[quote=HawkintheD]This is from the other article appearing on the Hawk page today in The Athletic, titled, "Finding positive thoughts for 11 of the NHL’s non-playoff teams".

Chicago Blackhawks:

The negative: Year one of the Connor Bedard era may see them end up even worse than they were last season, which is really something since they spent all last year actively trying to lose.

Positive thought #1: Come on. You have Connor Bedard. Nobody feels sorry for you, and no reasonable Blackhawks fan is sulking right now. Bedard is amazing, he’ll be ridiculous in a few more years, and you’ve already locked in the single toughest piece of a Cup winner to find. We all hate you guys a little bit. Fine, sorry, that was wrong. It’s not a little bit.

Positive thought #2: While it’s pretty clear that contending wasn’t the plan this year, it’s worth remembering this team did go out and get Taylor Hall and Corey Perry in the offseason, then lost both early in the year. Maybe all that cost them was a few draft picks at the deadline, but it’s worth factoring in. Add a healthy Hall to a veteran core that includes an improved Seth Jones and a surprising Petr Mrazek, and there could be something here to build on.

Positive thought #3: I’m not saying you’re going to win the lottery and get Macklin Celebrini, but I’m also not not saying it. But even if you don’t, you’ll have a top-five pick to pad an already excellent prospect pool. Kyle Davidson knows what he’s doing, and while this is the easy part, he’s acing it. It just happens that acing it means losing a lot… for now.
- BetweenTheDots[/quote]

That is well said. Really curious to see what players they bring in next year. I think this team will be better and when i say better they will score more goals and give up less goals. The team record, well we'll see where that ends up falling.

Thought so too along with the comment about having Bedard and "no reasonable Blackhawk fan is sulking right now."

With a little better fortune on the health front, they'd have likely been in more and won a few more games.

Unlike the defense a lot of their fwd prospects are somewhere besides RFD so this was a season they weren't really equipped for guys to step in when injuries happened.

[quote=HawkintheD]This is from the other article appearing on the Hawk page today in The Athletic, titled, "Finding positive thoughts for 11 of the NHL’s non-playoff teams".

Chicago Blackhawks:

The negative: Year one of the Connor Bedard era may see them end up even worse than they were last season, which is really something since they spent all last year actively trying to lose.

Positive thought #1: Come on. You have Connor Bedard. Nobody feels sorry for you, and no reasonable Blackhawks fan is sulking right now. Bedard is amazing, he’ll be ridiculous in a few more years, and you’ve already locked in the single toughest piece of a Cup winner to find. We all hate you guys a little bit. Fine, sorry, that was wrong. It’s not a little bit.

Positive thought #2: While it’s pretty clear that contending wasn’t the plan this year, it’s worth remembering this team did go out and get Taylor Hall and Corey Perry in the offseason, then lost both early in the year. Maybe all that cost them was a few draft picks at the deadline, but it’s worth factoring in. Add a healthy Hall to a veteran core that includes an improved Seth Jones and a surprising Petr Mrazek, and there could be something here to build on.

Positive thought #3: I’m not saying you’re going to win the lottery and get Macklin Celebrini, but I’m also not not saying it. But even if you don’t, you’ll have a top-five pick to pad an already excellent prospect pool. Kyle Davidson knows what he’s doing, and while this is the easy part, he’s acing it. It just happens that acing it means losing a lot… for now.
- BetweenTheDots[/quote]

That is well said. Really curious to see what players they bring in next year. I think this team will be better and when i say better they will score more goals and give up less goals. The team record, well we'll see where that ends up falling.

I think somewhere between this year's Ottawa and Buffalo results should be reasonable and expected.

There's an article today about another shutdown D who appears in the piece you mention, Chris Tanev. He's ranked in the top 15 and here's the excerpt...

Chris Tanev has consistently been one of the best defensive blueliners of the last decade. He’s a warrior shot-blocker, always on point with his positioning and reads and an underrated puck mover. Tanev is exactly what the Stars needed to beef up their top four for a playoff run.

The article today talks about the Hawks matchup with Dallas tomorrow and how Tanev was one of Bedard's fave Canuck players growing up.

