At this point in the season, it shouldn’t really come as a surprise to see the Blackhawks move some players at the trade deadline. If you told me this at the start of the season… it’s been a really crappy year for the Blackhawks.
Bowman went out with guns blazing, trying to do everything he could to win now. Jones, Fleury for starters. Didn’t he know he’d be gone soon into the 2021-2022 season? With the allegations that the Hawks tried to bury coming to the surface, he had to know he was gone. I mean, he was here too long to begin with, seeing Coach Q take the initial fall. Did he purposely just not give a shit, trading away some of the young talent that we did have in order to pull one out of his ass and save his job with a deep playoff run this year? If he really cared about his job, maybe he would have kept the HOF coach around, although if Coach Q was still here, he too, would have fallen, as he did in Florida, with the 2010 story finally coming out.
Bowman had already made his choice with Colliton, and although you can’t blame this year’s 1-9-2 start completely on him, they did, firing him after winning 1 game in the first 12 games of the season. Quite the hole the Blackhawks had dug themselves in the standings. With the sexual abuse allegations out in the public, can’t think of a much worse way to start a season. With 71 games to go, maybe the Hawks could turn this thing around…???
The next phase of the season with the Derek King coaching change providing a spark, the Hawks went 14-9-3. This spark was short lived, as I had suspected. In their last 25 games, “Phase 3” of the season if you may, the Hawks have turned in a record of 7-14-4. At 22-32-9, only the Coyotes and the Kraken are worse in the West. So as I started with, it should be no surprise that the Hawks made some moves.
Did I even talk about the Hawks new GM Kyle Davidson? I can’t remember, but he pulled the trigger on Marc-Andre Fleury, which makes sense… although we’re back to the same spot we were when we let both Crow and Lehner go… tough to win without a good goalie. Ryan Carpenter… whatever I guess; at 31 years old, makes sense if we can get something for him. But Brandon Hagel? At 23 years old, the Hawks ship out another young guy with serious potential. I thought young guys were supposed to help rebuilds… I guess draft picks work too. If we sold high on Hagel, then fine; I’m just not so sure about that.
Besides deHaan (30) and Tyler Johnson (31), only Toews and Kane, 33 years old each, remain in the 30 and over club. Are they at risk of getting dealt? They each have 1 more year left on their deals. To see either play in another sweater would be tough; to believe the Hawks will contend any time soon is unrealistic. How does this all work out? Kane expressed his interest in being here until the end of his career; he still has some gas left in the tank. If Kane was willing to take a team friendly deal for the next X years, I wouldn’t be opposed to it. Toews seems to have lost a step after a year away; maybe he retires, either after this year or next… maybe that’s the deal he works out to retire a Blackhawk. I imagine we’ll see statues of both of them at the UC one day, even if their on the ice time together appears to be coming to an end.
It’s the end of an era. Was really hoping for one last run with 19 & 88, but now, that seems far fetched. How will Kyle continue to shape this team for the future? Will these and future moves he makes work out? We can only hope so. The Stanley Cup run in the 2010s was really fun; 7 years since that last Cup… a lot less of a “drought” than most of our teams. Don’t be sad it’s over, be happy it happened. Go Hawks!
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