given the ages of commesso and gajan and the fact that mrazek is looking at a meager (compared to dickinson's raise) $425k yearly raise for the next 2 years...great deal for the blackhawks by davidson. will be 34/35 at the end..similar stuff to khabibulin in the late 2000s. khabibulin was supposed to be the 'wise old goalie', stability, a 'bridge'...from teething to decent to contender. when contenders, hawks would go out and get a younger, known goaltending 'star' to bolster their contender status. hawks went out and signed huet - and khabibulin was better, out-played him.

not saying this will happen with mrazek in 2026, the goalie market will be tough to predict in 2 years. hawks have much more pressing needs in getting better offensively and a few changes on D/get vlasic under contract.

hawks have just tied up $13 million until 2026 in cap money to foligno/dickinson/mrazek. if the hawks allow UFAs tyler johnson and beauvillier to leave at the end of this season, that will free up $9.15 million in cap space. i believe the balancing to allow for signing quality free agents with a more solid core seems to be going well.

one step closer to april hockey - katchouk gone, claimed by ottawa. addition by subtraction, keep it going.

More and more experts are saying this

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"I honestly don't see a good bet on the board here."

flip a coin as to what is going on, but seems as though there have been more and more leaks of just how much of a shitty alternate captain jones is. is it to protect richardson or is this laying the foundation of the movement to get jones out of town?

clear that mrazek, despite the new contract, will not be the goaltender when the blackhawks become 'good'. 15-20 games in 2 years as a back up, definitely not starting goaltender material for the playoffs. thinking that soderblom starts tonight.

even more impressed with vlasic's recent attacking abilities from the blue line. won't dance the line, like korchinski, but has beaten opponents with excellent skating agility and dekes/faints/dummies, whatever you want to call them. similar in quality to a q hughes/makar attacking in from the point. vlasic doesn't have the shot they have after he wins 25 feet of ice, but he's sneaky good. this guy is a legit keeper.

bedard had 15-16-17 attempts on goal...some got blocked, some shots missed...was on a mission last night. didn't work out for him, though looking for him to get some points tonight.

7 Blackhawks are in the NHL bottom 15 +/-.

you could tell bedard was ready to break out...what a performance. could have easily had a 6 point game.

blackhawks sign 2020 draft pick (#79 overall) winger landon slaggert to an entry level contract. this contract ends after the 24-25 season. $900k cap hit.

same draft as reichel (#17), G commesso (#46), wyatt kaiser (#81), isaak phillips (#141) and louis crevier (#188). deep draft for the club.

left-handed shot, good hands, decent size...may play this weekend.

Every game I watch I come away hating Seth Jones even more than I did prior to that game.

They should've traded him. No other defenseman in the NHL has shown his ability to totally shut down Bedard on the power play.

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Was wondering if he was going to play with the big club or go down to Rockford and help them get into the playoffs.

Picked a good night to watch. The Ducks are nothing to speak of but the boys are getting after it tonight and Phil and Bedard have got it working tonight. Fucking Gudas......

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

14 Goals in two nights...break them up

with athanasiou back, stiff zach sanford is eating popcorn in the press box - one more step closer to april hockey. when slaggart starts playing, it will be more one scrub out of the 18 and one more further step closer to april hockey.

whom shall slaggert replace? richardson has put C blackwell on dickinson's line as a winger. 3 scrub winger candidates to join the press box popcorn club due to slaggert - joey anderson, raddysh or reese johnson.

so many scrubs, so little time.

from what i understand, he's practicing with the club and will likely play this friday. these tiny upgrades will eventually add up to playoff hockey. when hall comes back next season, one more scrub will disappear. hopefully, the prospects will bump another 2-3 stiffs out.

Anderson plays with Dickinson and Blackwell, I believe. No need to break that up. Probably Johnson sits.

I'd like to see Nazar get some time with the big club, assuming he signs his pro contract after his season is over.

i'm not sure, but i think the ncaa hockey regionals start next week and the frozen four is in april. could see moore/rinzel (minnesota developed brock faber)/greene/nazar at the frozen 4.

my belief is that these player upgrades - from tiny to major; are bringing us closer and closer to late april nhl playoff hockey. as amazing as bedard is, the rest of the roster really sours you and you'll take any upgrade.

Any chance of the playoffs? asking for a friend

Like I told you months ago, no shot at the playoffs.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

you got it.....it is reese johnson who is the odd man out. the club is saying concussion protocol. johnson got pounded by the duck's 20 y/o D-man mintyukov. his first ever fight in the nhl and he hurt reese johnson. as mentioned, johnson is fearless, has heart...just not good enough.

slaggert skating with donato and entwistle. dickinson says he'll also likely get penalty kill time.

Game is on NHL Network, too, I believe. I'll be listening on the radio since YouTube TV doesn't carry NHL Network.

