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2025 NHL Draft Thread

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RememberTheRoar said:
I very much get the sense that Davidson plans to “speed it up.” I don’t think he even really wanted this elite forward in the draft. He openly said he didn’t expect to or want to be picking near the top again. Hard to believe that feeling isn’t magnified next season.

I do not think next season is a tank season, I think Davidson sees at least contending for a playoff spot.
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At least contending for a playoff spot? At least?

We will not be close next year and KD isn’t stupid, he knows this. The team next year will be ish the same as this year plus one or maybe two competent forwards and perhaps a d but that isn’t enough to compete for a playoff spot let alone not finishing bottom ten.

Realistically the team is going to look something like this:
Bertuzzi-Bedard-FA signing
Teravainen-Nazar-FA signing
Mikheyev-Dickinson-Foligno
Slaggert-Reichel-Dach
And another fa depth forward

Vlasic-Jones
Korchinski- FA signing
Allan-Murphy
Crevier

Hopefully Brodie is bought out.

Then there is Mrazek and Brossoit.

The truth is that we are not ready to take the next step. Even if say Rantanen comes in we won’t start piling up victories. Imo the key is to be patient. Suck next year as well in a much stronger draft and then start advancing for real in 26/27. Hopefully Rinzel and/or Levshunov is ready then. Kantserov will be here from Russia. Moore and Boisvert could contribute in the bottom six. Maybe something like this:

2026 Draft pick - Bedard - FA signing 25, hopefully Rantanen
Bertuzzi-Misa/Hagens-FA signing 25 or FA signing 26, maybe Ehlers
Teravainen-Nazar-Kantserov
Moore-Dickinson-Dach/Slaggert
Boisvert

Vlasic-Levshunov
Korchinski-Jones
Allan-Rinzel
Maybe add a steady Murphy but younger type to this blue line.

And then goalies I have no idea. That is a problem for the future.
This is without considering Vanacker, Lardis, Torontos pick this summer and the trades they will make in the coming years. Also I have no clue regarding Reichel. Hopefully he puts it together.

Point is, no need to rush next year. We will suck regardless. Suck for McKenna or the other top prospects next year and then go for it the following year.
 
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If it were possible in a 7 game series, I think the 25 Hawks beat the 24 Hawks in 5. I'll bet the 26 Hawks would beat the 25 Hawks in 5. But none of these Hawks teams will likely be as good as any other team in the league that isn't tanking.

The question I have is going into next year, what team(s) besides would the Hawks catch up to or leapfrog? It's possible that Pittsburgh starts a sell off for McKenna but what other team looks to begin a rebuild or just stink next year? I see next year as a season where the worst team has 65 points.
 
Larmer83 said:
Perhaps someone that's watched North Dakota recently can comment but what little I saw early on seemed Boisvert was playing wing. Recent box scores show him taking only a handful of faceoffs with 3 players taking significantly more draws. Is he playing center?
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That would be disappointing if he’s not going to be a center.
 
MHO said:
If it were possible in a 7 game series, I think the 25 Hawks beat the 24 Hawks in 5. I'll bet the 26 Hawks would beat the 25 Hawks in 5. But none of these Hawks teams will likely be as good as any other team in the league that isn't tanking.

The question I have is going into next year, what team(s) besides would the Hawks catch up to or leapfrog? It's possible that Pittsburgh starts a sell off for McKenna but what other team looks to begin a rebuild or just stink next year? I see next year as a season where the worst team has 65 points.
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Perhaps Pittsburgh. Maybe Philly if Tortorella leaves. It will probably be us and San Jose at the bottom again.

Anaheim should take the next step, Nashville is better than how they’ve played this year, Calgary doesn’t want to rebuild and Seattle is too mid to be bottom three bad. Islanders suck but they have Sorokin so they won’t be as bad as us. Columbus probably won’t be as good as this year but still better than us. Utah, Montreal, Detroit, Buffalo and St Louis are also better.

To summarize, it’s probably time to save up for a Gavin McKenna shirt. A lot depends on how Bedard develops and which free agents that KD brings in.
 
MHO said:
The question I have is going into next year, what team(s) besides would the Hawks catch up to or leapfrog? It's possible that Pittsburgh starts a sell off for McKenna but what other team looks to begin a rebuild or just stink next year? I see next year as a season where the worst team has 65 points.
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I fully expect the Hawks to go nuts in free agency if they can and dramatically try to improve the team.

