Hello all! Tab is on vacation for the next week plus, as he coaches his kid in Cooperstown, so I’ll be pinch-hitting until he gets back. Unfortunately for me, this will be one of the slower weeks of the year in Blackhawks land, so let’s try to talk about some things.
While the Blackhawks aren’t going to be in the headlines the next few weeks, things are still happening around the league. Calgary has already lost Johnny Gaudreau for nothing in free agency to Columbus, and now Matthew Tkachuk is available on the trade market after Calgary filed for arbitration with the 24-year-old 40-goal scorer.
This impacts the Blackhawks because there are division rivals who might be interested in trading for Tkachuk. The Blues are named as one potential suitor, and Nashville is another according to Hailey Salvian of The Athletic.
Let’s be honest, for as good as Tab did breaking down the Central Division ramifications of a Tkachuk trade; it really doesn’t matter. The Blackhawks are in the midst of a ground-up rebuild that will take years to see the fruits of Kyle Davidson’s labor, so no matter how good anyone else is in the division is, it doesn’t matter to the Hawks.
The Blues could acquire Tkachuk and log 115 points this season, and it wouldn’t mean anything to the Blackhawks. Ladies and gentlemen, we’re at the onset of a long process in Chicago. Who the Blues or Wild trade for doesn’t mean anything to us. Get an AHL subscription. That’s where the noise will be for the Blackhawks for the foreseeable future.
Aidan Thompson was a late add to the USA World Junior Evaluation Camp roster. Honestly, he’s a long shot to make the roster at this point, but after his impressive development camp, it’s nice to see him get a look in the World Juniors.
Thompson joins Frank Nazar & Dominic James on the evaluation roster when it comes to 2022 Blackhawks draft picks. Landon Slaggert is also going to be there, and we saw how potent the Landon Slaggert, Frank Nazar, and Dominic James line was last Friday. Still, while Nazar and Slaggert are pretty much locks for the final roster, Dominic James might not be as much of a sure thing.
Like Eddie Olczyk, Andre Burakovsky is heading to Seattle after signing a five-year deal worth $5.5 million per season.
A cautionary tale in buying jerseys and shirseys…
It’s tough to say exactly how long you should expect to get out of a piece of team gear, but there are a number of factors in play: For one, I think you can be more liberal with a shirsey than a sweater. Sweaters are more expensive, you gotta think about those purchases carefully. For shirseys, I have a little less empathy. For another, you gotta think about the age and contract status of the player. Of course, in the Blackhawks case, that doesn’t quite mean as much no does it. They just traded Kirby Dach and Alex DeBrincat. So that brings us to another factor: the state of the organization. Are they rebuilding? Are they buying? Are they contending? It all plays in! Unfortunately, for Blackhawks fans, we can almost never tell.
Here’s the full rundown on Blackhawks hoping to make the World Juniors roster:
Simple enough, right?
Can I interest you in a Dom Smith?