Tanev was also one of the dmen mentioned as a guy the Hawks could target in the offseason to round out their blue line. Not sure if that's the direction they'll go but would be interesting.
- HawkintheD

Tanev, at 34 years old, is probably at the stage of his career where he'll want to go to a contender. I doubt if the Hawks are on his radar. But you never know. The Hawks need a veteran or two to replace Tinnordi, Megna, Zaitsev so Tanev would fit the bill next season. Hawks can overpay him on a 2 year deal. And I just realized he's a RD.

Vlasic-Jones
Kasier-Tanev
Korchinski-Murphy (until injured or traded)
Cheap journeyman veteran as 7D

Allan, DelMastro, Phillips, Crevier at the Rock and on the call up list.

Believe me, it is not a bad move to draft really fast forwards, who think the game well and has so much lateral agility and great playmaking ability, or guys with short space quickbness and touch, or even take a chance on a smaller stocky Russian , but I gotta think there is going to stop being roster room for more smaller scoring options.
- wiz1901

You know when i think about this i always fall back on there are only so many NHL hockey players in each draft year. So if the smallish hockey player projects to being an NHL player greater than any other players on your board you have to draft him. I know this will be an unpopular opinion but if you say the Russian dman is another Hedman, i really don't know how any team passes on him after the 1st over all pick even the Blackhawks, if interviews and intentions are he wants to play here. Don't care if i have five left handed dmen starting on the Blackhawks especially if they can be productive NHL players. It's been a long time since we drafted one productive defenseman left handed or right handed.

To me that's where many GMs fail they think they control the draft, it's the opposite the draft controls them.

Tanev, at 34 years old, is probably at the stage of his career where he'll want to go to a contender. I doubt if the Hawks are on his radar. But you never know. The Hawks need a veteran or two to replace Tinnordi, Megna, Zaitsev so Tanev would fit the bill next season. Hawks can overpay him on a 2 year deal. And I just realized he's a RD.

Vlasic-Jones
Kasier-Tanev
Korchinski-Murphy (until injured or traded)
Cheap journeyman veteran as 7D

Allan, DelMastro, Phillips, Crevier at the Rock and on the call up list.
- boilermaker100

The Hawks are in a position to overpay veterans on short term deals. While it seems that Foligno (for example) is genuinely happy and wants to be in Chicago, the reality is that he wouldn't make half as much playing for any other team. In Chicago he gets to shape the future of a team (mentoring the future face of the league) while pocketing $13 million over 3 years. Plus, he has he opportunity to play top 6 and PP minutes.

With a contender Foligno would likely be in and out of the line-up as a 4th liner making $3 million over the same 3 years.

For the right type of player the choice is easy. I'm glad Foligno is sticking around and I think he's worth every penny of his deal.

I know most here aren't big fans of Vosters, and I'm sure most are dubious at best about the animated broadcast they are planning to do, but I just read this and thought it might actually make him a better broadcaster:


https://chicago.suntimes....cartoon-network-for-a-day

Specifically:
“Chris is used to calling a game for adults; he’s not used to calling a game for kids,” Faulkner said. “The way that he characterizes has to be completely different. That’s why we sent him to New York, to get him comfortable but really testing his storytelling skills. Five-year-olds don’t necessarily know what icing and offside are. As part of the scripting, we want to teach kids the game of hockey.”

Since most of the complaints I hear are about his lack of knowledge about the game, maybe this forces him to improve.

Tanev, at 34 years old, is probably at the stage of his career where he'll want to go to a contender. I doubt if the Hawks are on his radar. But you never know. The Hawks need a veteran or two to replace Tinnordi, Megna, Zaitsev so Tanev would fit the bill next season. Hawks can overpay him on a 2 year deal. And I just realized he's a RD.

Vlasic-Jones
Kasier-Tanev
Korchinski-Murphy (until injured or traded)
Cheap journeyman veteran as 7D

Allan, DelMastro, Phillips, Crevier at the Rock and on the call up list.
- boilermaker100

That works for me. We are seeing a .500 team for the last month or so, add Hall and another forward or two and the Hawks will be watchable to the average fan next year. Who they add will probably depend on who they draft, especially if they get lucky and get Celebrini.

That works for me. We are seeing a .500 team for the last month or so, add Hall and another forward or two and the Hawks will be watchable to the average fan next year. Who they add will probably depend on who they draft, especially if they get lucky and get Celebrini.
- Angotti

Maybe I'm just pessimistic, but I'm not expecting Hall to dress for more than half the games next year. He's had so many lower body injuries and those typically compound over time. I'd love to be wrong, but it's hard for me to get excited about Hall on the roster.

