After a very active free agent period that saw them bring in several veterans in an effort to become more competitive next season, it appears as if the Blackhawks are finished with trying to land at the bottom of the standings. Ben Pope of the Chicago Sun-Times suggests that they’re taking a risk in doing so since they haven’t landed a second high-end forward prospect to partner up with Connor Bedard down the road. Chicago has ample defensive depth and some quality goalie prospects but among their forward prospects, there aren’t any who project as high-end top-line talent (someone like Frank Nazar could get there in time but the safer planning would be with him in a second-line role). Having said that, the Blackhawks will have ample cap space moving forward so if they don’t draft a running mate for Bedard, they could try to land one in free agency down the road.
Elsewhere around the hockey world:
- Former Sharks GM Doug Wilson acknowledged to Sheng Peng of NBC Sports Bay Area that he made a mistake in not retaining Joe Pavelski back in 2019. The veteran forward was coming off a strong year that saw him put up 38 goals but he had dealt with injuries the two years before that while they also committed big money to retain Evander Kane and Erik Karlsson, not leaving enough for them to pay market value for Pavelski’s services. He went on to play five seasons in Dallas before calling it a career earlier this offseason.
- Stefan Rosner of The Hockey News assesses the goaltending depth of the Islanders and suggests that Jakub Skarek’s time with the organization could be coming to an end. Marcus Hogberg is expected to serve as the starter with AHL Bridgeport while Henrik Tikkanen greatly outperformed Skarek last season and should serve as Hogberg’s backup. Skarek has one year left on his deal so it’s possible that New York will look to flip the 24-year-old to a team looking for extra goalie depth. If that fails, Rosner wonders if the two sides would consider a mutual contract termination which would allow him to try to catch on overseas.
- Veteran free agent winger Michael Mersch is considering retirement, relays Lance Lysowski of The Buffalo News. The 31-year-old had been a staple for Buffalo’s AHL team in Rochester the past four seasons and is coming off a 15-goal, 38-point showing in 66 games in 2023-24. Mersch has 17 career NHL appearances under his belt, all with Los Angeles back in the 2015-16 campaign.
If you want to know why San Jose is at bottom. Choose Evander Kane over Joe Pavelski.
I don’t really agree that the Hawks don’t have running mates for Bedard. Teuvo and Bertuzzi could flourish there or the Hawks haven’t even signed Greene or Hayes yet and they will be at least AHL ready coming out of a full college experience. I will admit that maybe drafting Boisvert over Eiserman might have been a mistake, But again like you said even if he’s not here Davidson has more than enough bullets in his gun left to trade for somebody. And Oliver Moore could end up being that guy if he fills out a little. The Hawks have a ton of C’s coming and he might not have to play there.