2018-2019 Blackhawks Roster

[DisgruntledHawkFan]

Stastny turns 33 this year. He'd definitely help but for the term he's gonna command his last few serviceable years just don't line up.

 

[AmericanDream]

Exactly where I’m at. If they went out and spent on a goalie, I would be worried. Seems they don’t wanna pay for what Hutton thinks he’s worth/give him a chance to start. A cheap option like Ward indicates that they don’t have faith in the backup rather than the starter.

Think they would have pushed a lot harder for Grubauer if there was legitimate cause for concern with Crawford. I just don’t see anyway that Stans putting himself in a situation where he’s gonna have to give Ward 50 starts unless he’s purposefully trying to tank.

I am sorry, but I am the opposite. The Hawks do NOT have the cap space to go out and consider a better goalie...what goalie would that be?? and at what price?? Hutton and Bernier will be over $3 mil, and we still have other holes to fix.. If Crow is LTIR you can't use his cap money until after game 1 so we cannot get a great goalie right now..

Bowman knows this team has holes, he could have gone cheaper and younger if Crow was 100% healthy, this proves to me Crow is not fully healthy. What Bowman is doing here is hedging on Ward and Forsberg to get them through the first half of the season until either Crow comes back, or they use Hossa's LTIR money on a goalie by the trade deadline.

If Crow was healthy, we would not be hearing about Cam Ward right now with glaring holes at LD and top 6 winger...all these guys out there, and the first news we are hearing is Cam freaking Ward??? this should alarm everyone and understand that Crow is likely not going to play the first half of the year.

I guess I see smoke before the fire here for some reason....

 

[AmericanDream]

why do we need a veteran goalie if we already have a veteran 2 time cup winner ready to go??

and what the hell did we even bother getting Forsberg for if he is going to get dumped or buried if you want two 33/34 year old goalies??

 

[Blackhawkswincup]

The two time cup winner is #1 and Ward is being brought in to be #2

And they are moving on from Forsberg because like Jackets they see his flaws (Hawks far more clearly since he played more here in Chicago) and know he has no upside to be anything more then a average/below average #2

 

[ClydeLee]

The two time cup winner is #1 and Ward is being brought in to be #2

And they are moving on from Forsberg because like Jackets they see his flaws (Hawks far more clearly since he played more here in Chicago) and know he has no upside to be anything more then a average/below average #2

An average #2 is Wards height especially now. The last advice average season he had was 2012. Theres no future with him either it should be a 1 year deal so at least nmthe next year you can try someone with a future in Crows last contractual year.

 

[RememberTheRoar]

If ROR goes to St Louis wonder if Hawks can make run at Stastny

Has played with Q before and would be fine as #2C for next couple years

Are you taking Schmaltz out of that role, or do you have plans for him as Toews’ winger?

 

[BK]

The two time cup winner is #1 and Ward is being brought in to be #2

And they are moving on from Forsberg because like Jackets they see his flaws (Hawks far more clearly since he played more here in Chicago) and know he has no upside to be anything more then a average/below average #2

Forsberg was not good last year but he managed to put up better numbers than Ward but on a worse team. Explain.

 

[Rick C137]

I am sorry, but I am the opposite. The Hawks do NOT have the cap space to go out and consider a better goalie...what goalie would that be?? and at what price?? Hutton and Bernier will be over $3 mil, and we still have other holes to fix..

Bowman knows this team has holes, he could have gone cheaper and younger if Crow was 100% healthy, this proves to me Crow is not fully healthy. What Bowman is doing here is hedging on Ward and Forsberg to get them through the first half of the season until either Crow comes back, or they use Hossa's LTIR money on a goalie by the trade deadline.

If Crow was healthy, we would not be hearing about Cam Ward right now with glaring holes at LD and top 6 winger...all these guys out there, and the first news we are hearing is Cam freaking Ward??? this should alarm everyone and understand that Crow is likely not going to play the first half of the year.