The Hawks are in a position to overpay veterans on short term deals. While it seems that Foligno (for example) is genuinely happy and wants to be in Chicago, the reality is that he wouldn't make half as much playing for any other team. In Chicago he gets to shape the future of a team (mentoring the future face of the league) while pocketing $13 million over 3 years. Plus, he has he opportunity to play top 6 and PP minutes.

With a contender Foligno would likely be in and out of the line-up as a 4th liner making $3 million over the same 3 years.

For the right type of player the choice is easy. I'm glad Foligno is sticking around and I think he's worth every penny of his deal.
- DarthKane

This is a 10 percenter (maybe 5)...non-sarcastic Darth post. It isn't is it (sarcasm)?

Great post and couldn't agree more about Foligno.

Tanev, at 34 years old, is probably at the stage of his career where he'll want to go to a contender. I doubt if the Hawks are on his radar. But you never know. The Hawks need a veteran or two to replace Tinnordi, Megna, Zaitsev so Tanev would fit the bill next season. Hawks can overpay him on a 2 year deal. And I just realized he's a RD.

Vlasic-Jones
Kasier-Tanev
Korchinski-Murphy (until injured or traded)
Cheap journeyman veteran as 7D

Allan, DelMastro, Phillips, Crevier at the Rock and on the call up list.
- boilermaker100

If I had my druthers, if Brett Pesce does not get resigned by Carolina, i would go after him on a 3 or 4 year deal (he is 29). Better and younger than Tanev, and the Hawks more likey than not will have no right handed D man ready in 3 or 4 years anyway.

Then I try and giveaway Murphy for a used Zamboni, or at the very least you know half the year he will be on IL anyway. Or employ him like Zaitsev, as the seventh D. Even if you have to pay Pesce $6 mil per year (if the Hawks don't someone else will) Hawks won't have cap issues for the next few season's anyway. He would be the perfect partner for KK.

Tanev, at 34 years old, is probably at the stage of his career where he'll want to go to a contender. I doubt if the Hawks are on his radar. But you never know. The Hawks need a veteran or two to replace Tinnordi, Megna, Zaitsev so Tanev would fit the bill next season. Hawks can overpay him on a 2 year deal. And I just realized he's a RD.

Vlasic-Jones
Kasier-Tanev
Korchinski-Murphy (until injured or traded)
Cheap journeyman veteran as 7D

Allan, DelMastro, Phillips, Crevier at the Rock and on the call up list.
- boilermaker100

IMO Tanev will end up with his hometown Toronto Maple Leafs. They were supposedly trying to get him at the TDL, they have interest. Leafs only have 4 NHL defenseman signed next year and Lillegren as a RFA who won't cost much.

https://twitter.com/AHock.../1775960745882075357?s=19

If that's true that's crazy about Holland and first round picks. Then again it makes a lot of sense.

IMO Tanev will end up with his hometown Toronto Maple Leafs. They were supposedly trying to get him at the TDL, they have interest. Leafs only have 4 NHL defenseman signed next year and Lillegren as a RFA who won't cost much.
- LAHawk

Is that what you call them? Let’s see what leaf fans call them when the playoffs start.

https://twitter.com/AHockey1993/status/1775960745882075357?s=19

If that's true that's crazy about Holland and first round picks. Then again it makes a lot of sense.
- BetweenTheDots

The stat about how many 1st round draft picks become NHL players (league wide) is why I'm so glad we have/had so many picks, especially many in the upper half of the first round.



2022
Korchinski
Nazar
Rinzel

2023
Bedard
Moore

2024
2 more picks
2025
2 more picks

Just over a year from now, those 2024 and 2025 picks will be made and we probably have our next core really taking shape to start competing for a real chance at the playoffs.

https://twitter.com/AHockey1993/status/1775960745882075357?s=19

If that's true that's crazy about Holland and first round picks. Then again it makes a lot of sense.
- BetweenTheDots

What the hell are they doing to/with Holloway? Kid looked like he had so much promise. I just looked at his first round picks on CapFriendly. It's like he just stopped being able to identify talent after 2014. 1st rounders since then

Evgeny Svechnikov (not the good Svechnikov)
Dennis Cholowski
Michael Rasmussen
Filip Zadina
Joe Veleno
Philip Broberg
Dylan Holloway
Xavier Bourgault
Reid Schaefer




Maybe it's the players, but I'd say they don't seem to know how to develop anyone either.