Wonder if they have anyone that can win a fight and actually play hockey in Rockford...or will they have to go out and get one in the offseason?

i only saw about half the game - whole opening period. 2 game winning streak with 14 goals scored, bedard on fire...you're hoping that a further measure of progress will occur. terrible. everyone. when the hawks do eventually make the playoffs, the taboo subject will be bedard's defense, or, lack of effort with it. x-amount of coaches, including a former D as head coach, thousands of hours of viewing messy defensive tape/review mistakes/coach players...these guys keep making the same mistakes. either we have dummy players or maybe the coaches aren't optimal.

reichel back up and sanford sent down. i'm fine with this.

i believe vlasic will renew soon, hawks have no issue overpaying him. hawks way under the cap for next year, including needing to throw money around just to hit the cap floor. playing the sharks twice this week, may go a long way in determining who gets celebrini.

in a move that appears detrimental to the organization, the blackhawks signed nazar to a 3 year entry level contract. the contract will start this year - with 3 games remaining...so, basically, a 2 year deal. i'm thinking this is what nazar wanted and the blackhawks acquiesced.

i'm happy that a young talent will take the place of a stiff. caught some highlites of recent sharks games and even the sharks have some very good young talent on the current roster - FWDs and Gs and could be in line for celebrini. after the bedard, as far as FWDs, the hawks have kurashev and slaggert and the mysterious reichel on the current roster. that's it. need nazar, hayes, savoie, thompson, lardis, kantserov, greene, etc.......these guys to get here as soon as possible. i believe moore and rinzel are staying at the u of minnesota for at least one more year.

Yeah, too many 3rd and 4th line guys on the time now. Will be interesting to see what they do with all of the cap space they have. Is there anyone worth throwing boatloads of cash at? I guess we'll see after the draft lottery what they are thinking.

Any chance still of playoffs?

the salary cap appears to be going up to $87.7 million for the 24-25 season. kyle from chicago has a lot of room to operate.

pettersson of the canucks resigned with them for $11.6 million over 8 years. he's out now, so my only other big name FWD to get is sam reinhart, ex-sabre and now of florida. first off, he can play C or RW, is captain material, lethal in front of the net on the PP and still relatively young at 28. reinhart has stated that he wants to stay in florida and him and other florida stars (barkov, etc...) are on record as saying they would take club-friendly contracts to keep their core together.

throwing $10.5 million per year, reinhart's way, may change his mind. no way florida can give reinhart a 50+% raise to compete and then expect barkov and others to take minimal raises to keep the florida core under the cap. hawks in the driver's seat, IF they want to spend the money on reinhart. lots of other clubs are cap-tied and can't compete with a generous blackhawk offer to reinhart.

there are 2 very good RD available. another florida panther, montour and carolina's pesce. age and less money expected work in pesce's favor. i would target those 2 guys.

i read this and wondered how this club didn't win 52 games:

https://thehockeywriters.com/chicago-blackhawks-2023-24-player-grades-forwards/

jeez. the good thing is that there are a few FWDs that won't be back to give an inflated grade to.

this is how bleacher nation's blackhawks guy tab bamford sees the blackhawks FWD lines in 2024-25, IF the club resigns reichel and joey anderson and nazar starts the year with the club:



only room for a 4th line center and my free agent target FWD (sam reinhart) isn't a 4th line center. this is the same 50 point club we just saw. not acceptable and i wouldn't expect every single player on his lines to have a better 2024-25 than 2023-24. i expect foligno to 'slow down' from a 37 point season as he turns age 37 and reichel just gave us the production of an ahl player. is it a difficult decision on anderson? to me, anderson and donato are not anything better than 4th line guys. donato is under contract..

getting reinhart makes the club stronger in so many ways. it eliminates the not-so-skilled in foligno and donato on the PP. i would also switch slaggert to the 3rd line and foligno to the 4th, going forward. is reichel a 2nd line guy? he better get more productive, quick.

If they sign Reinhart, they'll just drop everyone down and he'll be the second line center.

I think Reichel will be fine, as long as they don't yank him around. Leave him at wing for a full year. I agree with the rest of your thoughts.

yeah...thinking that reichel's shit year came at the best time for the club - his contract year. not sure what spiel his agent will roll out to try and get his client 2+ million/per. the thing is - the cap (ceiling & floor) is going up by some $4 million and the club HAS to spend just to get to the floor, which will be apprx. $65 million.

easy for me to spend and point at can't-miss free agents, but i'd really like to see them pry reinhart out of florida and my D free agent is RD brett pesce of carolina.

again, reinhart has stated that he wants to stay in florida and him and other florida star players have gone on record as saying that they would sign cap-friendly contracts to keep the florida core intact. reinhart is currently at $6.5 million per year. offering him $9.5-$10 million per year would certainly rewrite that script. what makes him the perfect fit is: can play C or RW/captain material/PP effectiveness/rarely injured. bedard and kurashev love to play the wings on the PP, reinhart is lethal in front of the net. sign this guy 5 times over.

as far as pesce, he's on $4 million (same as connor murphy). the club has a need for RD and he's easily a top 4 D-man...a definite upgrade over murphy at RD. the club gets stronger with pesce over murphy as a top 4 d-man on the depth chart...though murphy sticks out like a sore thumb getting $4 million per as a 5th/6th d-man. despite that, the hawks can afford that and murphy would be a fairly good 5th/6th d-man on any roster. i'd give pesce $6 million for 4 years. he'll be there when this club makes the playoffs - and pesce will play a big part in getting there.

hawks can pair:

vlasic-jones
korchinski-pesce
kaiser-murphy

i'm sure the club has all types of contingency plans in case of this or that. if i was the GM, i'd focus on reinhart and pesce...maybe they have their sights on others.