I think we've started to see more assertiveness from our young D in recent weeks. I think Korchinski was more physical lately, responding to the poor showing vs LA.

I don't know if I'm the only one but I think Vlasic has started to ramp up a little on the physical end too, he was always more involved that way, but I think we might even see a little bit of edge from him coming out when push comes to shove.
- breadbag

Vlasic does seem to be a bit more aggressive recently. I'll say that Kaiser has been playing much better since the recall. He's using his skating ability much better, and making smart, quick decisions with the puck. Very refreshing to see.

I think this is also identifies how you need depth at the forward position. Sharks Ducks Calgary are all in that bottom left corner
- BetweenTheDots

Well lets see if KD uses any of that precious cap space (which turned out to not be an asset at the TDL) to bring in some actual top 6 NHL forwards, instead of now overpaying for 3 veteran forwards (AA, Foligno, and Richardinson) in order to get to the cap floor.

Foligno best year in 7, Richardinson career year, can they do it again next year? Same with Mrazek, this team is in deep trouble if he can't repeat the year he had this year.

The Hawks lose the second highest paid forward next year (T. Johnson). the only RFA "deserving" of greater than league minimum is possibly Reichel. The Hawks have committed a grand total so far of $25 million to the forward group for 8 slots.

Even if they give Vlasic $8 mil. (which I doubt), that still leaves $30 million to get to the cap next year).

Not saying they have to sign an Elias Lindholm to a 7 or 8 year deal, but a Toffoli, Marchessault, or someone who knows how to put the puck in the net while being solid defensively.

But my guess is KD is fine with the losses, as long as Danny Wirtz is fine with the losses.

Well lets see if KD uses any of that precious cap space (which turned out to not be an asset at the TDL) to bring in some actual top 6 NHL forwards, instead of now overpaying for 3 veteran forwards (AA, Foligno, and Richardinson) in order to get to the cap floor.

Foligno best year in 7, Richardinson career year, can they do it again next year? Same with Mrazek, this team is in deep trouble if he can't repeat the year he had this year.

The Hawks lose the second highest paid forward next year (T. Johnson). the only RFA "deserving" of greater than league minimum is possibly Reichel. The Hawks have committed a grand total so far of $25 million to the forward group for 8 slots.

Even if they give Vlasic $8 mil. (which I doubt), that still leaves $30 million to get to the cap next year).

Not saying they have to sign an Elias Lindholm to a 7 or 8 year deal, but a Toffoli, Marchessault, or someone who knows how to put the puck in the net while being solid defensively.

But my guess is KD is fine with the losses, as long as Danny Wirtz is fine with the losses.
- LAHawk

Okay now this is really funny.

How about let's see what he does before we get our tissue box out.

Okay now this is really funny.

How about let's see what he does before we get our tissue box out.
- BetweenTheDots

Well my post start's with" Lets see if". But you cherrypick what you read and re-post like you cherry pick stats on strato-matic cards.

TODAY
Powers, Pronman come off being outed as ignorant to what makes a player the second best one in the class.

I just simply do not understand how no one sees Demidov fully, and that they all seem to be ignoring huge issue with his skating and inability to use his inside edges.

I don't think the true team scouts have ignored it.

And probably if you ask the gM or scouting staff of NHL teams in the area to draft him, they will happily agree with the cross-eyed assessment of him, as a smoke screen to the players they really are going to draft.
Let Arizona select him 5th overall to play with his two already Coyote drafted comrades when the team is moved to _______________.

TODAY
Powers, Pronman come off being outed as ignorant to what makes a player the second best one in the class.

I just simply do not understand how no one sees Demidov fully, and that they all seem to be ignoring huge issue with his skating and inability to use his inside edges.

I don't think the true team scouts have ignored it.

And probably if you ask the gM or scouting staff of NHL teams in the area to draft him, they will happily agree with the cross-eyed assessment of him, as a smoke screen to the players they really are going to draft.
Let Arizona select him 5th overall to play with his two already Coyote drafted comrades when the team is moved to _______________.
- wiz1901

Assuming the Hawks don’t win the draft lottery, who do you want to see them select with the two number one picks, if they’re still available.

Well my post start's with" Lets see if". But you cherrypick what you read and re-post like you cherry pick stats on strato-matic cards.
- LAHawk

Usually the last paragraph is the conclusion, you posted it maybe you should own it.

Just going to throw this out there really hard to do a rebuild without having a foundation, i just don't get why that's so hard to understand or come to terms with.