What the hell are they doing to/with Holloway? Kid looked like he had so much promise. I just looked at his first round picks on CapFriendly. It's like he just stopped being able to identify talent after 2014. 1st rounders since then

Evgeny Svechnikov (not the good Svechnikov)
Dennis Cholowski
Michael Rasmussen
Filip Zadina
Joe Veleno
Philip Broberg
Dylan Holloway
Xavier Bourgault
Reid Schaefer




Maybe it's the players, but I'd say they don't seem to know how to develop anyone either.
- Chunk

I think that's when Nill was hired by the Stars? I think since he went to the Stars a third of their roster are draft picks

A writer in the Athletic discusses the league's best shut down defenseman. Given the crriteria he chose, the highest rated are Gudas, Vlasic, Doughty, Sanderson and Forsling.

https://theathletic.com/5...best-shutdown-defensemen/

Excerpt:

I started the exercise by using an initial filter for the following criteria:

- 40 games played minimum this season
- Ranks among the NHL’s top-128 defensemen for five-on-five ice time per game (Ice time is indicative of a coach’s trust. We only want top-four defensemen for this exercise — there are 32 teams, multiply that by four, and that gives us 128 players who’ve earned top-four quality trust at five-on-five.)
- Five-on-five goals-against rate below league average (Preventing goals is the ultimate goal for a defensive blueliner. Goals against can, however, be quite volatile and influenced by luck — some defenders prevent shots and scoring chances very well but get punished because their goaltender can’t make a save — so I didn’t want this filter to be too harsh.)
- Tougher matchups than league average (Like ice time, matchups can tell us a lot about which defensemen a coach trusts. A top shutdown defender should be matching up against top players more often than not. I used HockeyViz’s quality of competition data to measure this.)

After running this filter, we get a refined pool of defensemen who skate a lot of minutes, are trusted enough to defend top forwards on a regular basis and prevent goals against better than league average. From here, I decided to use Evolving-Hockey’s Regularized Adjusted Plus-Minus (RAPM) tool to measure defensive impact and rank our pool of defenders.

Regarding Vlasic, he writes:

Speaking of impressive defensive results on a bad team, Alex Vlasic has overtaken Seth Jones as the Blackhawks’ best blueliner. Vlasic’s combo of a 6-foot-6 frame and excellent skating is a nightmare for attackers to navigate around. He covers so much space and closes gaps exceptionally quickly with his reach and feet. The 22-year-old left-shot has logged the most minutes against “elite” competition of all Chicago defenders. Despite difficult top pair usage, Vlasic is driving the best expected goal share on the entire team (forwards included). Chicago has a near break-even goal differential during Vlasic’s minutes but has a whopping minus-73 goal differential when he’s on the bench at five-on-five.
- boilermaker100

Even goal difference with Vlasic on the ice and -73 with him off the ice is an incredible statistic, other than Bedard Vlasic has been the most exciting part of this season. He’s a great young piece that fits the rebuild timeline.

The Hawks are in a position to overpay veterans on short term deals. While it seems that Foligno (for example) is genuinely happy and wants to be in Chicago, the reality is that he wouldn't make half as much playing for any other team. In Chicago he gets to shape the future of a team (mentoring the future face of the league) while pocketing $13 million over 3 years. Plus, he has he opportunity to play top 6 and PP minutes.

With a contender Foligno would likely be in and out of the line-up as a 4th liner making $3 million over the same 3 years.

For the right type of player the choice is easy. I'm glad Foligno is sticking around and I think he's worth every penny of his deal.
- DarthKane

You really think he'd be in and out of the lineup?

I think you might be selling him short. Last year he was on one of the deeper teams of recent years and was still an everyday player until he was injured for nearly 2 months of the season. He is getting older, but his playing time this year is right in line with his previous seasons before his two years stuck behind the big depth Boston had.

I still think he'd be making in that 2.5 mil range and playing all over the bottom 6 on most playoff teams.

I'm just saying I think he still had more left in the tank than it looked like with Boston not needing him to play because of their lineup.

Maybe I'm just pessimistic, but I'm not expecting Hall to dress for more than half the games next year. He's had so many lower body injuries and those typically compound over time. I'd love to be wrong, but it's hard for me to get excited about Hall on the roster.
- Chunk

Half the games this year would have made a difference in Bedard’s stats. Yep, he’s had multiple injuries, hard to argue on how many games he’ll get in.

