Jersey Retirement Debate, More Prospect Rankings, Free Agents Off the Market, and Other Blackhawks Bullets

Happy Saturday, folks. Here’s hoping you enjoy a long weekend. The days until training camp opens are dwindling, so enjoy a little college football this weekend and get ready for puck in less than two weeks when the Tom Kurvers Prospect Showcase takes place.

  • NBC Sports Chicago offered up their top-12 Blackhawks prospects for the coming season. The names are many of the usual suspects, with Lukas Reichel, Kevin Korchinski and Frank Nazar once again claiming the top three spots.
  • Intriguingly, they have goaltender Arvid Söderblom at No. 4 on their list. We — and others — thought he had a good shot at ice time in Chicago this season (and he still does), but the Blackhawks acquired two veterans for their NHL roster this summer. We’ll see if he gets the call-up sooner than later this year. We hope he does.
  • The guys at CHGO discussed retired jerseys on their podcast Friday. It’s a fun subject this weekend in the wake of the announcement that Marian Hossa’s autobiography is hitting shelves in November. The Blackhawks announced they will retire Hossa’s No. 81 back in April.
  • Hossa will join goalies Glenn Hall (No. 1) and Tony Esposito (No. 35), defensemen Pierre Pilote and Keith Magnuson (shared No. 3) and forwards Bobby Hull (No. 9), Denis Savard (No. 18) and Stan Mikita (No. 21) in having his number retired by the Blackhawks.
  • If you’ve followed me for more than 30 seconds online, I’ve been banging the drum for Steve Larmer’s No. 28 to be in the rafters for more than 15 years and will continue to do so (especially on the 28th of each month).
  • Here’s my two cents on the numbers that should be retired by the Blackhawks in the coming years:
    28: Steve Larmer
    24: Doug Wilson
    2: Duncan Keith
    7: Brent Seabrook & Chris Chelios
    19: Jonathan Toews
    88: Patrick Kane
  • The Blackhawks need to retire Doug Wilson’s number asap. Like Larmer, that’s long overdue and Wilson is now in the Hockey Hall of Fame so there’s really no good excuse. (There isn’t a good excuse for Larmer either at this point but we’ll revisit that again on the 28th). Wilson has stepped away from his long-time role with the San Jose Sharks because of health issues.
  • Is that too many? Maybe. Do the Blackhawks have a storied history that should be celebrated more? Absolutely. And the hard part about having a freakin’ dynasty is that players will live on forever in the minds of fans because of their contributions to an incredibly special time in team history. And the reality is that Keith, Toews and Kane will be in the Hall of Fame at some point, Larmer should have been at least two decades ago and a strong case can be made that Seabrook should get in some day as well.
  • Which other current or former Blackhawks’ numbers do you think the team should retire? Let us know in the comments below. Here’s a link to their conversation.
  • The JT Miller trade rumors should quiet down for a while. The Canucks gave him signed their star forward to a blockbuster deal on Friday afternoon. He’s a terrific player who had a lot of buzz around the draft.
  • Miller getting locked-up long-term in Vancouver should improve the price (from a seller’s perspective) for other high-end offensive players if/when they hit the market this season (wink wink).
  • In a fairly surprising move, the Winnipeg Jets signed veteran forward Sam Gagner on Friday. He scored 13 goals in 81 games for Detroit last year. Blackhawks fans will remember him torching the team while in Edmonton, but he was also a teammate of Patrick Kane’s with the London Knights in 2006-07.
  • Finally, we’re giving you two days in a row of minor league missile launching from the same culprit because he’s on fire right now.
  • written by

    Tab Bamford has been writing about the Chicago Blackhawks for almost two decades. He joined Bleacher Nation as the lead Blackhawks writer in May 2022. Tab is a member of the Professional Hockey Writers Association and is the author of two books about the Blackhawks: "100 Things Blackhawks Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die" (Triumph Books) and "Chicago Blackhawks: An Illustrated Timeline" (Reedy Press, 2021). Find him on Twitter/X/Instagram/Threads at @The1Tab

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