What are you talking about in regards to cap space? We have plenty right now and then there’s the moves like trading Rutta/Hossa/Anisimov to clear the cap for a goalie. You may have to take a loss value wise but a starting goalie is something you clear cap for and don’t go bargain bin shopping. This team could easily make room for a 3-4 mil dollar goalie if they had to but I don’t think they do.

I completely disagree with the “if crow was healthy we wouldn’t be hearing about Ward”. If anything this season opened the hawks eyes to how important backup goaltending is. If Vegas diddnt have good goaltending depth, they may not make the playoffs, let alone the cup. The hawks were in a playoff position when Crawford went down and then the wheels fell off because our backup goaltenders could not get the job done. I don’t think Stan wants to be one injury away from a total failure of a season again so I can see the merit of bringing in a cheap veteran backup. Not sold on Ward but it’s whatever.

 

[DisgruntledHawkFan]

Lotta speculation about what this all means in regards to Crow. Guess we’ll just have to wait it out.

Or speak in stone cold rock solid absolutes. Either way.

 

[Hawkaholic]

Just going to leave these here.

 

[Hawkaholic]

 

[Hawkaholic]

Ward sucks

 

[Hawkaholic]

There goes one goalie.

 

[Enyaw]

There goes one goalie.

clear out the waste

please God ......... not Ward

 

[ChiHawks10]

There goes one goalie.

They're obviously making room for someone... I just don't get the Ward signing, and hope they don't actually do it for him to be the starter... Ward is bad. Really bad.

 

[Blackhawkswincup]

Nothing of value lost

Hey Disgruntled can you move that to its own thread

I don't think Hawks will have very active offseason and its always nice to have separate threads for signings/trades

 

[Toews2Bickell]

Nothing of value lost

Hey Disgruntled can you move that to its own thread

I don't think Hawks will have very active offseason and its always nice to have separate threads for signings/trades

Of course there is value lost in this situation. Everything has an opportunity cost. They could spend that money on skaters.

I don’t know who their contract guy is but its time for them to go. How do you look at that production and settle on 3-4x the AAV as Forsberg, I get UFA rights so maybe double, maybe, but even then its not a good use of cap to pay 2x for the same production. This front office has totally f***ed everything on the pro side since 2015. Trading away TT, Danault, Panarin, Kempny and signing Panik, Rutta, Gustafsson to above market deals. On and on and on with this FO lately. Clean it out and keep Kelley. Rest can go.

 

[ClydeLee]

They're obviously making room for someone... I just don't get the Ward signing, and hope they don't actually do it for him to be the starter... Ward is bad. Really bad.

What I curious about is I saw nobody ask Stan about Nalimov, not that he'd respond.

But this was an at least to me expected nothing level trade off. And the whole comment from Nalimovs agent of wanting to be traded since 5 guys are in the war seemed extra silly to me cause guys like Berube were clearly gonna be gone.

 

[Toews2Bickell]

Maybe Stan said the number two spot will be filled by a vet and thats when Nalimov said okay trade me then.

 

[Toews2Bickell]

When I think of Ward signing for 3m I think back to when Khabi signed for too much, was really bad, and they made him go away via LTIR. Was that after 2013 when Emery left to be a starter in Philly?

 

[BK]

Just going to leave these here.

Ward was really bad.

 

[Blackhawkswincup]

When I think of Ward signing for 3m I think back to when Khabi signed for too much, was really bad, and they made him go away via LTIR. Was that after 2013 when Emery left to be a starter in Philly?

No reliable source has said anything about how much he would make

And Khabby got injured and that injury ended his career. They didn't make him go away LTIR because of performance

 

[ChiHawk21]

Ward was really bad.

he wasnt really bad..

 

[ChiHawks10]

he wasnt really bad..

The statistics say he was the worst goalie in the NHL the past three seasons. How is that not really bad?

 

[BK]

he wasnt really bad..

He was bad starting 1/1/18 once he took over for Darling. Darling was terrible. Cam Ward was not good last season.

Forsberg was not good last season but he was better than Ward on a worse team.