In the Unfortunate Anniversary category, today is the 27th anniversary of the Blackhawks trading the player many fans still associate with that number — Jeremy Roenick. JR got off to one of the most productive starts to a career in Blackhawks history, posting three 100-point seasons in his first five full years in the league (and he had 94 in his second complete NHL season). But the 1990s were not kind to Blackhawks fans, and players wanting the bag meant they would get it elsewhere too frequently. After leaving Chicago, Roenick never had more than 78 points in a season again. But he finished with 1,216 points in 1,363 games and many would put him on the Mount Rushmore of US-born hockey players.
Allan Mitchell at looked at the entire league’s cap situation with the looming free agent class in 2024, one that’s potentially loaded with star players (possibly including Auston Matthews, William Nylander, Connor Hellebuyck and others).
For the Chicago Blackhawks, a seemingly reckless summer of 2022 now looks like inspired inventiveness. The Connor Bedard draft lo꧟ttery win was luck aided, but arriving to an exceptional free-agent summer with the biggest stack of cash will allow more than one major addition.
His concluding comments focus on three teams that are situated ideally to make a big run at some of the top names on the market last summer. One of the three: the Chicago Blackhawks. “The Chicago Blackhawks tower over the rest of the weakest tier, with Bedard likely to attract free agents looking for a strong spot to land.” He ranked the Sabres and Devils as the other two teams to watch when the market opens next summer.
“More than one major addition” is an interesting concept to consider for the Blackhawks next summer. General manager Kyle Davidson hasn’t been a big spender — yet. But he hasn’t backed away from the notion that, when the time/player is right, he wants to make sure he has the cap leverage to make an addition that fits the program without doing so at the expense of his talent pool. Davidson’s No. 1 objective to date has been making sure he’s set up to have the cap space to afford the presumed big second contracts of Bedard and other young prospects who might become expensive players in the coming years (Kevin Korchinski is likely the first on that list).
What if Matthews hits the market? How much does he want? Would an 8 x $11 million deal for Nylander (assuming a sign-and-trade to afford the eighth year) make sense in 11 months? We’ll know a lot more about the time being right based on how the coming season of development goes at the NHL, AHL, college and junior levels.
The Blackhawks shared a nice piece about Frank Nazar getting ready for his sophomore season at the University of Michigan on Tuesday afternoon. Nazar was limited by an injury last season and showed signs of his offensive ability when he joined the Wolverines’ lineup, but looked like the guy the Blackhawks selected 13th overall in 2022 at the US World Junior Summer Showcase. He was the leading scorer in the games and showed the speed that made him an elite prospect before the injury impacted his freshman season. I cannot wait to see him in the college game this season; he’ll likely have a good crack at the top-line center spot with Adam Fantilli now playing for the Blue Jackets.
“Now it’s kind of just building up and this year hopefully we will get the job done,” Nazar said. “I think we’ll have a good squad and obviously I have to go into camp and show I can make the team but I’m really excited for that and there’s a lot of motivation going behind it.”
Wishing the happiest of Blackhawks birthdays to Eddie Olczyk. Edzo was the third overall pick in the 1984 NHL Draft, following Mario Lemieux and Kirk Muller off the board. He spent the first three and last two seasons of his great NHL career with his hometown team and worked in the television booth for the Blackhawks in the years that followed. He’s one of the best humans on the planet. Hoping for the best of health and happiness for him in the coming year!
The Red Wings and Habs made an Original Six deal on a Tuesday in August. What a time to be alive! Veteran right-hand defenseman Jeff Petry heads to the Motor City with the Canadiens eating some money; you might recall Pittsburgh traded him to Montreal on Aug. 6 and also retained salary, thus Detroit only being on the hook for 37.5 percent of his cap hit (or $2,343,750 per CapFriendly). Lindstrom, 24, was a second-round pick by the Wings in 2017 and has appeared in 128 NHL games (36 last season). He, too, is a right-shot defenseman.
Finally, lots of love for PCA this week. Yesterday, Cubs GM Carter Hawkins said he could be in the mix for a September call-up. Which is something. How did the Cubs’ top prospect respond to the news? How about a walk-off home run for Iowa?!?
