Confirmed with Link: Hawks sign Schmaltz

[TLEH]

If you look at his NHL draft video on Youtube, you'll actually see that TSN has listed Spezza as a comparable player.

I think Craig Button actually was the one who put me onto that comparison and after watching him at UND for a while I do agree.

 

[ReLyT]

Glad we got him signed, was getting worried there for a bit

 

[BK]

I think Craig Button actually was the one who put me onto that comparison and after watching him at UND for a while I do agree.

It will be great if it happens but I could see him being a step below Spezza.

If he out scores Fabbri (rookie totals) or comes close I am going to love hearing why Stan still made a huge mistake drafting Schmaltz.

 

[SimpleJack]

Good now move Crawford, bring back Ladd and Shaw, get a cheap backup goalie and a cheap vet defenseman and the team is set:

Ladd-Toews-Schmaltz
Panik-Shaw-Kane
Panarin-Anisimov-Hossa
Desjardins-Kruger-Motte/Hartman

Keith-Seabrook
Kempny-Hjalmarsson
Gus/cheap vet-TVR

Darling
cheap vet

Worth taking the risk with that goalie combo to obtain maximum Champion caliber roster depth up and down the lineup? Yes.

No other options(other than Seabrook, which weakens the defense too much) as far as big $$ contracts go. Gotta clear the space or else Crawford will be backing a 3 line team. We all know how that ended in 2014. And look at this years champ the Penguins, they got by without anything/anyone spectacular in net because their forward depth/speed/firepower/corsi domination was too much for anyone else to handle. The Hawks MUST go back to this winning formula.

 

[TLEH]

It will be great if it happens but I could see him being a step below Spezza.

If he out scores Fabbri (rookie totals) or comes close I am going to love hearing why Stan still made a huge mistake drafting Schmaltz.

still think it was odd seeing him trade up to take Schmaltz as I liked Fabbri at the draft more, and still think he is the better player right now, but I like Schmaltz's size more I mean he's 6'2 183 now

 

[Spectra]

Good now move Crawford, bring back Ladd and Shaw, get a cheap backup goalie and a cheap vet defenseman and the team is set:

Ladd-Toews-Schmaltz
Panik-Shaw-Kane
Panarin-Anisimov-Hossa
Desjardins-Kruger-Motte/Hartman

Keith-Seabrook
Kempny-Hjalmarsson
Gus/cheap vet-TVR

Darling
cheap vet

Worth taking the risk with that goalie combo to obtain maximum Champion caliber roster depth up and down the lineup? Yes.

No other options(other than Seabrook, which weakens the defense too much) as far as big $$ contracts go. Gotta clear the space or else Crawford will be backing a 3 line team. We all know how that ended in 2014. And look at this years champ the Penguins, they got by without anything/anyone spectacular in net because their forward depth/speed/firepower/corsi domination was too much for anyone else to handle. The Hawks MUST go back to this winning formula.

Well, we did sign Johansson, best goalie in Sweden last season, for $575k. Lol, $1.2 million goalie tandem, but will unfortunately probably not get us to the playoffs. Could be fun though!

 

[Bubba88]

Great News.
Now lets hope he makes it and contributes

 

[NHL RankKing]

8 years? Probably not

How about $4 for one year? Then Ladd can earn his pay-check the following season.

 

[Eco]

I swear some of you are absolutely miserable.

This is a good thing guys.

 

[slappipappi]

Lol that (possibly) signing their first rounder who had a great season would be met with criticism. Some of you are just insufferable.

Correct, especially since some of that criticism is based upon him achieving his bonus levels.

 

[Eco]

Good now move Crawford, bring back Ladd and Shaw, get a cheap backup goalie and a cheap vet defenseman and the team is set:

Ladd-Toews-Schmaltz
Panik-Shaw-Kane
Panarin-Anisimov-Hossa
Desjardins-Kruger-Motte/Hartman

Keith-Seabrook
Kempny-Hjalmarsson
Gus/cheap vet-TVR

Darling
cheap vet

Crawford is a top 5 or so goalie in the NHL, and carried this Blackhawks team for the majority of the beginning of the year.

