Chicago Blackhawks 2014 Season Outlook

[pilldoc]

When we last saw the Hawks they lost a thrilling series to the eventual Stanley Cup Champions LA Kings.  So where do they stand this year.  No longer the bottom of the barrel in the league, the  Hawks are now regular customers in the chase for Lord Stanley.

 

What went right.  The Hawks made it to the Conference Championship with some of the leagues best players.  Kane, Toews, and Keith are the face of this franchise.  As a result both Kane and Toews were rewarded very handsomely with their contract extensions.  There os no doubt that the Hawks are the model franchise for the NHL.. (aong with the LA Kings, see Flyers, Philadelphia with Hextall, Ron in there attempt to fix some of the past GM mistakes).   The Hawks also have very dependable veterns in Patrick Sharp and Marion Hossa.  Together they scored 67 goals last year.  Duncan Keith is the current Norris Trophy winner. Crawford is solid in goal, but then again, with Chicago's defense, they could make Micky Mouse look like a stellar netminder.

 

What went wrong?  A tough one here.  They simply were outplayed by the Kings last year?  There were some injury concerns to Kane and Toews at various times during the season.  It is hard to point out a single glaring deficiency.  If anything, right now they are over the Salary Cap and must make some big time decisions.  In addition to that they added Brad Richards to the mix.  A move I really don't get. Unless they are hoping for some scoring production if they must move either Sharp or Hossa.  Along with adding that favoirite goaltender of Flyer fans...Michael "Leaky" Leighton.  It is of note Chicago drafted Leighton years ago.

 

Clearly they have the talent to be considered in the top 3 or 4 teams to once again win the Cup.  The real question is how do they manage the Salary Cap and injuries.  Somewhere in another thread it was mentioned they have like 50-60% of their Salary Cap wrapped up in 5 or 6 players.  Finding the right role players is going to be key.  If key injuries do happen, they might not have the Cap room to fill those spots with quality players.

 

Overall they again will be one of the best in the league.

 

 

Left Wings
Patrick Sharp
Brandon Saad
Bryan Bickell
Jeremy Morin

 

Centers
Jonathan Toews
Brad Richards
Andrew Shaw
Marcus Kruger

 

Right Wings
Patrick Kane
Marian Hossa
Kris Versteeg
Ben Smith

 

Goalies
Corey Crawford
Antti Raanta

Michael Leighton

Defensemen
Duncan Keith
Brent Seabrook
Niklas Hjalmarsson
Johnny Oduya
Michal Rozsival
Nick Leddy

[jammer2]

@pilldoc  Gotta love the mobility of the Hawks defense, they are well known for their scoring and forward depth, but that defense will always have them in the hunt!

[pilldoc]

I'd take their defense in a heartbeat

[yave1964]

This team plays keepaway with the puck better than anyone in the game, either them or the Kings. That is the biggest reason that the two fo them have won 4 of the past 5 cups.

The Salary cap is going to become a bigger problem as time goes by, eventually they are going to be forced to deal a Sharp or a Leddy to pay the bill on the remaining players they have. On the blue line Clendening is a future stud down in Rockford and Teravainen is going to be a point a game player at forward in the very near future. An embarrassment of riches.

[cajunblackhawk]

yes cap will have them move johnny oduya before opening game.

[hf101]

yes cap will have them move johnny oduya before opening game.

 

Welcome

 

I haven't watched much of the Hawks yet this preseason... so you think Rosival is better to keep than Oduya?

[cajunblackhawk]

Well i was wrong i thought they would keep Leddy cause of his age.

[jammer2]

@cajunblackhawk  Giving up Leddy was a mistake. Especially the return. If they could only get draft picks that were not of the first round variety, they should have packaged him in a bigger deal. Even though 15 is the "big" draft coming up, their return was not on par for what I expected back. Johnny should have been the guy to go if no viable NHL return was on the table.

[Chicago Hawkie]

I'm not really sure what happened vs LA.  I think the Kings just wanted it more.  Not that the Hawks didn't want it, but they looked tired compared to the Kings and LA capitalized on that, IMO.