Thoughts on the Chicago Blackhawks?

[Sens of Anarchy]

Still a good team. Playoff bound although they are past their prime.

 

[ColdSteel2]

Lost me at the bolded part. Neither of them have shown anything other than 5/6 potential at this point.

I think if Kempny improves his decision making (can he?), he can give you a lot of quality minutes on the 2nd pair. Forsling, offensively, could be a 40-50 point D-man in this league. I can't think of a young D that has come up to the Hawks in all my years of watching them that had the ability to shoot the puck like that right away, especially as a very young rookie. I hate to say Lidstrom-esqe but in a very raw 19 year old sense, it was there IMO. He's raw though. I'm not saying he will be top 4 quality this season and wouldn't expect it. I'm looking more toward Kempny and Murphy for that.

 

[COHawk]

Defense is mediocre. Can't win without Hjalmarsson.

Let's maybe wait til they play a game to say this.

 

[Subbaman]

Still a legit cup contender in my opinion.

 

[hellstick]

If there's any injury to their big 4 (Kane, Toews, Keith, Crawford), this team is missing the playoffs. No depth.

 

[surixon]

I think if Kempny improves his decision making (can he?), he can give you a lot of quality minutes on the 2nd pair. Forsling, offensively, could be a 40-50 point D-man in this league. I can't think of a young D that has come up to the Hawks in all my years of watching them that had the ability to shoot the puck like that right away, especially as a very young rookie. I hate to say Lidstrom-esqe but in a very raw 19 year old sense, it was there IMO. He's raw though. I'm not saying he will be top 4 quality this season and wouldn't expect it. I'm looking more toward Kempny and Murphy for that.

Kempny will turn 27 prior to the start of the year. He likely doesn't have much more room for growth and I think expecting him to be a legit top 4 dmen is a bit of a stretch at this point.

Forsling is young but 40-50 points? He had 5 in roughly half a season last year and 8 in 30 AHL games. Those numbers in no way shape or form scream elite offensive production.

 

[ColdSteel2]

Kempny will turn 27 prior to the start of the year. He likely doesn't have much more room for growth and I think expecting him to be a legit top 4 dmen is a bit of a stretch at this point.

Forsling is young but 40-50 points? He had 5 in roughly half a season last year and 8 in 30 AHL games. Those numbers in no way shape or form scream elite offensive production.

I see potential, a lot of it, and it's based on what they have shown so far. Forsling came here as a baby. He'll need time. Kempny went from Extraliga to KHL to NHL in 2 years. He needs a chance to get his bearings. It's not so easy to just say he is 27. Look at his play at the world championships, he looked like he was already getting better.

 

[Alexander the Gr8]

Lazy evaluation IMO. Several young guys made significant contributions (Hartman, Schmaltz), but they definitely will miss the guys they moved.

Hawks had to retool, and attempted to get value for guys they had zero chance of resigning in 2 years (Hjalmarsson & Panarin). If Seabrook doesn't bounce back, and guys like Forsling and Kempny aren't ready to step up, easy to see how the Hawks could miss the P/O's.

What do the Hawks have on defense aside from Keith? An aging Seabrook, Kempny, Connor Murphy, Forsling and Rozsival. Now compare these guys to Nashville or St. Louis' depth.

The bottom 6 isn't pretty aside from Hartman and Schmaltz. Wingels, Hinostroza, Bouma, Kero, Rasmussen and Jurco are fringe players.

The Hawks regressed this summer, and that's coming off two straight 1st round exits.

 

[ColdSteel2]

What do the Hawks have on defense aside from Keith? An aging Seabrook, Kempny, Connor Murphy, Forsling and Rozsival.

The bottom 6 isn't pretty aside from Hartman and Schmaltz. Wingels, Hinostroza, Bouma, Kero, Rasmussen and Jurco are fringe players.

The Hawks regressed this summer, and that's coming off two straight 1st round exits.

