Kinda wondering what the future holds for Seabrook.

Brent Seabrook is expected to return in five-to-six months in time for training camp in September after undergoing three surgeries in a six-week span.

Seabrook, who will turn 35 years old April 20, had procedures on his right shoulder in late December, left hip in early January and right hip Thursday. He has four years remaining on his contract after this season with a $6.875 million salary cap hit.

With Seabrook and defenseman Calvin de Haan — who also had right shoulder surgery in December — on long-term injured reserve, Chicago has added $11.425 million in salary cap space. Blackhawks general manager Stan Bowman could use the extra funds to help him make trades prior to the NHL’s trade deadline, which is Monday, Feb. 24. - Second city hockey.com

I hope heyzeus, they do not trade Ian Mitchell for a rent a player.

Unless they have some agreement those two do not in fact return next September they have no choice but to rent. That means giving up youth which I do not want to do.

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Elections have consequences.

They have the choice to know this team, with rentals or not, is unlikely at best to go anywhere in playoffs. So they have the choice to sell vs buy, the heart might say go for it but the brain should be saying get what you can get for what little desirable pieces you have on your roster you are willing and able to part with.

Pretty much what I expected. Continue to roll with Crawford and this is pretty much how our season will keep going. We allowed 34 shots on goal again yesterday, and continue to lead the league in shots allowed. If we keep giving Crawford as many starts as we are (3-1 vs. Lehner since all star break) and our defense plays like shit, any chance of making the playoffs is just an illusion.

Ever since Sling dropped NBC Sports Chicago, I have not been able to watch the Hawks. I tried Hulu Plus for $45 a month but that had an infuriating forced-commercial feed where you could not FF through the commercials. I think I could have paid a little extra to get the commercials removed. Now I only use a streaming/cable service at this time of the year for hockey and I sure as fuck was not going to pay over $50 a month just to watch the Blackhawks. I streamed them a couple times on my tablet but it was not worth the hassle.

So now I watch primarily the Leafs, Hurricanes, and Vegas games via the NHL Center Ice package. Vancouver and Colorado are entertaining as well. I don’t miss watching the Blackhawks at all. I’ll sign up for Sling again once the playoffs start.

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Lay off that whiskey and let that cocaine be.

This is a LONG road trip. Next home game is next Wednesday the 19th.... over a week away vs. The Rangers. I am thinking of going to that game. There are some tickets on stubhub going for 12 dollars right now.

Well that was brutal. I am starting to doubt Lehner. He started the season off good, but now he is looking just as bad as Crawford. I know our defense is the main problem, but I am starting to have doubts about signing Lehner to a long term contract. Sorta happy that he is just on a 1 year deal.

Putting a whole lot of goalie evaluation into this season with this defense is absurd.

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Elections have consequences.

Yes. I clearly just said "I know our defense is the main problem", but my main point is that it will be difficult to decide what exactly to do with Lehner based on having ZERO defensive support. His save percentage has gone down significantly since the starting of the season and his GAA has risen as well, so there is that, too.

I was not just addressing your post. I believe in general this and similar things being hard to evaluate this season.

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Elections have consequences.

Agree 100 percent. My only worry in general, is what we will do with Lehner. On a 1 year deal, offering him a long term deal could be a huge mistake, or letting him walk could be a huge mistake. It worries me as to how we are going to address our goalie situation.

No words. Here I was actually somewhat hopeful that we had a chance to make the playoffs this year.

Now the come out and pound an opponent...when it's too late. Figures.

They drop 8 on Calgary.

8's are wild.

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Well that came out of nowhere. Toews and Kane both with 3 points.

This is a tough stretch. 9 out of 11 games on the road. Just finishing a 5 game road trip tonight vs. Jets, back home for 2 then back on the road for 4 more games. Lightning, Panthers, Blues, Dallas, etc. all coming up.

That was hard to watch. Another 38 shots against. Defense is just brutal.

Coleman, Toffoli, and Greene ( ) got very solid returns in recent trades. Is Bowman going to wait to long and blow his opportunity to move Gustafsson, and goalie, and either Saad or Strome?

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Lay off that whiskey and let that cocaine be.

My only concerns right now are what we are going to do to fix our defense, and what is going to happen with Lehner. He is on a 1 year deal, and is our biggest risk-reward player by far. Assessing him is way too hard this year, on this team. He could be a stud goalie in the right situation, but we are going to have to make a decision on his future way before we know what kind of situation he will be in with the team next year. He is wasted talent right now.

My main concern is them not fucking up the signing of Mitchell. You can not move forward without making some tough decisions. They might as well throw Sikura in a deal as he is tearing it up in Rockford yet isn't allowed to or can't do anything when he is up with the Hawks.

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That's my purse! I don't know you!

I think it is going to take a draft or 2 with high picks to fix this D.

I gotta agree. I think the ball is in Mitchell's court or rink at the moment, unless the Hawks say something stupid, like you need to go to Rockford 1st.

I know Dach is going decent at the NHL level, I still would of taken Bowen Byram. Within a season or 2, you would of had a way better D.

Yeah exactly.... leaving an extremely difficult decision on what to offer, if anything to Lehner.

I would be for trading or signing long term. You probably could get a 1st out of him.

In a must-win game against a non-playoff team, we allow 41 shots against (another solid effort from our defense) and 6 goals against. At this point it seems that we have just given up.

That effort in the 3rd last night was atrocious. Drake was probably the only one out there that looked like he was giving any kind of effort. 2 and 27 stood there with their sticks up their ass on defense while guys like Strome got completely outworked for the puck. I don't know what pissed me off more, Strome's pathetic battling for the puck in their own zone or Saad Jackalacking along down the ice and allowing someone from the Rangers to fly past him and get icing waved off.

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That's my purse! I don't know you!

Absolutely agreed. The entire game was atrocious IMO. We have allowed 26 goals in the last 6 games, while only winning 1 of those games. I thought maybe we just hit a slump because of our long road trip, but being back home last night and still getting hammered like that?

There’s no “fixing” this team for years until you get several lottery picks and build up depth in the entire system. Keith, Seabrook, and Toews are only going to get worse. You’re not realistically contending until all of them are gone. I understand the front office will continue to put bandaids on this team like they did this offseason and hope they to get lucky but the odds of that working are slim. The reality is that most of the Cup-contending teams of the past decade get in these positions with aging stars with long contracts (Hawks, Kings, Canucks, Ducks, and Sharks). The exceptions have been Boston who got Pastrnak as the 22nd pick in the draft and then have Bergeron become a better player once he passed 30 and then have Marchand explode to become a HOF player in his mid 20s. Or you’re the Penguins who have generational talent in Crosby and Malkin.

I just see so many Blackhawk fans pouring so much energy and emotion into this team but they have virtually no chance of being a Cup contender for years. This team needs to bottom out and hit with some stars in the lottery. Best example is Vancouver which got Pettersson and Hughes in back to back drafts.

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Lay off that whiskey and let that cocaine be.

As much as I hate to admit it, I agree with you 100 percent. Lots of people are hanging on to that hope that we can be another Pittsburgh Penguins that went 7-8 years between Stanley Cups with the same "core" group of guys, even though the chances of that happening here are zero.

Hawks just traded for Ilya Sorokin

Dreger just issued retraction.