Just going to throw this out there really hard to do a rebuild without having a foundation, i just don't get why that's so hard to understand or come to terms with.
- BetweenTheDots

Define what your foundation is. I would say that would be a team/environment where good habits and responsible play are not only preached, but executed on the ice. Really hard to do that with a bunch of AHL tweeners, rookies and guys that need as much duct take to hold themselves together as they do stick tape.

As I (and several others) have said previously, no one (or at least very few) are advocating for the Hawks to go try and sign Reinhardt, or any of these guys that will command 7-8 years and $9M+ to sign. But they do need (IMO) to secure more NHL level talent so that the kids don't just learn how to take a loss.

Define what your foundation is. I would say that would be a team/environment where good habits and responsible play are not only preached, but executed on the ice. Really hard to do that with a bunch of AHL tweeners, rookies and guys that need as much duct take to hold themselves together as they do stick tape.

As I (and several others) have said previously, no one (or at least very few) are advocating for the Hawks to go try and sign Reinhardt, or any of these guys that will command 7-8 years and $9M+ to sign. But they do need (IMO) to secure more NHL level talent so that the kids don't just learn how to take a loss.
- Chunk

Bedard, Korchinski, Vlasic for now

Good role players/ talent and/or play the right way

Slaggert, Kurashev, Di ckinson

Promising Reichel, Kaiser, Raddysh, let's see where they go

I agree with you about signing players, but the entire he's okay with losing is a joke but I'm the one who gets questioned, okay

Bedard, Korchinski, Vlasic for now

Good role players/ talent and/or play the right way

Slaggert, Kurashev, Di ckinson

Promising Reichel, Kaiser, Raddysh, let's see where they go

I agree with you about signing players, but the entire he's okay with losing is a joke but I'm the one who gets questioned, okay
- BetweenTheDots

He's said as much in interviews. He's not concerned with wins and losses as long as the process bears out the way he wants/needs. He even said that LR has done an admirable job in light of what he's done with the roster. I don't think he WANTS to lose, but it certainly aids what he is doing in building through the draft giving him higher picks.

100% you need good players, but I don't think that can be the foundation of what you are doing. Buffalo, EDM, heck even OTT have (or had) several really good rosters on paper, and they've either failed miserably, or struggled to get over the hump despite plenty of time.

There is nothing stopping KD from signing some upgrades on shorter term contracts while these kids start to graduate.

He's said as much in interviews. He's not concerned with wins and losses as long as the process bears out the way he wants/needs. He even said that LR has done an admirable job in light of what he's done with the roster. I don't think he WANTS to lose, but it certainly aids what he is doing in building through the draft giving him higher picks.

100% you need good players, but I don't think that can be the foundation of what you are doing. Buffalo, EDM, heck even OTT have (or had) several really good rosters on paper, and they've either failed miserably, or struggled to get over the hump despite plenty of time.

There is nothing stopping KD from signing some upgrades on shorter term contracts while these kids start to graduate.
- Chunk

Surely KFC can do better than over half the current roster. I’d be happy to see Tinordi, Megna, Zaitsev, T. Johnson, R. Johnson, Raddysh, Anderson, Soderblom and Blackwell replaced by better talent. Upgrade those guys with rookies and a couple of mid to bottom end UFAs and the team is improved dramatically.[/img]

Define what your foundation is. I would say that would be a team/environment where good habits and responsible play are not only preached, but executed on the ice. Really hard to do that with a bunch of AHL tweeners, rookies and guys that need as much duct take to hold themselves together as they do stick tape.

As I (and several others) have said previously, no one (or at least very few) are advocating for the Hawks to go try and sign Reinhardt, or any of these guys that will command 7-8 years and $9M+ to sign. But they do need (IMO) to secure more NHL level talent so that the kids don't just learn how to take a loss.
- Chunk

I think it's a balance though and maybe just a bit of a debate on where you draw the line. There is no question KD added some veteran players for this season. We had some NHL cup winning experience, hart trophy experience, presidents trophy winning experience.

IMO we had a lot less AHL level talent playing this year compared to last, if you go and look at some of the names who played last year it was pretty awful. More of the AHL level guys that played this year were due to having 9-10 guys injured at one point, plus losing Perry to his antics.

With LR coaching and the vets we have it has never seemed like they kids are learning to take a loss. They don't quit playing hard and they show up "most" the time.

I'm just saying, look at where we started the season on opening night roster and how many guys are not NHL players or at least projected as ready to be like Bedard/Reichel?)

