2025-26 Roster…too soon?

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Small part of me kind of wishes the Hawks win this lottery. Take Misa #1 overall and then it'll be easier to move 2026 first in an offer sheet (or trade for a young forward) since the Hawks pick can't win McKenna anyways.
 
I hate to be this guy but it's very possible we're at the bottom of the league again next year. This year's team is way better than last year's despite being no better in the standings. Look at goal differential and point percentage. It's more of a testament to how bad they were last year than anything else and how much better the rest of the league is.

Other than San Jose, who is it looking like the Hawks will be clearly better than going into next season? And yes, free agency is a major unknown but even if we hit it big, we can still be like Nashville.
 
I hate to be this guy but it's very possible we're at the bottom of the league again next year. This year's team is way better than last year's despite being no better in the standings. Look at goal differential and point percentage. It's more of a testament to how bad they were last year than anything else and how much better the rest of the league is.

Other than San Jose, who is it looking like the Hawks will be clearly better than going into next season? And yes, free agency is a major unknown but even if we hit it big, we can still be like Nashville.

I think this team will finish in the bottom 12 for sure but I don't think they're going to be a lottery team again, unless something goes terribly wrong.

They'll have a full year of Knight and hopefully Soderblom will at least maintain his level. They're also obviously going to be aggressive in the off-season trying to improve the team through FA or trade. And then there's going to be a lot of room for improvement internally with young players like Nazar, Levshunov, Rinzel, Korchinski, Del Mastro, etc. taking a step or getting into the lineup consistently.
 
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I think this team will finish in the bottom 12 for sure but I don't think they're going to be a lottery team again, unless something goes terribly wrong.

They'll have a full year of Knight and hopefully Soderblom will at least maintain his level. They're also obviously going to be aggressive in the off-season trying to improve the team through FA or trade. And then there's going to be a lot of room for improvement internally with young players like Nazar, Levshunov, Rinzel, Korchinski, Del Mastro, etc. taking a step or getting into the lineup consistently.

Just so that you are prepared I can tell you that we are for sure going to be a lotto team again next year.
 
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Just so that you are prepared I can tell you that we are for sure going to be a lotto team again next year.

I don't think so. And I thought the team was guaranteed to be a bottom-5 team this year despite the improvements they made in the off-season. I don't think they're going to be in this spot again next year, but we'll see what happens over the summer.
 
I also still see us as a lottery team next season, in the McKenna discussion. As we should be. Next season will be another year like this current one where we’re advancing along and seeing more and more of the youth yet remaining an overall bad-very bad team in the standings. I want to see improvements but I’d expect and hope for us to also remain in lottery position/capable of adding another elite young player. Then in 26/27 we can try to make the playoffs.
 
Unless Pittsburgh blows it up, I don't see the Hawks as surefire better than anyone next year except San Jose. They might have the worst roster i've seen in the last decade at the moment.
 
We would have moved up twice in the draft in 5 years, which means we aren’t able to move up again until 5 years passes.

Of course we could get McKenna still, but that would now require finishing dead last. Which seems very unlikely for how the team is trending plus additions in the offseason.
Ahh, I thought it was 3, not 2, for some reason.

Just so that you are prepared I can tell you that we are for sure going to be a lotto team again next year.
100%
 
I don't think so. And I thought the team was guaranteed to be a bottom-5 team this year despite the improvements they made in the off-season. I don't think they're going to be in this spot again next year, but we'll see what happens over the summer.

So the team is going to look something like:

Knight
Söderblom

Vlasic
Murphy
A FA/trade top4 D (hopefully)
Then three of EDM, Crevier, Levshunov, Söderström, Allan, Korchinski to fill out the remaining spots

FA singing say Ehlers, think that’s too optimistic but sure-Bedard-Bertuzzi
Teravainen-Nazar-Donato
Dach-Dickinson-Mikheyev
Slaggert-Veleno-Foligno

Something like that (ish)

If you don’t think that’s a bottom three, maybe bottom five team I don’t know what to tell you.
 
So the team is going to look something like:

Knight
Söderblom

Vlasic
Murphy
A FA/trade top4 D (hopefully)
Then three of EDM, Crevier, Levshunov, Söderström, Allan, Korchinski to fill out the remaining spots

FA singing say Ehlers, think that’s too optimistic but sure-Bedard-Bertuzzi
Teravainen-Nazar-Donato
Dach-Dickinson-Mikheyev
Slaggert-Veleno-Foligno

Something like that (ish)

If you don’t think that’s a bottom three, maybe bottom five team I don’t know what to tell you.
Exactly this. Almost all the vet "leaders" are slotted one line to high to be even a bad team (they will be terrible). Bert on a 2nd line, Teuvo on a 3rd, Dickinson/Mikheyev on a 4th line could be a good team, but those guys slotted where they are with a bunch of 1st or 2nd year kids trying to cut their teeth at the NHL level is again a recipe for bottom 5.
 
There's a chance our young Dcorps takes the next step after another offseason + training. We've objectively seen talent out of most or all of these kids. That and whole season of Knight reasonably bumps us out of the top 5. If we land Marner we're adding a 90+ point player and all of a sudden don't have a desert-dry offense. We'd see a jump in the standings for sure in that hypothetical.

Lots of things to go right though in that scenario. Still I'd hope the team improves at least some next season. Wouldn't that mean none of these young players are getting better enough? I don't think that's likely. Philadelphia probably bottoms out next season and will be right there with San Jose.
 
There's a chance our young Dcorps takes the next step after another offseason + training. We've objectively seen talent out of most or all of these kids. That and whole season of Knight reasonably bumps us out of the top 5. If we land Marner we're adding a 90+ point player and all of a sudden don't have a desert-dry offense. We'd see a jump in the standings for sure in that hypothetical.

Lots of things to go right though in that scenario. Still I'd hope the team improves at least some next season. Wouldn't that mean none of these young players are getting better enough? I don't think that's likely. Philadelphia probably bottoms out next season and will be right there with San Jose.
Progression is so rarely linear for young guys, especially dmen. It's more of peaks and valleys with a general overall improvement and to bank on noticeable improvements from all our young dmen is very optimistic. Not to mention aside from Levshunov most of them project to be #4-6 dmen, not huge difference makers. Say Allan, EDM and Kaiser do on average play like solid bottom pair dmen for most of next season. Does that really move the needle?

Remember we all thought Bedard was a lock for at least a decent bump in production given being a year older/more experience and having better teammates this season? And now he's actually regressed statistically, and not by a tiny bit.

Id love to see a better team next season just like any Hawks fan but I just dont see it yet
 
Competing for a playoff spot is not as hard as people around here are imagining it to be. Compare to Minnesota not Dallas and Colorado. If one of the following happens:
-Bedard pops or
-if Lev is a quick study
- or if Nazar pops or
- if the Hawks sign any of Tavares, Boeser, Ehlers, and especially Marner

…should be right around that playoff battle.

Like Nashville and STL are already in the rear view in my opinion just on natural progression going forward. Utah is whatever. It’s basically just a Wild question. No one says you have to incrementally improve by 5-10 standings points a year. Teams POP all the time.

The young defensemen have or are approaching their 200 games of pro hockey. They aren’t babes in the woods anymore that was this year and last year.
 

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