The Blackhawks Are In Last Place In The Entire NHL.
I keep going back the image above. John McDonough believes in Stan and he believes in the roster. Obviously the picture implies that McDonough is lying. Calling McDonough a liar might be giving him too much credit. It implies that he has a fucking clue about what he’s looking at on the ice. This is probably more accurate
December looked promising. I drank the Kool-aid. I saw that they were only 6 points back of the last wild card spot. I saw that they had an “easier” schedule in the 2nd half. I wanted to believe. The truth is that they’ve regressed to the mean. The roster isn’t good enough and it’s not going to get better any time soon. They’ve fired the coach, they’ve made a bunch of trades, they can’t blame the goaltending because the Delia-Ward-Crawford combo has been solid, and the stars are doing their job. No excuses. The team stinks and there’s only two people to blame
(McDonough: I’m going to blame this all on you as soon as the season is over)
Patrick Kane should be getting MVP consideration. This is the best he’s ever played. The ONLY reason the Blackhawks are in any games is because Toews, Kane, and Debrincat are consistently playing at an elite level and dragging the rest of the team inside the puck-line. It’s travesty to waste years like this with a roster that sucks around them.
I’m anti-tank, as everyone knows, but at this point I am pro-make-things-better-for-next-year. I wrote a pretty extensive blog about the obvious candidates to be traded as the deadline approaches, but now I’m going to throw a few more names at you.
Let’s start with this section of 31 Thoughts
Chiarelli is obviously feeling the fucking HEAT and knows he can’t miss the playoffs AGAIN with Connor McDavid. Can our bald dingus GM dupe their bald dingus GM at the deadline? The Oilers are dangling a first-round pick and possibly Jesse Puljujarvi(former 4th overall pick). If Stan has the green light and wants to really clear cap and swing for the fences he could offer…
I like Dominik Kahun. He’s been a nice young player who has been forced to play largely top 6 minutes when in reality he should be your 3rd line winger. He absolutely fits the description of what the Oilers are said to be looking for. Why would the Blackhawks give him up? For one…Dylan Sikura is a similar player and probably has a higher ceiling. For two…just get more assets in here. I don’t think Kahun is going to net a big prize like that 1st round pick, but he might get you a 2nd rounder.
If you REALLY want to gamble then you dangle…
Saad has been playing well. His value is MUCH higher than it was last year. He’s back to being a top 6 LW. HOWEVER…clearing $6M in cap space isn’t a horrible idea IF you actually think the Hawks can sign a big UFA LW. Like…Artemi Panarin. Because then your two wingers on the left side top 6 are Panarin and Debrincat. $6M for a 3rd liner is a tough pill to swallow. If you trade Saad and can’t add Panarin or Stone well then you are COMPLETELY fucked. Big ole roll of the dice, but Saad should net you a nice return. He and Kahun might be enough to get a 1st rd pick and Puljujarvi. The Hawks might need to take back Ryan Spooner to make it work because somehow the Oilers don’t have much capspace even though they suck. Personally…I think I would do it. Puljujarvi needs a change of scenery and if the Hawks go nuts maybe their top 6 next year looks a little like this…
Debrincat-Toews-Hughes/Kakko
Panarin-Strome-Kane
Not too shabby.
Moral of the story is that the roster, as currently constructed, is not good enough. Clearly. They have the worst record in the NHL. There are probably only 6 guys who should be absolutely safe from being traded. The rest is up for grabs.
The question the of course becomes “Do you trust Stan to navigate this deadline?” and I personally don’t. He should be allowed to call Chiarelli and only Chiarelli.
PS: Buy some shirts