Also, there is no way Q breaks up the Panarin/AA/Kane line. It was too deadly, and there is no reason to mix that up.

I don't think Ladd is coming back, and I still am not sure Shaw is either. I'd love to see Ladd come back and have a

Ladd-Toews-Schmaltz top line, but I don't know how much more begging we can do to elite athletes to come here on the cheap for a chance at the Cup. Is Ladd at that point? I don't know, but it would seem too much like a dream come true to have him back.

 

[Kurtosis]

Correct, especially since some of that criticism is based upon him achieving his bonus levels.

It's actually helpful in that I know I can pretty much ignore all of the posters' future opinions on the team. Gotta look at these things in as positive a light as possible sometimes.

 

[hawksfan50]

So you think Schmaltz who scored so few goals in comparison to assists in his time at North Dakota over 2 seasons is going to magically score s lot more in the NHL tjis yseason simply by being the 1RW fed by Toews? HOSSA was fed by Toews but his goal production stunk for 2 straight seasons now and was shameful for a 1RW this past season especially...shameful..Naturally his fail to convert the marvelous feeds from Toews pulled down Toews assists to stinky levels but somehow Schmaltz who could not beat many college goalies over 3 years I'd going to convert lots of Toews set-ups? What makes you think he will be better than n horrible Hossa of Getti g pucks past goalies? NOW INSTEAD coukd he improve over Hossa setting up Toews.In theory ...yes...but 2 problems:
1.Q does not trust "learners" a until they prove too good to deploy on the bottom lines ....so probably plays Schmaltz at 3C instead if immediate 1RW so we may not get a chance to see if Schmaltz ltz can set up Toews for Toews scoring more goals.


2. Toews has plateaued in goal scoring...His Best season maxed out at 32 goals and he has underachieving that highwater mark for several seasons now ....last season at 28 was actually pretty good for him considering his shot totals were down and his shooting% up just a bit over his career average...But surely if the great assists guy Schmaltz can set him up better than Hossa could then Toews in theory should score more goals if Schmaltz is the 1RW
BUT what if Toews reverts to lazy fat-cat habits of the big Contract and relax type we saw last season and slacks off on his goal pace once he reaches the "respectable" range of 28-30 goals...So UNTIL I see none of that slacker nonsense again and that he is on total mission mode for 82 games and not merely one 6 week stretch of the season only, then I remain skeptical Schmaltz by his aleged set-up brilliance is going to improve Toews to the lofty 40 goal+ elite goal scorer level...If Toews is going to.plateau at 28-30 then for $10.5 million he can do that with Hossa again..We need the promise of vast improvement not mere stagnation to change the 1RW ....

As far as Q using Schmaltz instead at 3C...Remember that Schmaltz was not good in the dot for North Dakota...Around 45% I believe...certainly not as good in the dot as Luke Johnson was in college.
....but Johnson will be in Rockford because no goal Kruger and his 49% is a fixture as 4C for $3.3million big ones.
.

 

[HawkeyFanatic]

I refuse to read negative messages about this signing..

My dream lineup

Vesey-Toews-Schmaltz
Panarin-Anisimov-Kane
Shaw-Kruger-Hossa
Panik-Hinostroza-Hartman/Desjardins

Keith-Seabrook
Hjalmarsson-Campbell
TVR-Kempny

Crawford
Darling

- Campbell signs for 1.0M with 2.5M of bonuses that can be attainable.. hello overage in 2017/2018 but solid team for 2016

 

[CourtneyDagger50]

ohhh noooooo. The Hawks signed one of our best prospects.... the end of the world!

 

[Toews2Bickell]

Need moar sizeeeeeeeeeee. Who is going to replace big Bick???

 

[CourtneyDagger50]

Need moar sizeeeeeeeeeee. Who is going to replace big Bick???

The window is slammed shut unless we can sign John Scott

 

[SimpleJack]

Well, we did sign Johansson, best goalie in Sweden last season, for $575k. Lol, $1.2 million goalie tandem, but will unfortunately probably not get us to the playoffs. Could be fun though!

