How would you realistically fix the Hawks?

anotheridiot

Well-known member
Joined:
Jul 15, 2016
Posts:
5,935
Liked Posts:
799
I don't think they're a Cup contender right now, either. They need several players to take a big leap forward to make that happen.


This is where I always get stuck. You cannot have several players taking big leaps when they get their minutes and position changed by signing betterans. Kunitz is an older guy that will still get you 30 points, but who is not in the top 6 because he is here? The guys that were noticeable were off and on Schmaltz, always Debrincat and at the start of the season Haydon. Vinnie Hinnie was consistent but needs to put points on his sheet. He has so much speed to be a nuisance forechecker and contribute without points, but he needs to continue to grow. Will Ejdesll get more than 6 games this year or be back and forth.

Kane cant be a -20 and Keith can definitely not be a -29, but will cat even get to the 18-20 minute plateau this year and will he fall off because of it?
 

LordKOTL

Scratched for Vorobiev
Joined:
Dec 8, 2014
Posts:
8,605
Liked Posts:
3,088
Location:
PacNW
My favorite teams
  1. Portland Timbers
  1. Chicago Blackhawks
This is where I always get stuck. You cannot have several players taking big leaps when they get their minutes and position changed by signing betterans. Kunitz is an older guy that will still get you 30 points, but who is not in the top 6 because he is here? The guys that were noticeable were off and on Schmaltz, always Debrincat and at the start of the season Haydon. Vinnie Hinnie was consistent but needs to put points on his sheet. He has so much speed to be a nuisance forechecker and contribute without points, but he needs to continue to grow. Will Ejdesll get more than 6 games this year or be back and forth.

Kane cant be a -20 and Keith can definitely not be a -29, but will cat even get to the 18-20 minute plateau this year and will he fall off because of it?

Exactly!

I think it's more than that though. You look at a player like, say, Toews, and one of the things some fans blither on about is the fact that he's been so down because of the guys he's played with. Well...he's been down for 3 straight years. Not Arkhipov-level of liability, but down and that's something you can't have from a 10.5M captain. At what point does the brass look at him and say, "We're spending assets for the guys performing. You want quality? Up your game."

I think a major issue is that Q was constantly leaning on core guys who simply didn't have it. At the minimum by the time Crawford went down, and at the maximum when Kempny was traded Q should have stopped leaning on him. He didn't have much of anything last year. Yet, Q still did.

I'm not going to say it prevented the team from winning, but I seriously doubt Rutta, Gus, Murph, etc. could have done much worse in that regard and by that time there was no reason left to win out. Forsberg, Berube, Glass, & Delia were all being shelled night/in-night/out, and You don't have much O help outside of Kane (who was brutal in the backened--almost as bad as Keith) & El Gato. How could it have possibly hurt to give some of the youngins a bit more time rather than fall back on the aging core who was doing all of jack and shit? Ditto at FWD. No reason El Gato couldn't have taken some minutes from Saad.

I lay that at the feet of Q.
 

RacerX

Silicon Valley CA Bears H
Joined:
Aug 21, 2012
Posts:
9,873
Liked Posts:
9,947
Location:
Silicon Valley, CA
Exactly!

I think it's more than that though. You look at a player like, say, Toews, and one of the things some fans blither on about is the fact that he's been so down because of the guys he's played with. Well...he's been down for 3 straight years. Not Arkhipov-level of liability, but down and that's something you can't have from a 10.5M captain. At what point does the brass look at him and say, "We're spending assets for the guys performing. You want quality? Up your game."

I think a major issue is that Q was constantly leaning on core guys who simply didn't have it. At the minimum by the time Crawford went down, and at the maximum when Kempny was traded Q should have stopped leaning on him. He didn't have much of anything last year. Yet, Q still did.

I'm not going to say it prevented the team from winning, but I seriously doubt Rutta, Gus, Murph, etc. could have done much worse in that regard and by that time there was no reason left to win out. Forsberg, Berube, Glass, & Delia were all being shelled night/in-night/out, and You don't have much O help outside of Kane (who was brutal in the backened--almost as bad as Keith) & El Gato. How could it have possibly hurt to give some of the youngins a bit more time rather than fall back on the aging core who was doing all of jack and shit? Ditto at FWD. No reason El Gato couldn't have taken some minutes from Saad.

I lay that at the feet of Q.

Agreed, Q owns some blame. But the greater truth is that it's the roster makeup and contracts that are gong prevent this team from seriously competing for at least another 3 seasons IMO.

Stan can and should be blamed, but regardless of whom is blamed we are screwed short and mid-term, and the Cup(s) runs were all absolutely worth it we can agree.

