so far, so good, for your guy. just a few games for him at LW and the club overall quality toggle switch has moved towards the good by a few notches.

really good work on his puck clearance out of his D-zone that led to the 2nd goal last night. didn't clear the puck with no plan/panic. banked it out perfectly that led to a 2x1 break.

the nifty off the boards pass behind the net in tight space that led to a goal was also pretty sweet.

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yes, could have easily had a 5 point night. had a chance when markstrom was lost at sea and D-man wheeger played G. had another chance with a great shot that markstrom saved with his toe and obviously, the 'goal' that didn't count.

.....and he's penciled in as the LW on the 3rd/4th line when the hawks get good. if he plays good D, will likely play on dickinson's line. today, that's line #2 that dickinson centers, could be line #3, in 2 years. i see bedard and moore ahead of dickinson on the future depth chart. if nazar impresses at C, dickinson may C the 4th line. hope these kids keep moving that club talent toggle switch to more and more quality.

/Does anyone know what Slaggert projects to? An Andrew Shaw? A Dave Bolland?

Those guys, while not stars, were fun players. Bolland’s pics in the limo were funny. It was Bolland right?

Edit: It was Madden I think.

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Hawaii (fuck) You

hard to match him up with any hawk during the cup era. shaw was an obvious agitator with some skill and bolland, while also an agitator type ('the rat'), had good defensive skills at C. the obvious is a bolland-dickinson comparison.

slaggert seems above average in most categories. his skating abilities stick out. he drew an interference penalty in his first game, i believe. you can only draw those when you're skating/moving.

the best thing is that, by default - slaggert will eliminate a stiff on the hawk roster. a few more to go. i see where raddysh is sucking up to bedard. he realizes his 14 pts. in 67 games, his -17, along with his rotten shooting accuracy....may be making him nervous. at least a few dozen missed shots from good scoring positions this season - may endanger his roster status. bedard can make new friends with new RWs.

hayes, in the ohl playoffs scored. greene scored...while rinzel and moore's u of minn won their regional game. nazar and u of mich play tonight at 730.

real shit performance last night, not sure what slaggert did to play with entwistle. dickinson forced to juggle his lines, didn't work last night. club got shutout for the umpteenth time, kyle from chicago needs to sign at least one quality ufa winger this off-season.

If you are watching, please post some highlights.

i watched part of the game, it was on one of the espn channels.

he did score..5x5 hockey...went behind the net and the puck fortuitously squirmed out to his side and he was the quickest to it, buried it to tie the score at 1. lost some faceoffs...another mich player got 2 goals. chippy game, for sure. michigan plays mich. st. on sunday.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-ot57GYzZw

watched a bit more...rinzel & moore of the gophers against greene of bu. only one game against a tough bu team, but wasn't impressed with the blackhawk gophers. looked like moore was balling like a baby after the game. bu on to the frozen 4 against denver u and blackhawks 2022 round 3 pick, aidan thompson.

nazar going tonight against mich. st. for a frozen 4 appearance. this game should also be on espn.

watched the parent club last night, likely their best road game of the year. on D, the usual suspects were good - vlasic/kaiser. soderblom was excellent. stingy on rebounds....more aggressive. issues i posted about soderblom earlier in the year. even panger mentioned that soderblom is more aggressive.

for awhile, richardson had dickinson centering kurashev and bedard. not sure if he's trying to send a message to bedard? shit defense/poor on face-offs?? for all the so-called protection bedard is getting from the league, the officials aren't calling obvious penalties against him. hooks/holding the stick not getting called...back to late 90's and n.j. devil hockey.

I watched a good amount of college hockey over the weekend though most of the games I saw didn't involve Hawks picks. I did see UM and Nazar tonight. He looked solid. Saw him put a few nice moves on in the offensive zone and create himself a clear shot in the slot. He fired wide but the MSU player left his jock on the ice. He also laid a pretty good body check on someone in the defensive zone. At the end of the 3rd he had a ridiculous between the legs pass for the primary assist on the 4th goal of the game. I can't believe he broke that pass out in that situation but its probably the only way he would have cleanly gotten the puck to the other side for the goal shot. He absolutely looks legit. He won't be around for a few more weeks now but with him and Bedard and Phil they are going to score some fun goals.

