I just deposited this into the Twittersphere but here's what the forward lines might look like with Toews out:

DeBrincat - Strome - Kane
Suter - Soderberg - Kubalik
Janmark - Wallmark - Shaw
Carpenter - Kampf - Highmore

On deck: Hagel, Kurashev, Entwistle

Please, no Pirri or Quenneville.
- Theo Fox

Hey, you forgot Smith.

I just deposited this into the Twittersphere but here's what the forward lines might look like with Toews out:

DeBrincat - Strome - Kane
Suter - Soderberg - Kubalik
Janmark - Wallmark - Shaw
Carpenter - Kampf - Highmore

On deck: Hagel, Kurashev, Entwistle

Please, no Pirri or Quenneville.
- Theo Fox

If Toews is out long-term, I would expect Stan to go find another center - with the LTIR of Toews (if it comes to that), there should be cap space available.

I think so. I hated the last ten years of soft players and the dainty game they played, It’s time for RED ASS!
- paulr

Is Big Buff available? He might fill the "RED ASS" quota!

Is Big Buff available? He might fill the "RED ASS" quota!
- powerenforcer

Meh! Buff isn’t a great fighter. We need guys who can kick ass.

Please just stop. Please
- just69sayin

Can't make me.

So no matter how long the recovery is, they cannot get the cap space until we begin the season, right?

Is there an opportunity to eat some other teams bad retired IR contracts too?

- wiz1901

If Toews is out for a length of time that puts him in the LTIR category, then yes, the Hawks need to use that cap space to trade for other teams' bad contracts and gain 1st round draft picks.

Dach and Nylander on LTIR don't move the needle much as far as cap space savings but Toews does. Use it to gain futures.

I don’t know where that leaves Stan in the ranking - and I don’t care - the question is - is he the person capable of doing the rebuild? We don’t know.

Krause: but he did start wit Jordan. He did get Paxson, and had one good draft; then (for the second three-peat) got Harper and Rodman. I’d consider him more of a maintainer and retooler than a builder - which he failed at completely after 1998.
- StLBravesFan

Krause drafted Grant. He also traded up to get Pippen. Traded Oakley for Cartwright. He built the Bulls. How many titles did they win in Mike's first five years?

Do the Hawks win in 2013 and 2015 without the additions Stan made after the 2010 purge? I'd say no (especially since they lost in Round 1 in '11 & '12). This "builder" v. "maintainer" thing is way overblown.

If Toews is out for a length of time that puts him in the LTIR category, then yes, the Hawks need to use that cap space to trade for other teams' bad contracts and gain 1st round draft picks.

Dach and Nylander on LTIR don't move the needle much as far as cap space savings but Toews does. Use it to gain futures.
- Theo Fox

IF Rocky is willing to spend real cash (not just cap space).

The Ricketts family apparently isn’t.

I think so. I hated the last ten years of soft players and the dainty game they played, It’s time for RED ASS!
- paulr

Look what the cat dragged in!! How's it going, ice hole?

Krause drafted Grant. He also traded up to get Pippen. Traded Oakley for Cartwright. He built the Bulls. How many titles did they win in Mike's first five years?

Do the Hawks win in 2013 and 2015 without the additions Stan made after the 2010 purge? I'd say no (especially since they lost in Round 1 in '11 & '12). This "builder" v. "maintainer" thing is way overblown.
- mohel

That was Krause’s one good draft - the rest during his tenure were pretty bad - even the King (#6] Armstrong draft was disappointing. Brand was good, Kukoc was good - other than that? https://www.basketball-re....com/teams/CHI/draft.html

I said (and have always said) that Bowman did a terrific job filling in around the core remaining from 2010 to get to the success of 2014-14-15 (even 2016 and 2017).

I just question (because we don’t know) whether he is up to a total rebuild (which is what this will wind up being).

IF Rocky is willing to spend real cash (not just cap space).

The Ricketts family apparently isn’t.
- StLBravesFan

What do you have against Ricketts?

What did the Cubs rank in payroll last year?

The Cubs need to rebuild because Theo failed at drafting and developing talent for the past several years, and because he spent money poorly on free agents.

Hey..uh... Theo? You may want to take another stab at that lineup.

Honestly, I'm more intrigued now than I was before the injuries. With Toews out, Someone will have to fill not only the leadership void, but try at the production side of it as well. Maybe one of the kids step up, maybe Strome flips a switch, maybe one of the new imports. Heck, just filling out the forward lines will make for interesting debate.

If there was ever a year for this to happen it is this year. The Hawks were not expected to be overly competitive, it's a shortened season, and there will be minimal opportunity for fans in the stadium anyway. There will likely be more of an opportunity for young guys to break the lineup and we can get a better sense of the overall development.

I'm guessing that I'm in the minority here reading most of the comments, but I think this will be a much more entertaining season than it was originally shaping up to be. Who knows, maybe they go full NJ circa 1996 and just bear down on defense.
- Chunk

Good post, Chunk.

