enigma wrote:
As well as Shaw and Hayes have played, I wonder if they will be with the Hawks all year....not meaning getting sent down, but they might be used in a trade. I assume if the Hawks want that defenseman or top 6 forward they have been looking for, Shaw and Hayes might be valuable commodities.
I think Bowman knows now, if he didn't already (and I suspect he did) that the Hawks are not championship-calibre this year and won't become one by trade. My assessment of the team this summer was that they would be good enough to keep their names in the papers throughout the year, but the real grab-a-Cup-by-the-balls window was still a year or two away with a wide cast of top prospects waiting in the wings or developing on the big squad. Look at Bowman's big July 1st of one-year contracts: O'Donnell, Lepisto, Mayers, Brunette, Carcillo. You do not ready yourself for a championship by shoring up on veteran bottom-sixers and seventh defensemen whose contracts expire in a year. They are placeholders. Maybe Mayers will be back next year, maybe not, but the team now appears to have been designed for top prospects to cycle through the lineup in those veteran players' steads. (At least up front. We haven't seen the same showcase at defense other than a Dylan Olsen spot start; I suppose Q prefers to keep it safe in the back with Nick Leddy providing more than enough Learning By Doing for one blue line.) Injuries and Andrew Brunette's worthlessness may well have been developmental blessings in disguise for the organization.
So basically what I'm saying is that Hayes and Shaw aren't going to be flipped while they're excelling and cost-controlled, and that I'm coming to terms rather well with the fact that we can't and shouldn't mortgage the farm for Tim Gleason. I'll take the second-round out and dream of better years ahead.
_________________
Molly Lambert wrote:
The future holds the possibility to be great or terrible, and since it has not yet occurred it remains simultaneously both.