Blackhawks 2024/25 regular season*

[Hot Sauce]

Penguins, Sens, and Sabres have been busy.

[Hot Sauce]

Donato will remain a Blackhawk. If the offers weren’t good and I’m assuming they weren’t, I’m happy to have him sign a 3-year extension. He’s earned it and I like having his energy and effort around the young kids.

[Hot Sauce]

So this is what the 2025 trade deadline looks like for the Hawks. Pretty good work by Kyle from Chicago. 

In: Spencer Knight, Joe Veleno, Victor Soderstrom, Aku Raty, conditional 2026 1st round pick.

Out: Seth Jones, Petr Mrazek, Craig Smith, 2026 4th round pick, 2026 5th round pick.

[Hot Sauce]

Hawks are getting fun to watch. You can see it starting to come together. 

[Irrelevant Dude]

Someone explain the Shea Weber deal to me in a way that makes sense.

I get the Hawks have to reach the salary floor next season and have a ways to go to get there.  What I don't understand is the concept of achieving that through dead money.  If you need to spend $8 Million, isn't there an actual useful player who would take a 1 year deal for that same amount rather than paying someone just to sit at home?

[jersey cubs fan]

2 minutes ago, Irrelevant Dude said:

Someone explain the Shea Weber deal to me in a way that makes sense.

I get the Hawks have to reach the salary floor next season and have a ways to go to get there.  What I don't understand is the concept of achieving that through dead money.  If you need to spend $8 Million, isn't there an actual useful player who would take a 1 year deal for that same amount rather than paying someone just to sit at home?

There probably would be some second tier guy they could overpay (like all the 3rd/4th line guys they’ve overpaid the past two years) but then that guy would be on the roster and taking the space of a kid on an entry level contract you’d rather see play. 
 

Weber allows them to reach the floor more easily while keeping spots for Dach, Nazar, Slaggert, etc

[jersey cubs fan]

In other words, they already have Teuvo and Bertuzzi (and Foligno/Dickinson/Mikheyev) making multi millions and don’t need a middle sixer. They need a top line guy and have plenty of space to get one. 

[Hot Sauce]

12 minutes ago, Irrelevant Dude said:

Someone explain the Shea Weber deal to me in a way that makes sense.

I get the Hawks have to reach the salary floor next season and have a ways to go to get there.  What I don't understand is the concept of achieving that through dead money.  If you need to spend $8 Million, isn't there an actual useful player who would take a 1 year deal for that same amount rather than paying someone just to sit at home?

The idea is to spend money wisely to improve the team. Not just spending for the sake of trying to reach the cap floor. The roster is full of young guys on EL contracts. Eventually they’re all going to earn bigger contracts and we will need the cap room to accommodate those pay raises. What we don’t want is another situation like 2010 where we’re forced to deal good, young players in order to get under the cap. 

[jersey cubs fan]

Also, anybody worth anywhere near 8m isn’t taking a one year deal to play on a lottery team. You might (but probably won’t) be able to convince a $8m guy to take one year for a chance at the cup but not to keep a seat warm on a losing team. 

[sweetpeteman]

Also, Weber's deal is extremely flexible. If you don't need the $8m, you move it to the LTIR and it no longer counts against the cap. If you sign a guy for $8m cap hit and then need to move him (see Mrazek), it's a lot harder to move.

Plus, while Weber's cap hit is $8m, his actual salary is like $1m according to spotrac. 

[jersey cubs fan]

Freaking Foligno

 

 

good guy and all but this team won’t win until he’s done being Captain Default 

[jersey cubs fan]

Blackhawks call up Arty. He’s 19, was called up earlier but only to practice with the NHL team during AHL all star break. Their top prospect could slot in with Vlasic as the top pairing. Curious if he stays up the rest of the way or if this is just another taste of NHL for the kid. 
 

 

And also wonder if this is part of their draft evaluation for this year, because there is the chance they have opportunity to take a franchise DMan with first overall pick, who would slot ahead of every D they have in a deep D class. If they feel their guys are enough maybe they decide to go F no matter what. But if they have doubts about Arty, and Schaefer’s available to them, they have to consider it. 