You really think he'd be in and out of the lineup?

I think you might be selling him short. Last year he was on one of the deeper teams of recent years and was still an everyday player until he was injured for nearly 2 months of the season. He is getting older, but his playing time this year is right in line with his previous seasons before his two years stuck behind the big depth Boston had.

I still think he'd be making in that 2.5 mil range and playing all over the bottom 6 on most playoff teams.

I'm just saying I think he still had more left in the tank than it looked like with Boston not needing him to play because of their lineup.
- breadbag

But he is going to be 34 next year, and has had multiple injuries over his career. Keith never fully came back from his knee surgery (I know different position but) when he was 35. How much speed will Hall lose? Any mobility issues? McCabe it took a whole year for him to come back also.

Even goal difference with Vlasic on the ice and -73 with him off the ice is an incredible statistic, other than Bedard Vlasic has been the most exciting part of this season. He’s a great young piece that fits the rebuild timeline.
- LaheysBRandy

Here are the top 10 Hawks (for 5v5 goal diff)

Slaggert 62.5%
Anderson 58.14%
Richardson 56%
Kaiser 50%
Hall 50%
Seney 50%
Vlasic 48.31%
Perry 46.67%
Blackwell 44.44%
Jones 44.05%

And the Worst 10

Pitlick 12.5%
Roos 16.67%
Crevier 20.69%
Guttman 22.22%
Phillips 22.92%
Entwistle 24.49%
R Johnson 25%
Reichel 26.92%
T Johnson 28%
Tinordi 30.16%

What the hell are they doing to/with Holloway? Kid looked like he had so much promise. I just looked at his first round picks on CapFriendly. It's like he just stopped being able to identify talent after 2014. 1st rounders since then

Evgeny Svechnikov (not the good Svechnikov)
Dennis Cholowski
Michael Rasmussen
Filip Zadina
Joe Veleno
Philip Broberg
Dylan Holloway
Xavier Bourgault
Reid Schaefer




Maybe it's the players, but I'd say they don't seem to know how to develop anyone either.
- Chunk

I’d like to see the Hawks trade for Holloway, maybe trade one of their LD’s not named Vlasic or Korchinski.

Here are the top 10 Hawks (for 5v5 goal diff)

Slaggert 62.5%
Anderson 58.14%
Richardson 56%
Kaiser 50%
Hall 50%
Seney 50%
Vlasic 48.31%
Perry 46.67%
Blackwell 44.44%
Jones 44.05%

And the Worst 10

Pitlick 12.5%
Roos 16.67%
Crevier 20.69%
Guttman 22.22%
Phillips 22.92%
Entwistle 24.49%
R Johnson 25%
Reichel 26.92%
T Johnson 28%
Tinordi 30.16%
- breadbag

It will be interesting to see how/when Bedard improves his defense. With as good as he is at reading plays, you would think that would help him immensely in his own zone. Then it would just come down to positioning and determination.

But he is going to be 34 next year, and has had multiple injuries over his career. Keith never fully came back from his knee surgery (I know different position but) when he was 35. How much speed will Hall lose? Any mobility issues? McCabe it took a whole year for him to come back also.
- LAHawk

Oh, we were talking Foligno.

Hall, it's hard to say, without knowing more about his injury. I don't know how bad that will linger. I think they shut him down because they knew he needed time to heal up because they want him to play next year and maybe even beyond. I think we just need to see how he looks once he is back.

Recovery from surgery does seem to be getting better and better all the time, with new technology and techniques, some of the knee injuries aren't so "career ending" as they once were. I do think it is a case by case basis, because look at Kane right now. He is beating the odds on his hip surgery, which multiple athletes failed to come back from. I'm not a doctor and I think we don't get all the info, but hopefully he can come back and play. The Hawks would have been a lot better off this season with him on the ice.

It will be interesting to see how/when Bedard improves his defense. With as good as he is at reading plays, you would think that would help him immensely in his own zone. Then it would just come down to positioning and determination.
- Chunk

I think he will get better for sure. I think it will help once he gets more of a man body and can win more battles too. I think Kurashev also having some defensive deficiencies in his play hasn't helped. If we had more overall talent, teams won't be able to focus as hard on Bedard, so that is a small part too I'd think.