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

watched the game. Never seen anyone attempt that pass in my life. Seen that move plenty of times when in tight vs a goalie, but neve seen any whip that out to make a pass on a 2 v 1. Insane.

Nazar was as advertised and as I remember him from the WJC. Best passer on the ice.


I also watched future Hawk Celebrini play and was salivating of the prospect of him and Bedard on the same line. Hawks need to stop winning these meaningless games, this draft is way too important.


Thought the big dman on Michigan State, #5 looked really good as well. He's gonna be a top 5 pick from what I hear.

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Replay

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/PtqU-dRO0-w?feature=share

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He will be on the Hawks next year correct?

Is the MSU D man a right handed defenseman?

yes he is and you bring up a good point. the only R-side D the hawks have are jones, zaitsev and connor murphy. amongst the prospects, only crevier and rinzel are R.

allen/del mastro/phillips are all L, along with kaiser, vlasic and korchinski. megna and tinordi are also L, but i don't see them and zaitsev (R) with the club next year.

I wouldn't be surprised if the Hawks take him with their first pick, assuming they don't pick #1. Not sure about forwards who are not Celebrini and how good they are projected to be.

yeah, another development...this time about LW lardis. 3 year entry level deal - too young to play at rockford, will get another year in juniors (he's under 20) and then likely get the call up for the 25-26 season. hopefully, with the parent cub and not rockford.

so, LW. the club already has kurashev there. reichel. lardis/hayes..etc...etc on depth charts.

this tells me that if the hawks do get the #2 selection in the draft, they'll prob take the 'safe' pick in RD levshunov. risky (smallish/average skater), but high-upside (great hands/sniper) demidov is a LW. cole eiserman is a another LW and D-man buium is another LD. even if levshunov pans out as a top 4 d-man, that won't be realized for another 3 years, at the least.

another D-man eligible for the draft is sam dickinson, who can play either L/R. zack parekh is another offensive D-man that the canadians are talking about. parekh is comfortable at L or R defense.

given all that, i still believe the hawks need to sign a big name free agent and hoping it's sam reinhart. C/RW, just what the dr. ordered. captain material, a monster on the PP in front of the net. i just read an article saying the same thing about him, if i find it, i'll post it. the hawks can afford to overpay him at $8-$9 million per - especially if t. johnson is not resigned...that's $6 million more to play with.

great time to be kyle from chicago.

I like the d man from MSU. I have no patience for a Russian who might show up in 3 years so No on Demisdov. Just do the thing you do with the ping pong balls and get the stud back to IL to play with Bedard. I can not believe how much talent goes through the Chicago Steel.

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

2 first round picks, 3 second round picks and 2 third round picks.

tampa having a good year, that 'other' 1st round pick will be later in the 1st round.

if the hawks go for demidov, not sure if D dickinson/buium/parekh will be around for that tampa pick. would be a coup to get LW demidov and R/L D dickinson in the 1st round. maybe accomplished by trading their tampa #1 pick & one of their 2nd round picks to move up in the 1st round. maybe new jersey (10) or buffalo (11)?

i'm thinking that parekh and buium will definitely be gone before the tampa pick. i believe dickinson is the 5-6 rated d-man.

zack parekh has moved up in estimation, a baby quinn hughes. maybe the hawks take him with their 1st round pick. gifted offensively, fast. quarterback on the PP, mobile/rushing D-man 5x5. can probably offer more right now at the nhl level than levshunov of mich st. - definitely offensively and not defensively.

looking likely that Bedard will play for Canada in the WC's starting a month from now. Rumor has it that Canada will tryh and get Crosby as well. I can see a scenario where Crosby says he'll go, but only if he gets to play on a line with Bedard. Or maybe I'm just writing fan fiction over here. If they do get Bedard even without Crosby I'll be tuning in for every game. Very much looking forward to seeing how Bedard looks playing alongside actual good NHL players. I bet he lights that tourney up and I could even see him taking a run at leading scorer. OH wait, there I go with the fan fiction again

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tournament in may...if the penguins win a few rounds in the playoffs - maybe even one round, crosby will be here.

if the nhl had any brains, they'd arrange a canada vs. usa series during all-star break. start the season a week earlier - play a best out of 3 for one week in feb. i'd tune in for that.

the usa has been good enough professionally and arguably surpassing canada in developing junior hockey talent.