That being said, we will still finish bottom 7-10 in the league without a doubt. There are too many teams on the rise and with the cap increasing, it doesn't put enough pressure on other cap strapped teams to take a step back by losing pieces they can't afford. A team that has its core locked in already will stay more competitive longer, because all the new talent they can afford to add.

It'll be a tough road for the Hawks to make the playoffs over the next three years barring some incredible additions and a lot of prospects hitting their stride.
 
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I'm very curious to see if Davidson moves the Toronto 1st or the 34th oa pick this summer. The Hawks already have a ton of prospects that are future 3rd line caliber players in the pipeline. I'm also going to guess the Hawks go after Ravensbergen to address the goalie situation. The Hawks have used a ton of draft capital eslewhere.
 
giza said:
Wonder what kind of package would be needed to get Noah Dobson....saw his name come up in trade talk.
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One of our blue chip RHD prospects +.I feel that 25 is kind of the cutoff for age because that means by the time we are (hopefully) contending he will be 28. That's kind of on the edge of where you'd like to see our core be age wise, as Vlasic is basically the oldest "new core" member.

Vlasic - 2001 Baby
Bedard - 2005 Baby
Nazar - 2004 Baby
Levshunov - 2005 Baby

Dobson, 2000 Baby
 
EddieTheEagle said:
I fully expect the Hawks to go nuts in free agency if they can and dramatically try to improve the team.

That being said, we will still finish bottom 7-10 in the league without a doubt. There are too many teams on the rise and with the cap increasing, it doesn't put enough pressure on other cap strapped teams to take a step back by losing pieces they can't afford. A team that has its core locked in already will stay more competitive longer, because all the new talent they can afford to add.

It'll be a tough road for the Hawks to make the playoffs over the next three years barring some incredible additions and a lot of prospects hitting their stride.
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Who do you see the Hawks actually being able to attract in free agency, because I have some serious doubts on that happening this Summer? In a league where every team will be handed an extra 10 million in cap space, the options of where a good (or even decent player) can go will be so much broader then in recent years. The appeal of Chicago has been they can pay a more money (or an extra year) than some of the other options. Minus the money, why would a UFA come to Chicago to play on one of the worst teams in the league the last 3 seasons with little chance that changes much in the next year or two? I would love to see the Hawks land one of Marner or Rantanen but how much will we have to outbid other teams in order for those guys to consider Chicago as opposed to playoff caliber rosters many of which will offer good money? Put it this way....the Hawks could add BOTH Marner and Rantanen and still not sniff the playoffs.
 
u2wojo said:
Who do you see the Hawks actually being able to attract in free agency, because I have some serious doubts on that happening this Summer? In a league where every team will be handed an extra 10 million in cap space, the options of where a good (or even decent player) can go will be so much broader then in recent years. The appeal of Chicago has been they can pay a more money (or an extra year) than some of the other options. Minus the money, why would a UFA come to Chicago to play on one of the worst teams in the league the last 3 seasons with little chance that changes much in the next year or two? I would love to see the Hawks land one of Marner or Rantanen but how much will we have to outbid other teams in order for those guys to consider Chicago as opposed to playoff caliber rosters many of which will offer good money? Put it this way....the Hawks could add BOTH Marner and Rantanen and still not sniff the playoffs.
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I completely agree with you. I have no idea if they will actually land anyone but I have zero doubt they will try their hardest to do so. It is why I put "if they can" in that first sentence.

Money aside, the team has a lot of potential with prospects, amazing city to live in if you're wealthy, Bedard, and from player surveys - treat their players very well (Beach aside...).

I hope they can land one big free agent over the next two offseasons while adding draft picks that are top 5-10. Hoping that within three years we are making some noise in the playoffs.
 
Toews2Bickell said:
didn't they also give a monster contract to Okposo as well? they've done a lot of dumb things to 'compete', and they handled the Eichel situation horribly
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Another huge mistake is they never committed to a longterm contract with Reinhart when they had all that team control and he would have taken one.

ELC, 2 years, 1 year, then traded. You have to sign your core or else they’re close to UFA and you’re selling Pennies on the dollar.
 
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