[jersey cubs fan]

From Mark Lazarus on blue sky, 
 

Artyom indeed in. He's paired with Alec Martinez.

Jason Dickinson returns to the lineup. He'll be on Connor Bedard's wing, with Colton Dach on the other side. 

Spencer Knight starts.

 

Sörensen likes the idea of Levshunov making his debut against an elite, fast team like the Avalanche.

"Yeah, let's get after it. This is the NHL, right? You want to be in the NHL, you're gonna play the best."

[Tim]

On 3/8/2025 at 2:30 PM, Irrelevant Dude said:

Someone explain the Shea Weber deal to me in a way that makes sense.

I get the Hawks have to reach the salary floor next season and have a ways to go to get there.  What I don't understand is the concept of achieving that through dead money.  If you need to spend $8 Million, isn't there an actual useful player who would take a 1 year deal for that same amount rather than paying someone just to sit at home?

In addition to what else has been said, they did also get a former #11 overall pick in the deal as a sweetener. He hasn't had much success in the NHL so far, but he's having a really good year in Sweden. He's also still got the tools to excel. Sometimes d-men just take time to mature. 

[Hot Sauce]

Avs acting like MacKinnon just passed Gretzky and it was offsides. lol 

[Hot Sauce]

Blackhawks have some decisions to make soon with so many blueliners headed for the roster.

RHD, Murphy, Levshunov, Rinzel, Söderström, Crevier.

LHD, Vlasic, Kaiser, Korchinski, Del Mastro, Allan, Brodie.

I think a future top 4 of Vlasic, Levshunov, Korchinski, and Rinzel could be very strong. I like and prefer to keep Kaiser. 

Rinzel will be in Rockford next year. It remains to be seen how fast of a riser he will be but the reports on his progress in college have been exciting. 

Things are going to get crowded sooner than later.

[jersey cubs fan]

1 hour ago, Hot Sauce said:

Blackhawks have some decisions to make soon with so many blueliners headed for the roster.

RHD, Murphy, Levshunov, Rinzel, Söderström, Crevier.

LHD, Vlasic, Kaiser, Korchinski, Del Mastro, Allan, Brodie.

I think a future top 4 of Vlasic, Levshunov, Korchinski, and Rinzel could be very strong. I like and prefer to keep Kaiser. 

Rinzel will be in Rockford next year. It remains to be seen how fast of a riser he will be but the reports on his progress in college have been exciting. 

Things are going to get crowded sooner than later.

One or more of these guys is getting traded. Korchinski is a prime candidate 

[Hot Sauce]

6 hours ago, jersey cubs fan said:

One or more of these guys is getting traded. Korchinski is a prime candidate 

He wasn't ready for the NHL last season. I still have faith, but I could definitely see him on his way out.

[jersey cubs fan]

Donato, Nazar, Bedard looking hot for first ten minutes 

[jersey cubs fan]

And the second period meltdown accelerates in a hurry  

[Tryptamine]

Maybe I'm wrong because I don't actually watch the games, but I swear the Blackhawks are at least tied if not leading after the first period in the majority of their games then I look again a period later and they're losing. 

[jersey cubs fan]

58 minutes ago, Tryptamine said:

Maybe I'm wrong because I don't actually watch the games, but I swear the Blackhawks are at least tied if not leading after the first period in the majority of their games then I look again a period later and they're losing. 

FYI:

 

[jersey cubs fan]

Connor speaks

 

https://www.chsn.com/videos/connor-bedard-exclusive-interview-1742505428298

[jersey cubs fan]

Blackhawks call up Korchinski again. He’s already had a lot of NHL action so he’s not really a guy you need to see at this level. Wonder if plan is to send Arty back before he burns his first year 

[bddavidson]

On 3/21/2025 at 9:53 AM, jersey cubs fan said:

Connor speaks

 

https://www.chsn.com/videos/connor-bedard-exclusive-interview-1742505428298

At the risk of being the guy who reads too much into tone or body language, I don't have access to CHSN and haven't really heard him speak before.  Is he always this...dull?  Otherwise he sounds pretty checked out.