Jason Richardinson
Tyler Johnson
Cole Guttman
Andreas Athanasiou
Ryan Donato
Connor Bedard
Jarred Tinordi
Kevin Korchinski
Wyatt Kaiser
Connor Murphy
Seth Jones
Nick Foligno
Lukas Reichel
Taylor Hall
Corey Perry
Taylor Raddysh

Guttman was getting his chance because Kurashev was out. Korchinski they took a risk but seemed to have made the right call. Kaiser needed more work and we have Tinordi as the broken down vet who plays tough but sucks, but for the most part, these are all NHL players. A lot of things didn't go our way so we had to add a lot of filler, but if you add more NHL vets to this list, then you don't have room for many rookies to cut their teeth.

He's said as much in interviews. He's not concerned with wins and losses as long as the process bears out the way he wants/needs. He even said that LR has done an admirable job in light of what he's done with the roster. I don't think he WANTS to lose, but it certainly aids what he is doing in building through the draft giving him higher picks.

100% you need good players, but I don't think that can be the foundation of what you are doing. Buffalo, EDM, heck even OTT have (or had) several really good rosters on paper, and they've either failed miserably, or struggled to get over the hump despite plenty of time.

There is nothing stopping KD from signing some upgrades on shorter term contracts while these kids start to graduate.
- Chunk

Some of it is waiting for the contracts to run their course, like Tyler Johnson or Zaitsev, who both were cap dumps to the Hawks. I don't think KD doesn't care about wins or losses, but he is realistic about setting expectations that they aren't in a win now mode. The goal this year wasn't to climb in the standings, but get more youth in the lineup and get them to be NHL players.

He's said as much in interviews. He's not concerned with wins and losses as long as the process bears out the way he wants/needs. He even said that LR has done an admirable job in light of what he's done with the roster. I don't think he WANTS to lose, but it certainly aids what he is doing in building through the draft giving him higher picks.

100% you need good players, but I don't think that can be the foundation of what you are doing. Buffalo, EDM, heck even OTT have (or had) several really good rosters on paper, and they've either failed miserably, or struggled to get over the hump despite plenty of time.

There is nothing stopping KD from signing some upgrades on shorter term contracts while these kids start to graduate.
- Chunk

Again i agree about signing the new players,

Well Chunk do you think the foundation of what they are doing is wrong? I see a bunch of players who don't belong in the NHL working their asses off.

I'll also add we need depth. There was a play last night, KK does a 360 avoids the check, passes 50 to 70 feet in the same motion, defender in the way so he banks it off the boards, Donato tries to turn around to receive the pass, stumbles, the pass is right on his stick blade and goes harmlessly in the corner, to bad to if he was able to keep his balance he's in all alone on the goalie.

It's crazy how good that pass was and the 2 guys in the booth are like oh that's too bad.

I also really liked that cross ice pass to i don't remember who but from Entwistle, it was so hard it went off the players stick and into the stands i just started laughing. Talking like 8 rows back

Again i agree about signing the new players,

Well Chunk do you think the foundation of what they are doing is wrong? I see a bunch of players who don't belong in the NHL working their asses off.

I'll also add we need depth. There was a play last night, KK does a 360 avoids the check, passes 50 to 70 feet in the same motion, defender in the way so he banks it off the boards, Donato tries to turn around to receive the pass, stumbles, the pass is right on his stick blade and goes harmlessly in the corner, to bad to if he was able to keep his balance he's in all alone on the goalie.

It's crazy how good that pass was and the 2 guys in the booth are like oh that's too bad.
- BetweenTheDots

Working hard is expected. It's commendable that LR has them all doing that at the end of a losing season. That said, I go back to the repetitive post-game comments from previous years where you hear guys say "we need to get more shots on net, traffic in front, be smarter in our own end, communicate more, etc" The Hawks need to have guys on the roster who can and will actually do all of those things instead of talk about them after the games.

I don't want to harp too hard on the kid as he is still learning in the NHL at 19, but I'd like to see KK finally play a 2-on-1 properly. There are still far too many stretches where the players on a line don't work together and just try to react to the guy with the puck. Wake me up the next time they actually cycle the puck properly. I don't really think what they are doing is wrong, but I think they can do it better and more effectively with the proper personnel.

If no one was aware, capfriendly has some scouting reports out on the 2024 draftees.

