July 26, 2021: Hammer Time

Niklas Hjalmarsson, better known as Hammer, retired earlier today. As we paid tribute to Brent Seabrook, and most recently Duncan Keith, here is another guy, another member of the core, another defenseman on 3 Stanley Cup winning teams that deserves some recognition. Overall, maybe he was underrated, with the presence of that top pairing, but for those of us who watched him play night in and night out, we knew what we had with Hammer. Blocked shot, penalty killer extraordinaire, Niklas was the man; I was very pissed when he was dealt to Arizona for Connor Murphy. Although looking back at each of their results since then, maybe it wasn’t such a bad deal… Still though, loved this guy. You remember Seabrook’s most famous goal? Of course you do. Well then, I’m sure you remember whose goal that should have been… Hammer’s of course, scoring at the end of regulation as a BS penalty was called at center ice. His goal was waived off, OT followed, and then Seabs got the all-timer. Hey, as long as the Hawks won, I didn’t care. They won a lot while Hammer was patrolling the blue line. Wish him nothing but the best in retirement; always will be remembered here in Chicago.

The Hawks have been busy. I did see it talked about a bit, but didn’t think anything of it. The return on that Duncan Keith trade was a young defenseman named Caleb Jones… whatever… for anyone to take Keith’s full contract, I didn’t expect much. Not saying he’s much, but he is the younger brother of a guy who could skate a bit… Seth Jones. Well, the Hawks made a huge splash trading their young, up and coming defenseman Adam Boqvist and some draft picks for Seth Jones. Yes, not the Jonas Brothers, but the Jones brothers will be teammates at the UC this year. Little did we know, they wouldn’t be the only pair of brothers…

Kirby Dach’s name was mentioned as part of that Seth Jones trade, but I knew the Hawks wouldn’t move him. After watching him during his rookie year, I knew this guy was going to be good. Then he got hurt… he came back, but wasn’t fully ready to rock. I’m expecting big things from Kirby this year. I also didn’t know he had a brother who played hockey too; I found out when the Hawks drafted him with their 2nd round pick. Colton Dach will join his brother on the Blackhawks. Another tall kid, 6’4″… skinny 196… and a lefty! Are there any other brothers available to join the Hawks this year?

Finally, today was the time for qualifying offers. Hagel, Nylander, and Zadorov received offers; Gaudette signed later. Dickinson, Kampf, and Suter did not receive an offer. Kind of surprised about Pius Suter; kid looked really good last year. The roster is shaping up. How we feeling about it?

It’s kind of hard to think of hockey season right now, with baseball in full swing, and football on the horizon, but it will be here before you know it. Overall, pretty happy with the moves thus far; of course, only time will tell. Of course there is some other business that is ongoing, about that piece of shit that was working for the Hawks back in 2010; wonder how that is going to turn out… wonder if heads will roll for that one. Hoping that gets resolved sooner than later, although really, this should have been resolved about 11 years ago… Anyways, in the meantime, keep building up the team on the ice; hoping to watch playoff hockey again next year… Go Hawks!