Rate the Offseason so far...

[bwana63]

WRT the draft, check back in 3-4 years, right? Echoing others, Hawks picks were not my guys, but I know nothing (Sgt Shultze). I like the picks as I learn more about them.

WRT free agents: B/B+. It's good that Davidson has decided no more wallowing. Yeah, we're probly a Top 5 tank team, but I agree with The Athletic's projection of 77 points. A 25 point improvement is flippin' massive

 

[bwanajamba]

you mean like having 36 yr old Foligno, 35yr old Maroon, 34 yr old Smith, 33 yr old Hall, 30 yr old Athanasiou, 29 yr old Bertuzzi, 29 yr old Dickinson, 29 yr old TT.... Blackhawks went from 1 of the youngest teams to one of the oldest really quick with barely any of the vets considered part of the core. Yes TT and Bertuzzi upgrade the roster around Bedard which is the plan but Smith, Maroon are just blocking young guys who should be mixed in with above.

Only TT and Bertuzzi are on the books for longer than two years. The top prospects in the system are all 18-20 years old. It's not exactly a gridlock

 

[Beukeboom Fan]

They simply cannot keep icing a minor league hockey team until all of the sudden they are ready to fill the roster with prospects. That was never going to be the plan. Partially because of Bedard- they owe it to a talent like him not to make his early years in the league miserable, plus while you probably aren't necessarily worried about his development being stunted, it's not good for a player like him to be on a team that never has the puck.

But it's also a culture thing. You can't keep trotting Reese Johnson, Mackenzie Entwhistle and Jared Tinordi out there after the past two years and act like you're trying to build a winner. There are tons of marginal improvements to make without pushing this team's timeline too far ahead of schedule. You could double their point total from last year and they'd be 4th in the central. Getting to 75 points won't break the rebuild but it will mark a shift away from getting their brains beaten in every night. They will still be bottom five in the league and draft a high-end prospect. Guys like Slaggert can develop in Rockford until they are ready to definitively push proven NHL players out of the lineup. This is how it's supposed to work

Strongly agree with this. IMO - you shouldn't have 75% of the roster be guys who are below replacement level and expect to have the 25% of other players develop.

And it should be mentioned that if you look at proposed 2024/25 roster that there will be injuries and there will be opportunities for prospects who are performing at Rockford to get a chance at the NHL level. Guys like Hall, AA, Martinez, Murphy, etc. aren't all going to play 82 games.

 

[WarriorofTime]

The trading up wasn't my favorite. I'll reserve judgment on the selections themselves. I liked the Free Agency, not crazy about Brodie, but whatever (2-year deal, Toronto sensationalizes how "good" or "bad" someone is when they play there in a hyper-polarized manner) on that one.

 

[x Tame Impala]

I would've been ok without the Broissoit signing. Would've been an easy way to ensure a better tank finish after KD's great job filling out the roster with NHL vets.

 

[u2wojo]

I went B.

Added a lot of very good talent in the draft...3 1st rounders and 6 in the top 100 picks. You can quibble about this guy or that guy that you liked better in the draft than someone we took or trading picks to move up, but there are a handful of kids we just added on top of an already deep prospect pool. I get the arguements about Demidov over Lev, but if Lev hits even as "just" a #2/3 type, that is a major piece (upper roster RHD) that is often real hard to fill internally with limited external options. I am happy in a fairly shallow draft we added really good options to our biggest prospect pool holes...RHD, C, and forwards with size.

UFA signings of Bertuzzi and Teuvo are nice midterm pieces that can still be around when/after we turn the corner to competing and were for decent term/length given what free agency for a bottom feeder often is....overpays in both term and salary. Like Boissart, otherwise not a huge fan of the rest of the signings, but they are all legit NHL'ers and push out the Reese Johnson, Entwhistle, corpse of Tyler Johnson garbage that was the bottom half of last years roster with not much of a commitment for term on any.

Vlassic seams like a really nice contract if he can maintain what he was last year and if he improves even just marginally, that deal could become a steal.

 

[Pertti]

They simply cannot keep icing a minor league hockey team until all of the sudden they are ready to fill the roster with prospects. That was never going to be the plan. Partially because of Bedard- they owe it to a talent like him not to make his early years in the league miserable, plus while you probably aren't necessarily worried about his development being stunted, it's not good for a player like him to be on a team that never has the puck.

But it's also a culture thing. You can't keep trotting Reese Johnson, Mackenzie Entwhistle and Jared Tinordi out there after the past two years and act like you're trying to build a winner. There are tons of marginal improvements to make without pushing this team's timeline too far ahead of schedule. You could double their point total from last year and they'd be 4th in the central. Getting to 75 points won't break the rebuild but it will mark a shift away from getting their brains beaten in every night. They will still be bottom five in the league and draft a high-end prospect. Guys like Slaggert can develop in Rockford until they are ready to definitively push proven NHL players out of the lineup. This is how it's supposed to work

Icing sh!tty team until line up is full of prospects was probably the plan until Foligno and co. said they won't tolerade it.

 

[Bubba88]

It makes no sense to not upgrade. Even while getting better this will be a bottom 10 finish. That's without injuries and everything goes as expected.

Kyle just filled out the roster to not rush anybody. Nobody is getting blocked and we get to see Bedard not being the lone focus for other teams. Get a chance to see if Kurashev can score being away from Bedard and being able to call up players is key. I expect Slaggert, Nazar and EDM/Korchinski full time in the NHL after the TDL.

 

[cassac]

Icing sh!tty team until line up is full of prospects was probably the plan until Foligno and co. said they won't tolerade it.

I don't think the plan was to have the results that they had last year. Injuries,, the whole Perry thing, and players not progressing as anticipated (Reichel and Soda) resulted in the final record. I think that KD thought he put together a team that would have finished with around 70 points.

This offseason shows that KD learned from last year and ensured that there is enough depth to play through missing players for various reasons. Also, KD fixed the roster as to not be dependent on non-NHL quality players on the bottom six and third pair. Hopefully there won't be AHL level players playing significant minutes due to not having any other choice.

The prospects down in Rockford will also be an option to come up and fill end when/if needed. Slags, Nazar, and Dach should see some games at forward. Bunch of options on defense.