It’s been a long week, friends. Eight days ago, we were coming off the first round of the NHL draft after two blockbuster trades were consummated, and trying to digest how the Blackhawks added three first-round picks to their asset pool. Today, the Hawks close out their development camp for the summer and we can all move on to the offseason (in theory).
We won’t stop covering all things Blackhawks, but the past couple weeks have given us a lot of insight into the future of the organization. We’ve learned more about who Kyle Davidson, General Manager is, and where he’s taking the franchise. The future has some brightness to it, but we need to practice patience.
Let’s jump into the news of the day…
The teams at the Blackhawks’ development camp will scrimmage at 10:15 Friday morning. It will be streamed on YouTube, Blackhawks.com and the Chicago Blackhawks app with Chris Vosters and Colby Cohen on the call. They’ll skate two, 25-minute periods.
Davidson spoke with the media on Thursday and discussed a range of topics, including how and why they specifically targeted the players they signed in free agency this week.
Max Domi thanked Carolina for his time with the Hurricanes after the organization wished him good luck in Chicago. Well played by both.
I jumped on TSN 690 in Montreal on Thursday morning to talk a little baseball and some Blackhawks hockey. You can listen to the segment here.
Dylan Strome found a new home on Thursday, signing with the Washington Capitals for one year. His $3.5 million cap hit, like that of Dominik Kubalik, is below where his qualifying offer ($3.6 million) would have been.
One has to wonder, though, if Strome’s QO would have been just $100,000 less than he signed for in Washington, and there was “a lot of interest” as Friedman indicates in his tweet above, how didn’t the Blackhawks find a trade partner for him? Maybe he found more action as an unrestricted free agent and that helped move his pricetag up enough that it approached the QO number? It just feels like something should have been done with his rights.
With that being said, as we noted when Davidson spoke about his free agent additions, the Blackhawks are targeting speed in everything they do moving forward. And the biggest thing missing from Strome’s game is… speed. So it makes sense that the Hawks wouldn’t bring him back.
Colby Cohen shared a meal with a few of the kids on Thursday night apparently. Boston University is a proud hockey tradition and there are a few connections between BU and Chicago, including Drew Commesso and Alex Vlasic. No word on who handled the check…
Speaking of Vlasic, he’s had a really good development camp. Patrick wrote about his increased confidence on the ice with the younger prospects this week.
How significant has the turnover been in Chicago the past couple years? Ben Pope from the Chicago Sun-Times noted it’s been almost a complete overhaul.
COVID interrupted the 2019-20 season — and everything else. But to have only three remaining players on a roster from just two years ago is ridiculous. It’s even more ridiculous when Stan Bowman’s regime told fans they were entering a rebuild in Oct. 2020. So much for that, eh?
Finally, that sinking feeling you’ve felt on the north side of town has been amplified by a team in Cincinnati that’s turned a pretty serious corner.
NEWSLETTER