Rozsival probably plays a couple games at most this year. Rutta was signed to be a potential regular in the lineup. How can we know as of now? And you didn't even mention Dauphin or Debrincat. Plus, we'll only need the BEST 2 players of the ones you mentioned to play on the 4th line, if even regular at all. The Hawks have a lot of depth this year. If you want to just paint them all as bad, that seems premature. Let's see how they show up and what they bring to their NEW team. Remember, some guys play better than others depending on the team/system.

 

[The Note]

I know I'm a Blues fan so this will be written off as sour grapes but I am really trying to be fair here. I think they'll make the playoffs barring some catastrophic injury to Kane/Toews/Crawford. But there's more question marks up and down that roster than there has been in a long time, so I don't think it's unfair to question this team. The bottom 6 forwards are rough, they'll need those guys to step up and play some sort of meaningful minutes. The defense has been covered pretty heavily here but on paper it's probably the second or third worst in the division. Again, kids can step up and play at a higher level, but it's a definite weakness. I will say, I think Toews has a 65+ point year coming up. Kane will get his numbers. Keith is still a top flight D. It's not like they'll be competing for a lottery spot but I think calling them a cup contender is a stretch tbh. People assume it'll just happen because it's Chicago, but they'll need a lot of guys to step up big to make another deep run.

 

[TheMule93]

They'll be a playoff team and a cup contender until Keith's game drastically falls off. This is going to be one of the most interesting teams to watch this season, with all the changes they made.

 

[Alexander the Gr8]

Rozsival probably plays a couple games at most this year. Rutta was signed to be a potential regular in the lineup. How can we know as of now? And you didn't even mention Dauphin or Debrincat. Plus, we'll only need the BEST 2 players of the ones you mentioned to play on the 4th line, if even regular at all. The Hawks have a lot of depth this year. If you want to just paint them all as bad, that seems premature. Let's see how they show up and what they bring to their NEW team. Remember, some guys play better than others depending on the team/system.

Most of these guys are prospects or unproven. I didn't say they were all going to be bad, far from that. DeBrincat in particular is a very good prospect, but you can't a Stanley Cup contender with that many uncertainties in the roster.

 

[Breakers]

If the find someone to take on Seabrooks embarrassingly bad contract they could be a legit contender again, but getting rid of that contract would cost A LOT.

Their defense core is average at best.

 

[MikeK]

I think they're still a contender but age and cap have definitely brought them down. They aren't head and shoulders above the rest like they were a few years ago.

 

[axecrew]

The minors usually means AHL, in which case I would like to point out that pretty much none of the Hawks' high-end prospects played for Rockford last year. For forwards, Schmaltz and Hartman were in the NHL, Debrincat was in the CHL, and Hayden was at Yale. On D, Kempny was in the NHL, Forsling split half the year between the NHL/AHL (which is cool, he's 20), and Rutta was in Europe. Murphy was brought in via trade. In goal, the Hawks didn't have any serious prospects on this continent. Peeters and Nalimov are in the KHL, plus they brought in Forsberg and Berube this offseason.

They traded Rockford's leading scorer at the deadline and fired the coach this summer. It was a dumpster fire last year because pretty much no one playing there had a future in the organization. The team is going to be almost completely different next year, they had the team full of vets and nothing prospects because all their good players were in college, juniors, or Europe until next season. It's foolish to judge their prospects off of an AHL squad that didn't have any significant prospect play the majority of the season for them.

Yes I can only comment on the guys I saw play and until those others either come over or graduate they are not in the picture as they are also not "in" the organization yet as pro players.
With regards to the players you've mentioned...the euros are all playing on a bigger ice surface so you don't know if their game will translate...you don't know if the KHL guys will even come over...DeBrincat is a very smallish player, much like a kane or st. louis except he isn't as talented as those or he would already be in the NHL.
As to the goaltenders you speak of...they obviously had none in their pipeline since they went out and got some.

Forsberg and Berube aren't what I would say are major prospects, they are an upgrade over Jeff Glass and whoever else was in Rockford...but let's be honest...Berube couldn't grab the reins in New York only playing in 14 games last year and that teams goaltending wasn't exactly consistant with Halak all over the place and Greiss having never really proven himself as more than a good back up.He did have a good season which made Berube odd man out.

