

Now you add Toews to Girard, Makar, Graves, and Byram.

Us Hawks fans think we’ve got a nice group of promising young defenseman well just look at the Avs...they’re on another level.

Flyers also have a stacked young blue line. That’s the best way to build the foundation of a young contender IMO, that and finding a franchise 1C.
- SimpleJack

Sarcasm aside, I don’t have high expectations of any of the Hawks D prospects. Boqvist and Mitchell may be at the top of the list, but they haven’t shown much to make us think they can be the cornerstone of the Hawks defense. I don’t think Beaudin will be much more than a depth d-man, at best. They seem to have a solid number of mediocre D prospects, maybe they’ll get lucky and 1-2 actually pan out.

For the treats blog, it's been admittedly tougher to write. There won't be a list of ten like there is for tricks.
- Theo Fox

Things to be excited about: