Chicago Blackhawks Season Preview

[PsychoticPondGoons]

Background:  
The Hawks completed their first season under new ownership and the results were mixed. Although the team made the postseason for the first time in two years, ownership was not happy with the team's performance especially that of stars Sharp, Little, and Hamonic who were all shipped off as a consequence of the team's early playoff exit.

The new owner has shown he's not afraid to pull the trigger on a deal (traded captain Toews, bluechipper Jack Campbell and stars Keith, Stafford, Grabner, Korprovski, Burns, all last year) or purge players from the roster he felt were underperforming (bought out a slew of players including Brian Campbell, Martin, Hjalmarsson, Kulemin, Bolland, Matt Greene).

This year:
Chicago looks to continue building on a core of young guns in Brassard, Gallagher, McDonald, Dillon, Irwin, Redmond and cornerstone Carey Price. Cap space was cleared during the off-season to allow for more deals and free agent signings, something the new owner missed out on in 2012. Expect more blockbusters throughout the year from this active team.

Strengths:
Ownership with deep pockets
Savvy management team
Available cap
Star goalie about to enter his prime

Weaknesses:
Few FNHL ready prospects in the pipeline
Few high draft picks
Left Wing
Center

Needs: 
LW's (currently has none)
Depth at Center
Prospect goalie

Future Outlook:
How Chicago performs in the coming years will depend on the team's ability to stock their Baltimore Ravens minor league team with talented prospects. Nevertheless you can expect Chicago to be hyper active on all front to assemble a competitive franchise.

Blackhawks will be a contender again in 2013-14 with new stars to be added to the roster via Free Agency and the trade market. There's plenty of excitement and optimism brewing in the windy city.

[PsychoticPondGoons]

What do yo think Snug? Up to your standards man?

[snugerud]

Yup,, i guess it will have to do. ha ha. 

great job on the blackhawks franchise.  I think we end up targetting a lot of the same players. 

[PigsRule]

Background:  
The Hawks completed their first season under new ownership and the results were mixed. Although the team made the postseason for the first time in two years, ownership was not happy with the team's performance especially that of stars Sharp, Little, and Hamonic who were all shipped off as a consequence of the team's early playoff exit.

The new owner has shown he's not afraid to pull the trigger on a deal (traded captain Toews, bluechipper Jack Campbell and stars Keith, Stafford, Grabner, Korprovski, Burns, all last year) or purge players from the roster he felt were underperforming (bought out a slew of players including Brian Campbell, Martin, Hjalmarsson, Kulemin, Bolland, Matt Greene).

This year:
Chicago looks to continue building on a core of young guns in Brassard, Gallagher, McDonald, Dillon, Irwin, Redmond and cornerstone Carey Price. Cap space was cleared during the off-season to allow for more deals and free agent signings, something the new owner missed out on in 2012. Expect more blockbusters throughout the year from this active team.

Strengths:
Ownership with deep pockets
Savvy management team
Available cap
Star goalie about to enter his prime

Weaknesses:
Few FNHL ready prospects in the pipeline
Few high draft picks
Left Wing
Center

Needs: 
LW's (currently has none)
Depth at Center
Prospect goalie

Future Outlook:
How Chicago performs in the coming years will depend on the team's ability to stock their Baltimore Ravens minor league team with talented prospects. Nevertheless you can expect Chicago to be hyper active on all front to assemble a competitive franchise.

Blackhawks will be a contender again in 2013-14 with new stars to be added to the roster via Free Agency and the trade market. There's plenty of excitement and optimism brewing in the windy city.

[PsychoticPondGoons]

Hawks name Mike Richards team captain with the departure of Paddy Sharp.

[PsychoticPondGoons]

Needs: 
LW's (currently has none)
Depth at Center
 

By adding Jeff Carter in our recent deal with Philly we've started to address this area. More deals to come. 

[PsychoticPondGoons]

We're not done recruiting new Hawks from FA but here's the line-up that'll serve up a world of pain against your team.

Line 1: Iginla - Richards - J.Carter
Line 2: Skille - Brassard - Morrow
Line 3: C.McDonald - Cizikas - McGinn
D1-2: McQuaid - M.Greene
D3-4: Brewer - M.Stuart
D5-6: Irwin - Stoner
G: Carey Price

Bench:
R.Carter
C.Fraser
Smyth
Glass
Comeau
Niederreiter
Tropp
O'Brien
Manning
White
Lauridsen

Back-ups:
Biron
Berube

[PsychoticPondGoons]

Drunk guy sings Bohemian Rhapsody in backseat of police car is our team's 2013/14 theme song!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqymcJRSbxI

[PsychoticPondGoons]

Taking a peek back at my Hawks' season preview to see if we made any strides forward.

Background:  
The Hawks completed their first season under new ownership and the results were mixed. Although the team made the postseason for the first time in two years, ownership was not happy with the team's performance especially that of stars Sharp, Little, and Hamonic who were all shipped off as a consequence of the team's early playoff exit.

The new owner has shown he's not afraid to pull the trigger on a deal (traded captain Toews, bluechipper Jack Campbell and stars Keith, Stafford, Grabner, Korprovski, Burns, all last year) or purge players from the roster he felt were underperforming (bought out a slew of players including Brian Campbell, Martin, Hjalmarsson, Kulemin, Bolland, Matt Greene).

Savvy ownership and management still leading the way in Chicago! 

This year:
Chicago looks to continue building on a core of young guns in Brassard, Gallagher, McDonald, Dillon, Irwin, Redmond and cornerstone Carey Price. Cap space was cleared during the off-season to allow for more deals and free agent signings, something the new owner missed out on in 2012. Expect more blockbusters throughout the year from this active team.

Hmmmmm, looks like we got tired of waiting for Brassard, McDonald to produce and shipped them off to Beantown and San Jose respectively. LOL

As for Gallagher and Dillon they were part of trade packages for other pieces we needed to help our club improve. I think we landed Jeff Carter and Hartnell in those packages.

Irwin and Redmond are still around trying to earn more playing time. 

Strengths:
Ownership with deep pockets
Savvy management team
Available cap
Star goalie about to enter his prime

Yes.
Yes.
No more cap left to spend. There's always the off season when the cap increases. 
Yes.

Weaknesses:
Few FNHL ready prospects in the pipeline
Few high draft picks
Left Wing
Center

Re-stocked our Baltimore Ravens MiLR with several stud prospects.
Would be good to get more high draft picks for 2014. 
LW is strong and deep.
Center is also strong and deep.

Needs: 
LW's (currently has none)
Depth at Center
Prospect goalie

Addressed LW situation.
Addressed C depth.
Addressed prospect G and even traded one away in Cameron Talbot earlier in the season to land Krejci. 

Future Outlook:
How Chicago performs in the coming years will depend on the team's ability to stock their Baltimore Ravens minor league team with talented prospects. Nevertheless you can expect Chicago to be hyper active on all front to assemble a competitive franchise.

Blackhawks will be a contender again in 2013-14 with new stars to be added to the roster via Free Agency and the trade market. There's plenty of excitement and optimism brewing in the windy city.

My Hawks have been Top 3 in the West all season so far (knock on wood  )
In fact we've been Top 3 in FNHL. 
We will need to get some better prospects into our farm system but we've got some time to take care of that piece of business.

[dickiedunn]

See you in the play-offs. ;-)