It’s Draft Eve, y’all. Are you excited for the future of the Blackhawks to come into somewhat clearer focus? As we write this the Hawks don’t have a first round pick, but that could change soon. So stay tuned…
Day Before The Draft Twitter Poll time, folks. Let us know what you think!
DeBrincat isn’t the only soon-to-be-former Blackhawk that could be in the news in the coming days. Chicago has a For Sale sign in the front yard of the United Center right now and has some intriguing players who could help other teams. But what can/will they do with the likes of Dylan Strome and Dominik Kubalik? We offered a few ideas this morning.
On Tuesday afternoon, Charlie Roumeliotis dropped his latest Blackhawks Talk Podcast episode. As you may have assumed, it was focused on the two hot topics this week: DeBrincat trade rumors and the draft. But there are a couple other names that might be on the move for the Blackhawks this week that we also considered earlier today.
Tuesday evening, Bruce Garrioch in Ottawa threw his latest “rumor” post out for the world to consume. It’s… interesting.
His rationale? “The Hawks simply want to get the money off the books because the direction the organization is taking has completely changed.” And he goes on to say “[the] only way this happens is if the Hawks eat some money, and given the term left on the deal that will be difficult for them to do.”
My two cents on Garrioch including Seth Jones in the trade speculation is he’s the last writer in Canada to the rumor mill and he’s desperate for clicks to he threw in a name that hasn’t been included before. It’s hard to imagine the new front office would retain salary for eight years, much less that Jones would be moved before his limited no-trade clause kicks in next week. Garrioch has a sorted history of BS making his columns, so we’re going to chalk this one up as poop and move on.
In his latest Hockey: Unfiltered newsletter, Ken Campbell discussed the possibility that the Montreal Canadiens really don’t know what they’re going to do at No. 1 tomorrow night. As we discussed yesterday, Montreal’s perceived indecision may be impacting the Blackhawks’ ability to make a trade with Alex DeBrincat. Campbell isn’t buying the theatrics of Montreal not knowing who their pick will be, however.
“The Canadiens are in the rare position of both hosting the draft and having the No. 1 overall pick, the first time that has happened since 1985 when the Toronto Maple Leafs hosted the proceedings and chose Wendel Clark. The chances they trade that pick and disappoint 20,000 people in the stands Friday night are as close to zero as you can get. It behooves the Canadiens to keep things mysterious so they can make a bigger splash when they do make the pick. Rest assured, the Canadiens know what they’re doing Friday night. They’re just not telling anyone…”
Congratulations to Mike Grier, who was introduced formally as the general manager of the San Jose Sharks. He’s the first Black GM in NHL history and social media loved his comments during the intro presser. Sharks greats were also lined up to welcome him back into the family yesterday.
Finally, we don’t want to use the word “regret” often before the Blackhawks start trading this week and into the rest of July. But it came up in Pittsburgh this week, and we love a good Cubs win at my expense regret story.
NEWSLETTER