Forsberg was traded by Clb after getting beat out by Korpisalo, who himself still has some things to prove to stay at that level, even tho forsberg was given every chance to be the back up in Clb.

The quality of players in Rockford that are hawks prospects have nothing to do with who played in Rockford last year or who coached the team...Toe Blake or Scotty Bowman couldn't have done any better with the crap in Rockford last year. And that leading scorer you spoke of was Spencer Abbott who...if he's your leading scorer, then you know how bad your team is. Ted Dent was fired for comments he made during the season about the quality of players he had. After the Abbott trade a question was posed to him about a certain player, the trade or ice time or something along those lines and he told the person to ask Stan...he basically ripped Bowman and blamed him for giving him a **** team for him to coach...funny thing is he was right...it was a **** team.

 

[ColdSteel2]

John Hayden is another guy that looked very promising as a bottom 6er. Nobody knows about him but he played in the NHL last year and looked good. Big body, good hockey sense, good skater, goes hard to the net and dirty areas.

 

[axecrew]

Keith-Murphy
Kempny-Seabrook
Forsling-Rutta
Franson

PP1
Keith-Seabrook

PP2
Forsling-Rutta

PK1
Keith-Murphy

PK2
Kempny-Rutta

Don't you think they should maybe sign him first...also if they do I guarantee he ain't coming in to play pressbox minutes.

 

[ColdSteel2]

Don't you think they should maybe sign him first...also if they do I guarantee he ain't coming in to play pressbox minutes.

It's not for sure, but if we were to sign him, it would be after the season starts because of the Hossa situation. And yeah, he would be playing around 40-70 games depending on how Rutta and others do. There will be a rotation at the bottom.

 

[axecrew]

It's not for sure, but if we were to sign him, it would be after the season starts because of the Hossa situation. And yeah, he would be playing around 40-70 games depending on how Rutta and others do. There will be a rotation at the bottom.

Ok fair enough...so where does Rosival fit into your projections...

 

[K Fleur]

They have to be hoping Seabrook, and his 8 year contract, develops an equipment allergy.

 

[ColdSteel2]

Ok fair enough...so where does Rosival fit into your projections...

He either travels with the team and plays less than 10 games, if at all, or goes down to help in Rockford at times. He's there to help Kempny and Rutta learn English and learn how to adapt to the system and the NHL. He's basically an extra coach.

 

[JaegerDice]

Too many question marks in the lineup to be sure, but I could definitely see them just missing the playoffs this season. In fact I think there's a strong chance of it.

Central is tough, and they lost most of their best defensive players.

Toews needs to rebound, and the rookies need to take steps forward. If both happen, they could make the playoffs. Though they certainly won't be contenders by any measure.

If the youth infusion continues on course and is successful, they probably have another run or two in them when Toews and Kane are 30-31 or so.

Long story short: that Toews contract is sinking them.

Not particularly. It's the Seabrook contract that's killing them right now.

 

[JaegerDice]

What was the logic for trading Panarin

They have Patrick Kane.

They lost Marian Hossa.

Given that circumstance, they would rather have a Hossa Lite than a Kane Lite.

 

[axecrew]

He either travels with the team and plays less than 10 games, if at all, or goes down to help in Rockford at times. He's there to help Kempny and Rutta learn English and learn how to adapt to the system and the NHL. He's basically an extra coach.

There are a bunch of questions with this...#1 Are you saying that they keep 8 defensemen on the roster and shorten what seems to be a short forward group already? In order to travel and play 10 games he needs to be on the roster.
#2 I don't see him going to Rockford at this point nor do I see them just releasing him...reason?? Why would they have bothered to re-sign him if they were just going to send him down or release him? Truth is he will be the 7th defenseman if Franson comes to Chicago and one of the kids will go to Rockford.

 

[b1e9a8r5s]

Hawks will make the playoffs.

They could be a contender if some young guys take big next steps or they could be 1st round fodder like last season.

The biggest X factor will be their blue line. Not a ton of NHL experience there.