Blackhawks need to be aggressive this summer to get young core help
We often compare teams when they are going through rebuilds, and we’ve done that all year long with the Chicago Blackhawks and the San Jose Sharks, specifically, how each front office surrounded their franchise No. 1 overall selection.
On today’s episode of Daily Faceoff Live, Frank Seravalli and Tyler Yaremchuk talk about what the Blackhawks need to do this summer to get their young core some help and push the team in the winning direction.
Tyler Yaremchuk: The Chicago Blackhawks are interesting to compare to the San Jose Sharks and what the vibe levels are around those two franchises. For the Hawks, I mean, you can look and see a very, very good young core. They’ve picked eight times in the first round in the last three years, and up front, it’s guys like Connor Bedard, Frank Nazar and Oliver Moore who came up at the end of the year, filling out their younger roster spots. The blue line has some really intriguing pieces, not only with Alex Vlasic, who’s taking some really big strides, Arytom Levshunov and a bunch of other guys. But what do they need to add this summer, and how aggressive should they be?
Frank Seravalli: They should be pretty aggressive, but they need to add players that fit their age scheme that can be there for a while. The idea that they went into last summer with was, ‘Hey, we’re gonna spend money because we have to get to the cap floor to bring in some vets that can prop everyone up.’ They went for older guys on shorter-term deals by necessity because they didn’t want anyone who was hamming up their cap for the future, but those guys also were willing to sign as free agents on reduced-term deals because of what the marketplace presented and what it thought of them.
Frank Seravalli: So, they’ve got some really interesting pieces. They need proper support, and beyond that, Connor Bedard needs two things: a full and total mental reset and two, he needs to really improve his skating mechanics, and I’ll even add in a third one, he needs to develop a shot-first mentality. I think Bedard has one of the top five shots in the NHL, but you look at his game, and he tends to think of himself more as a playmaker and has acknowledged that as much publicly. Put the puck on net, use the weapon that you have in your arsenal, and things will get better for you in a hurry.
Frank Seravalli: . I think this team, you see, is projected with cap space of $31 million; $64 million is the minimum amount that they must spend over the next three years. $63 million just to get to the floor in the future. So, tons of spending to come, I think the Blackhawks should be more competitive, and you gotta taste of Valsic and what he’s done, you look at some of the other guys coming like Levshunov, very impressive start to his NHL career, and then they finally started to sprinkle in some forwards. They’ve got tons of bottom-six guys. Their defense corps is set for their foreseeable future; they’ve got their goalie in Spencer Knight. They just need more help at the very top of the pyramid, which, no surprise to anyone, is the hardest to acquire.