Numerous defenseman are projected as 1st pair.

https://www.capfriendly.c...t/artyom-levshunov-425818
https://www.capfriendly.c...t/sam-Richardinson-425815
https://www.capfriendly.c...eport/zayne-parekh-425791
https://www.capfriendly.c...port/anton-silayev-425810
https://www.capfriendly.c.../report/zeev-buium-425811
https://www.capfriendly.c...t/carter-yakemchuk-425792

Projected 1st line forwards include:

https://www.capfriendly.c.../macklin-celebrini-425789
https://www.capfriendly.c...eport/ivan-demidov-425819
https://www.capfriendly.c...port/cole-eiserman-425795
https://www.capfriendly.c...port/berkly-catton-425816
https://www.capfriendly.c.../report/tij-iginla-425817

They show Lindstrom as a 2nd line projection.
https://www.capfriendly.c...t/cayden-lindstrom-160135

Dang, it would be nice to get a forward and a D out of this group. Maybe someone drops to 13 or 14. How can the Hawks move up to to get a pick that high by packaging something with the TB pick?

Nick Lardis signed, though there’s a good possibility we don’t see him for a while.

Nick Lardis signed, though there’s a good possibility we don’t see him for a while.
- paulr

He'll probably stay in Juniors for another year.

From cap friendly -
https://www.capfriendly.c...ports/players/nick-lardis

He'll probably stay in Juniors for another year.

From cap friendly -
https://www.capfriendly.c...ports/players/nick-lardis
- boilermaker100

I agree, he’s not ready physically. He’s looked really good in the playoffs against Ottawa. Another season in junior with perhaps an opportunity to play in the Workd Juniors would be nice for him to show his leadership and for additional experience.

Again i agree about signing the new players,

Well Chunk do you think the foundation of what they are doing is wrong? I see a bunch of players who don't belong in the NHL working their asses off.

I'll also add we need depth. There was a play last night, KK does a 360 avoids the check, passes 50 to 70 feet in the same motion, defender in the way so he banks it off the boards, Donato tries to turn around to receive the pass, stumbles, the pass is right on his stick blade and goes harmlessly in the corner, to bad to if he was able to keep his balance he's in all alone on the goalie.

It's crazy how good that pass was and the 2 guys in the booth are like oh that's too bad.
- BetweenTheDots

I am a KK fan, and all the play's you highlighted are well and good But looking at his game in entirety, anylitically KK was the worst Hawk on the ice

https://hockeystatcards.com/single

Tab to Isle's vs. Hawks

There must be a correlation between this advanced stat and the Hawks and the Sharks records.

Bottom Average GameScore

# TEAM PLAYER GAMESCORE
1 team logo Isaak Phillips -1.28
2 team logo Louis Crevier -1.24
3 team logo Nikita Okhotiuk -0.76
4 team logo Mikael Pyyhtia -0.76
5 team logo Jake Christiansen -0.75
6 team logo Jarred Tinordi -0.73
7 team logo Kevin Korchinski -0.69
8 team logo Kyle Burroughs -0.67
9 team logo John Klingberg -0.66
10 team logo Mario Ferraro -0.66

Top Average GameScore

# TEAM PLAYER GAMESCORE
1 team logo Connor McDavid 2.17
2 team logo Nathan MacKinnon 2.00
3 team logo Evan Bouchard 1.81
4 team logo Auston Matthews 1.76
5 team logo Zach Hyman 1.75
6 team logo Nikita Kucherov 1.60
7 team logo Leon Draisaitl 1.56
8 team logo Sam Reinhart 1.54
9 team logo Mikko Rantanen 1.53
10 team logo Mattias Ekholm 1.52

I am a KK fan, and all the play's you highlighted are well and good But looking at his game in entirety, anylitically KK was the worst Hawk on the ice

https://hockeystatcards.com/single

Tab to Isle's vs. Hawks
- LAHawk

I checked it out so did Adam Pelech?

I honestly don't know what this means, but if they are blaming Korchinski for that 5 on 5 goal against then i don't know what to say. Dasherboard gets an assist, Megna gets back late as usual, islander beats him to the puck, it stays on Megnas side and the Isle score. Panger says KK should of over committed but i think he was trusting his team mates to make s play and making sure no back door goal was scored.

Him getting undressed by Horvat and Barzal well those 2 have made many dmen look foolish.

Well this strat-o-matic card is not kind to Blackhawk defensemen, especially Phillips and Crevier

Basically every Hawk defensemen is below NHL average in this stat:

https://x.com/JFreshHocke.../1775164274278588566?s=20
- LAHawk

It's not good to ignore the fancies but on a roster devoid of talent like the Hawks' what can be expected from pure rookie Dmen paired with some who are fringe 7th-8th NHL Dmen and a group of forwards that won't be with the club when the rebuild goes into win phase?

IMO it's safe to look away from most fancies including this one with this roster. ....... I promise the Hawks have tons and tons of internal fancies that the public will never see.

As fans of the Hawks we're gonna have to count on the eye test for a few yrs of the rebuild until the roster improves.