If playoffs started today Pitt would be out. Even if they make it they will be a wild card team. Odds are they don't get out of the first round. If they don't get out of the first round Crosby will be available for WC. Canada said tghey are leaving a couple rosters spots open for players who get bounced in round 1.

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watched yesterday's game and will watch today's, keeping an eye on the future.

individually, reichel has turned it up 2 notches. rfa after this season, i believe you have to stick with him. my guess is he will likely get $1.5-$1.75 mil per for only a few years - maybe 2 years, each side protecting their interests. plenty of LWs on the current/near future depth chart, not many at the potential breakthrough level reichek is at. got to keep him. hawks have to balk if he insists on $2+ million...poor year, shit production...especially compared to the blues' jake neighbours, taken after reichel in the same draft.

colin blackwell. very rusty...missed players on 20 foot passes by 10 feet, causing icings and more pressure on defensive zone face-offs. smallish, played well in brief spurts this season. he's an ufa after this season...currently earning $1.2 million. along with ufa tyler johnson's $5 million per year...see you guys later. that's an additional $6.2 million for a club already well under the cap...to sign a top class free agent. hopefully reinhart. makes it easier with so many Cs moving up the depth chart. ludwinski may be the #4 C next season.

wyatt kaiser's puck handling/skating skills are impressing every game. his skills lesson the chance of a dumb pass/giveaway in the hawks d-zone and the chaos/goal against that usually ensues. his development as a LD may see the hawks give up on phillips, who i believe is a free agent after this season. with allen and del mastro also LD, hard to justify resigning phillips. i think crevier hasn't impressed enough. i like phillips...hope the club keeps him.

soderblom has played better, today is another good test.

the mock drafts i've seen that have the blackhawks drafting 2nd overall seem to be split between D levshunov and RW/C demidov. they all have D-men sam dickinson/buium/zach parehk gone by the 12th pick. i would consider it a fantastic draft if the hawks can get demidov and one of dickinson/parekh/buium in the first round. only way that can happen if they can get another club to take their other #1 and a high #2 to drop down 8 spots or so in the 1st round order. i think it's doable.

totally outclassed by the wild. bad match-up for the the club that struggles with D-zone coverage. not enough attacking juice to make the wild pay for their frantic pace. korchinski has already peaked for this season, makes more and more D-zone mistakes as the season winds down. korchinski/magna/blackwell the worst of the worst, yesterday.

yahoo hockey guru wyshynski tells us that faber is ahead of bedard for the calder. this guy has nhl brass connections and i believe he polls actual voters. can make easy arguments for bedard, it is what it is. possible backlash against the nhl's gen talent. yesterday, faber was better on the ice than bedard.

Um, nobody but Bedard is winning ROY. He still has the most points and goals for rookies and has played 15 games less than everyone.

that's one pro-bedard argument.

for the season, bedard is currently 1 goal ahead of rossi of the wild and 1 assist ahead of D-men faber of the wild and luke hughes of n.j.

Kinda sad, a 22yr old 3rd rd pick from 4yrs ago, might not be re-signed.

kaiser? he's got 1 year left on his entry-level deal.

from the young D - vlasic/phillips/crevier are unsigned going forward. for sure they'll get a deal done with vlasic. so many LD on the depth chart that i'm not sure they want to do deal with phillips. i think crevier is gone. personally, i hope they keep both, especially phillips.

from the current D corps, could be lots of departures. zaitsev/tinordi and megna will be free agents. zaitsev will free up good money.

my take on the D-corps is that richardson and staff need to do a better job of mixing and matching the defensemen.

i believe seth jones can fuck up a cup of coffee on clearing/moving the puck inside and outside his D zone. connor murphy is also a turnover machine. vlasic (more by passing) and kaiser (more by skating) are clearly better than those 2 veterans in clearing/moving the puck out of the D-zone. in other words, a korchinski/murphy partnership makes sense on paper, but it's a slippery hand grenade...both are poor clearing/moving the puck out of their D-zone. eventually, we know korchinski will be an elite 2-way puck moving d-man, but, not now.