You think that team would miss the playoffs? Lol....

Crawford just got outplayed by Elliot ffs. We win that series if it were the other way around. I'm telling you it's worth moving him to maintain forward depth. The forward depth is much more important.

 

[RememberTheRoar]

Next move prediction: Bowman finally decides to answer his phone on the 110th call in 3 days from Semin's agent. Semin is absolutely begging to revive his NHL career in Chicago, and is willing to take a Panarin-like deal to do it.

Semin busts his ass in the offseason/training camp, and earns the spot next to Toews and Hossa. Semin has a 55+ point season (not enough for big bonuses), and the Hawks get another Russian point producer for less than $900,000.

Haha dreams...

 

[B4rre]

Schmaltz is probably the only forward prospect who has top 6 potential we have left. Very happy we got him under a contract. Cost controlled for at least three years which is exactly what we need.

"Stanley" only gave NMCs to the core players. While I agree with portions of what you said, I will still challenge you on your weird Bowman hate.

Core players like Bickell and Anisimov, lol.

Just to be clear I think there's no way we'll be able to keep Ladd. Someone will pay him allot more we can afford. Locking up a 30 year old power forward long term usually isn't a good idea anyways.

 

[Toews2Bickell]

Next move prediction: Bowman finally decides to answer his phone on the 110th call in 3 days from Semin's agent. Semin is absolutely begging to revive his NHL career in Chicago, and is willing to take a Panarin-like deal to do it.

Semin busts his ass in the offseason/training camp, and earns the spot next to Toews and Hossa. Semin has a 55+ point season (not enough for big bonuses), and the Hawks get another Russian point producer for less than $900,000.

Haha dreams...

I wouldn't be opposed to a PTO. Panarin reminds me of Semin when he was tearing up the league. Probably the RH shot with a laser wrister.

 

[x Tame Impala]

Next move prediction: Bowman finally decides to answer his phone on the 110th call in 3 days from Semin's agent. Semin is absolutely begging to revive his NHL career in Chicago, and is willing to take a Panarin-like deal to do it.

Semin busts his ass in the offseason/training camp, and earns the spot next to Toews and Hossa. Semin has a 55+ point season (not enough for big bonuses), and the Hawks get another Russian point producer for less than $900,000.

Haha dreams...

He had his chance to do that up in French Canada and he didn't. Habs fans said he was horrible

 

[Toews2Bickell]

Schmaltz is probably the only forward prospect who has top 6 potential we have left. Very happy we got him under a contract. Cost controlled for at least three years which is exactly what we need.




Core players like Bickell and Anisimov, lol.

Just to be clear I think there's no way we'll be able to keep Ladd. Someone will pay him allot more we can afford. Locking up a 30 year old power forward long term usually isn't a good idea anyways.

Bickell didn't have a NMC. And I thought AA has a M-NTC, but that was apparently wrong. Perhaps his agent asked for the NMC for next year to not get stuck in LV. I understand SB for accepting that request if that was the case. No reason not to if Stan planned to keep him for the much of the duration of the contract.

 

[COHawk]

Awesome news. As a Denver Pioneers fan, I've seen Schmaltz play with UND quite a bit and have always really liked this kid.

Except it was really tough to watch him score the game winner against Denver in the Frozen Four semis...

 

[southernbeardown54]

From the latest Powers article.

And from my knowledge Schmaltz isn't anything like Tuevo.

Tuevo goes around defenders and through the neutral zone using his stick handling and a bit of swiftyness.

Schmaltz uses his speed to break through. And again, he's very strong along the boards.

Also is a righty where as Tuevo is a lefty. That'll work in his favor for getting PP opportunities.

I remember he was being compared to guys like Spezza and Thornton when he was drafted. Not likely to be as good as either of 'em, but comparable skill wise.

ok this is good news to me. I do think they moved TT with an eye on a replacement so it makes sense that they think its Nick. This team missed saad and sharpies speed so glaringly...