CHICAGO, IL — After a nice finish on the season with wins over the St. Louis Blues and Dallas Stars (and a loss to the Nashville Predators that we're going to ignore), the Blackhawks are officially in the off-season.
The team held their annual locker room clean out, and I thought there were a lot of great takeaways from the clean out day. Obviously, the Hawks didn’t finish where they wanted to, but I think that was made up for when they moved from the 12th overall pick to the 3rd pick in the 2019 NHL Draft Lottery that took place on Tuesday. I’ll probably do a quick piece on who the Hawks should be looking at and what their options are for the draft in the coming weeks, so keep an eye out for that.
But, in the meantime, lets go over some of the topics that came up in the clean out presser.
IIHF World Championship
The past couple of years, a handful of Blackhawks players have participated in the IIHF World Championship, which takes place in early May. A couple of the Hawks this year have already confirmed they’re expecting to play, including Dominik Kahun (Germany), Artem Anisimov (Russia), Marcus Kruger (Sweden) and Erik Gustafsson (Sweden).
Patrick Kane, Brandon Saad, Connor Murphy and Alex DeBrincat have all been offered to play for Team USA, but it sounds like all of them are kind of on the fence about attending, so it’ll be interesting to see if any of the four go. I’d be surprised if Kane skipped, since he’s gone a handful of times in the past few years, but he may be looking at this summer as time to rest (not that he knows what that is).
Jonathan Toews also got an offer to play for Team Canada, but he’s less likely to go as he hasn’t gone in the past few years that the Hawks have had an early off-season. Dylan Strome and Brendan Perlini are both options, but if I were to pick one, I'd think Strome would get the nod.
Staying in Chicago
Something I found really interesting (and I think it’s been said throughout the season by most of these players I’m about to mention) is how many players said there’s really nowhere else they’d rather play than in Chicago.
Chris Kunitz said it in a post-game interview last week (after the game against the Stars)—after he was asked about potentially retiring after this season and how he’s liked Chicago. He talked about how amazing the United Center is and how insane the fans inside it are, first, which makes sense--that arena is bumping every single night, win or lose, and I love it, so it's got to be great for the players, too. He also went into detail about how great the city is, and that he’s got family there, so it makes sense to stay regardless if he retires after this season.
Cam Ward is in a similar spot of ‘will-he-won’t-he’ on the retirement front. He said in the locker room clean out that he ‘loved [his] time in Chicago.’ He went on to say that if he came back at all next season, he wouldn’t want to play anywhere else. Stan Bowman made a comment about Corey Crawford and Collin Delia being the goalie situation next season, so it’ll be interesting to see how this all pans out with Ward.
Gustafsson also expressed his interest in staying with the Hawks, which made sense given the multiple trade rumors and suggestions that floated around this season and will likely continue to pop up over the off-season. Hell, even Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook--with all of the trade rumors flying around about them just before the trade deadline--have both confirmed that they want to stay in Chicago, even if the team's doing some retooling.
It’s also no surprise that Strome emphasizes how badly he wanted to stay in Chicago for the rest of his career. He’s clearly hit it off with DeBrincat, and that line has been great all season. He’s scored more points in this season with the Blackhawks than he’d scored in all three years he spent with the Arizona Coyotes. I’d guess that he’ll stick around long-term, and that he and DeBrincat will very likely be the future Toews and Kane of this team.
Reflecting on Player Performances
GM Stan Bowman held his own presser on Sunday, and he certainly had a lot to say about this season--though, it may be surprising that most of his comments were positive, despite the season ending differently than expected. He loved the play of Drake Caggiula, thought Henri Jokiharju looked 'promising,' and defended both John Hayden and Brent Seabrook's play this season. I think he (as well as the rest of the Hawks organization) was pleasantly surprised by Kahun's play this season, and Bowman even call him a 'jack of all trades.' Not as surprisingly, he commented on DeBrincat's success this season as well, since his sophomore season was quite the impressive one, as he finished with 69 points on the season.
Coach Jeremy Colliton had a couple of comments on the team as well, citing the fact that he loves he has the option of playing Toews and Kane together, and that while it's a great option, he doesn't want to rely on it next season like he did this season. He went on to compliment Kane's play, saying that he'd happily play 25 minutes and not show any signs of slowing down. Colliton cited Kane as the team's best weapon, but also that they didn't want to overplay him like they did this season (even if Kane didn't seem to mind the extra minutes). Colliton was also quick to say that they needed a better 'mix' of defense and that 'they can't all play like Gus'--referring to Gustafsson's ridiculous 60-point season.
Overall, things were positive and while it was upsetting to miss the playoffs two seasons in a row, there's some hope that this off-season can be a catalyst to get the Hawks back into the playoffs next year. Bowman noted that they have a lot more cap space this summer than they have in years past, which is definitely helpful in adding depth to the forward and defensive groups. While I'm not convinced they'll add a couple guys and suddenly be a perfect, Cup-winning team, I do think it'll be a step in the right direction and can get them back into the playoff conversation next season.
This off-season might feel like a drag, but there's plenty to look forward to, and I'm excited to see what this team looks like come October.
Are you in?
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