I'm actually weirdly excited about the season given the heightened intrigue of more youth potentially cracking the lineup.

The downside to that is I'm an advocate of not rushing prospects and believe in over marination. Someone like Suter, Hagel, and Mitchell who seem to have a short growth curve make sense to graduate now but others like Kurashev, Entwistle, and Beaudin need more time on the farm.

Theo - we seem to have a fairly regular discussion about how good or bad is, a cold, analytical look at Stan's ranking in the league might make a decent blog subject.
- mohel

Thanks, mohel.

I jotted this topic down. Love getting crowd-sourced ideas from y'all.

He's the worst Mo...the worst!
- HawkintheD

[quote=Chunk]

That's all we do is speculate, it's all we have to go by.

If in fact he doesn't know what it is, hell it could be a severe case of depression, again why would he opt out if he doesn't know what he's suffering from? Let's say he opts out and starts feeling great after a week or two. There's no quitting in the captain that's why he's the captain

What do you have against Ricketts?

What did the Cubs rank in payroll last year?

The Cubs need to rebuild because Theo failed at drafting and developing talent for the past several years, and because he spent money poorly on free agents.
- mohel

See - Theo is a builder, not a maintainer.

I think the Cubs could still be in the chase next summer. If so, you don’t move your best pitcher for not much of anything - they got an ok pitcher back, but no prospect in SD’s top-10 prospects.

I’d say other things but EbonyRaptor wouldn’t like it.

This means all out tank, so honestly as far as hockey goes it’s not a bad thing(obviously as far as Toews is concerned it’s awful and I hope he gets better ASAP).

It will almost ensure that we draft another stud young player.

No Toews and no Dach. Why not just throw out a bunch of different lineups featuring several young players that can essentially audition and gain experience? At the same time we’ll lose the majority of our games and draft as high as possible.

This is the best way to approach this season given what’s taken place.

We can legitimately be the worst team in the league this year WHILE learning a lot about what our youth has to offer. They gain experience, we get a top draft pick.

Then next year Toews and Dach return to join another potential top 3 pick + another year of development for all of our other youngsters.
- SimpleJack

A top 5 or even top 3 draft pick is definitely a silver lining. I've never believed in tanking but in this case, the Hawks don't have to purposely do so. They'll naturally make their way to the bottom.

It will be an overload of cognitive dissonance, though, if the Hawks over achieve and somehow become a contender this season. As we've seen, life is full of curve balls. An early Hawks resurgence could be a nasty slider.

Thanks, mohel.

I jotted this topic down. Love getting crowd-sourced ideas from y'all.
- Theo Fox

You'll get plenty of reaction to that one. Just have a moderator handy.

Look what the cat dragged in!! How's it going, ice hole?
- mohel

My second favourite poster. How’s your posse?

And an analysis of his strengths and weaknesses.

Individual coaches and GMs - no matter how good and successful - are well suited for different stages in a team’s development. Q and Phil Jackson are well suited for teams ready to win - the “B to C” stage that Reinsdorf liked to talk about. Epstein is good at rebuilds - not so much at maintaining. Kraus was actually good at maintaining - not at all at rebuilding.

Colliton may be good at developing - jury is still out - we have no evidence that he can take a team expected to compete to that level.

What is Stan? He did a good job “retooling” to get to 2013-2015 - can he not do a “rebuild”?
- StLBravesFan

Thanks for the extra notes on this topic, STL.

See - Theo is a builder, not a maintainer.

I think the Cubs could still be in the chase next summer. If so, you don’t move your best pitcher for not much of anything - they got an ok pitcher back, but no prospect in SD’s top-10 prospects.

I’d say other things but EbonyRaptor wouldn’t like it.
- StLBravesFan

Now I understand the dislike.

Theo rebuilt in Boston and won again. If you can identify and develop talent, you're on the road to being a good GM. The job is the same for teams on the bottom or the top.

My second favourite poster. How’s your posse?
- paulr

Large and angry, Chief!

My second favourite poster. How’s your posse?
- paulr

Edged out by Edzo?

Edged out by Edzo?
- HawkintheD

I assumed that was the case.

Edit: I assume everyone else is tied for 1st, leaving moi as his least favorite.

I just deposited this into the Twittersphere but here's what the forward lines might look like with Toews out:

DeBrincat - Strome - Kane
Suter - Soderberg - Kubalik
Janmark - Wallmark - Shaw
Carpenter - Kampf - Highmore

On deck: Hagel, Kurashev, Entwistle

Please, no Pirri or Quenneville.
- Theo Fox

THEO: I like this lineup short term. One good thing, is that Hawks have several guys who can play center or wing. This is balanced lineup with defensive awareness on each line ....... well except for Cat-Strome-Kaner. Agree on Pirri and Quenville ... Q provides no offense and Pirri provides no defense. Hope Colliton really focuses on improving their play in the neutral zone. Better play in the neutral zone should equal less time in the defensive zone .... very much needed when you don't know what you have in goal yet