The biggest priorities for the Chicago Blackhawks this summer

The Chicago Blackhawks are in the early stages of their rebuild, but they’ve gotten a lot of their work cut out for them by already landing a potential superstar in Connor Bedard thanks to winning the draft lottery. They still need to fill a plethora of holes surrounding him and that’s not going to be solved in one offseason, but they can certainly get that in the right direction with some smart moves.

Frank Seravalli and Colby Cohen talked about the Chicago Blackhawks on Daily Faceoff Live, and what their plans for the offseason will be now that they have the first overall selection.

Colby Cohen: I think their average age of 28.7 is going to drop substantially for next season. I think there was a misnomer that the Hawks were this young team last year when they really weren’t. Obviously you land Connor Bedard, so you want to put some players around him, and everybody keeps talking about Domi and Athanasiou.

Look, I think Athanasiou will get a nice contract offer to return to Chicago because I don’t think he’s going to get that money or close to that money anywhere else. Max Domi is another guy that really endeared himself to fans, he showed he can play anywhere in the lineup, he’s a leader, he plays hard. I think he’s going to be playing himself onto a good team for big money. I think he’s had a great playoffs, so I don’t think he’s going to be available.

And I don’t think Kyle Davidson is looking to do any more than one-year deals for players because I do believe that they’re staying on track with this slow rebuild, taking their time, they don’t want to rush things. They’re going to see how some of their prospects come in, Kevin Korchinski the defenseman, Vlasic probably takes a step into the NHL, Lukas Reichel is ready for full-time action in the NHL.

And then I believe they’re going to go out and sign a couple of veteran free agents. They’re going to have to overpay to be at the cap floor, but ultimately, I would expect a similar looking group, only younger with more prospects finally entering the NHL for the Hawks as you get into year 2 of the rebuild.

Frank Seravalli: Yeah, I think you summed it up quite nicely. I’ll say one thing to also keep in mind for the Chicago Blackhawks this summer: take a look at that projected cap space of $42 million. Yeah, you need to fill out your roster a bit and sign guys to inexpensive short-term deals to maybe provide Connor Bedard with a little bit of support so that he can step into the NHL and have success in his rookie year.

You know what else you’re going to do with that cap space? You’re going to be taking on some tough contracts from some other teams around the league. I believe the Hawks will be aggressive on that front, especially if the salary cap is only increasing $1 million this summer as it’s currently projected. I still think it’s going to be going up by more than that, but we’ll see, that’s going to be a big chip for Kyle Davidson to play.

You can watch the full episode here…