Now it's our turn to be the Wangs of recent past.
 

anotheridiot

Well-known member
Joined:
Jul 15, 2016
Posts:
5,935
Liked Posts:
799
I am still one to blame the concussions on Toews downfall, just cannot keep the pace he was putting himself on while constantly getting chucked in the back of the head in front of the net. People almost forgot how much punishment he took there, and its hard to blame them since he rarely goes there anymore. Its the NBA point guard who has no fear going to the rim, how many of them have had a long career? Steve Francis, Derrick Rose, its an impossible pace to keep up. Same with getting your bell rung, but not being able to see clearly or having dizzy spells. I am still convinced its why we did not see Crow all of the end of last year, I dont know if 10 months is a proper period to recover or not. I sure hope we never find out he was in substance abuse and the organization did not learn anything from Toews.
 

LordKOTL

Scratched for Vorobiev
Joined:
Dec 8, 2014
Posts:
8,605
Liked Posts:
3,088
Location:
PacNW
My favorite teams
  1. Portland Timbers
  1. Chicago Blackhawks
Agreed, Q owns some blame. But the greater truth is that it's the roster makeup and contracts that are gong prevent this team from seriously competing for at least another 3 seasons IMO.

Stan can and should be blamed, but regardless of whom is blamed we are screwed short and mid-term, and the Cup(s) runs were all absolutely worth it we can agree.

Now it's our turn to be the Wangs of recent past.

Hopefully not nearly as long as "The Dead-wings" era....or out 49 year drought.

Although 3 is optimistic IMHO...I'm thinking 5. That will be the expiry of Toews/Kane/Keith's deals.

Even so I can stomach a couple of bad years for 8 great ones--3 of which blagged us a cup.

Honestly though...both Stan and Q should be gone sooner rather than later. They have had their epic wins and epic fails, but right now the team needs a different direction.
 

MassHavoc

Moderator
Staff member
Joined:
May 14, 2010
Posts:
17,580
Liked Posts:
2,628
The real problem for fans, which the organization doesn't care about, is that they can go through a full rebuild now which could take at least 3 years to get back to the dominance and the fans will have to sit through shitty hockey without them lowering the ticket prices. I want my $10 tickets back.
 

RacerX

Silicon Valley CA Bears H
Joined:
Aug 21, 2012
Posts:
9,873
Liked Posts:
9,947
Location:
Silicon Valley, CA
Honestly though...both Stan and Q should be gone sooner rather than later. They have had their epic wins and epic fails, but right now the team needs a different direction.

The draft "strategy" is/was disturbing, they just cannot see or refuse to see (ore refuse to address) the size imbalance on the roster.
 

puckthefackers

Well-known member
Joined:
Aug 21, 2012
Posts:
779
Liked Posts:
922
The draft "strategy" is/was disturbing, they just cannot see or refuse to see (ore refuse to address) the size imbalance on the roster.

Q and Bowman allergic to players over 6’ and 200lbs. Maddening how small this team is
 

anotheridiot

Well-known member
Joined:
Jul 15, 2016
Posts:
5,935
Liked Posts:
799
Fix the PK, check.
Fix the D, in process
Backup Goalie, well, I cant say we are worse off with Ward
Leadership in locker room other than underperformers in seabrook and keith, check.
Get more physical (did he really try to do this? Manning, Ejdesll, Haydon????

Like he said, it depends how Stan pisses away this cap space.
 

bamainatlanta

You wake him up, you keep him up
Staff member
Donator
CCS Hall of Fame '22
Joined:
Aug 10, 2013
Posts:
33,970
Liked Posts:
34,019
Location:
Cumming
Trade Toews, Trade Seabrook, Trade Duncan, Trade Crawford for whatever I could get. Pretty much start over. Build around Kane, Saad. Sign free agents. Resign myself to the fact that the Hawks will suck for a couple of years. One last run with the Kaner
 

RacerX

Silicon Valley CA Bears H
Joined:
Aug 21, 2012
Posts:
9,873
Liked Posts:
9,947
Location:
Silicon Valley, CA
Trade Toews, Trade Seabrook, Trade Duncan, Trade Crawford for whatever I could get. Pretty much start over. Build around Kane, Saad. Sign free agents. Resign myself to the fact that the Hawks will suck for a couple of years. One last run with the Kaner

Trade them for what - other negative value contracts? We have minimal assets, embrace the suck until 2022.
 

MassHavoc

Moderator
Staff member
Joined:
May 14, 2010
Posts:
17,580
Liked Posts:
2,628
I'm not quite ready to relegate Seabs to Aucoin duty yet...
 

LordKOTL

Scratched for Vorobiev
Joined:
Dec 8, 2014
Posts:
8,605
Liked Posts:
3,088
Location:
PacNW
My favorite teams
  1. Portland Timbers
  1. Chicago Blackhawks
I'm not quite ready to relegate Seabs to Aucoin duty yet...
Let's hope Keith reverts from Matthew Keith.

Sent from my HTC U11 using Tapatalk
 

Top