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Well, we know who the players are—the Hawks are very unlikely to make any more moves before the start of the regular season.

Now how will they be deployed by Joel Quenneville?

Let's start with one basic premise: change will be the one constant. Few coaches tweak their lines as often as Quenneville does. And this season, Q has to find some new chemistry with some relatively new faces (a lot of AHL guys who've had brief auditions in Chicago previously).

The defense remains intact (which is very good news for Hawk fans, and bad news for the rest of the NHL—because arguably the main thing that separated the Hawks from the rest of the NHL last year was, in fact, their blueline).

Nikolai Khabibulin replaces Ray Emery as 1B in net. OK.

The questions are upfront—who replaces Viktor Stalberg, Michal Frolik and Dave Bolland?

Another premise to work with—ignore the depth charts on cbh.com. That's just someone's best guess. Nothing more.

Bolland was your 2nd line center last year. And that raises the age-old question of the 2C position.

Rookie Brandon Pirri, who led the AHL in scoring last year, is going to get a long look. Pirri has speed and some creativity, but he is small and not physical and completely unproven against the big boys.

Ageless Michal Handzus held the job briefly in the playoffs with some good results. Handzus, in terms of skill, is sort of the opposite of Pirri. Handzus is very effective in the dot and thinks the game very well. He just doesn't move very well at all.

A third candidate is recently re-signed Marcus Kruger, who held the job for much of the 2012-13 season.

Kruger has some untapped upside, maybe more than many realize, and he is very much the "replacement" for Bolland, although I suspect it will be as 3C.

2C is going to be "by committee" until Pirri, Kruger or someone—a dark horse might be 2011 first round pick Philip Danault who appears to be ready for some NHL action this season—jumps up and take over the job.

And that's fine, because that's how the position has been manned for a number of seasons now.

A second question is the 3C role, and I believe that job is Kruger's to lose. For all intents and purposes, the Hawks had two shutdown lines last year, one of which was centered by Kruger. While the Hawks might not be as deep this year, they have their 3C.

The next question is a big one: who delivers the energy and penalty killing of Frolik? This also will be by committee. Again, were Danault to exceed expectations and really make a big leap this year, he would be the ideal candidate. Very fast, highly aware defensively, strong on faceoffs. But that's probably unlikely. I think you will see Brandon Bollig (a good PK guy actually), Handzus, or possibly Jeremy Morin, getting some more time alongside Kruger on the top PK unit.

The last question: who replaces Stalberg. Easy, Brandon Saad. Saad might not be quite as fast as Stalberg, but he has more hockey sense and should be even better this year.

Bryan Bickell is going to be in the top 6 this year—unless he reverts to his sleepwalking form of years past. And as a result, just by sheer numbers and barring injury, Saad will be on the third line.

So what does the opening night lineup look like? Somehting like this, methinks:

Bickell-Toews-Kane
Sharp-Pirri-Hossa
Saad-Kruger-Shaw
Bollig-Handzus-Carcillo
Morin
Hayes

Keith-Seabrook
Oduya-Hjalmarsson
Leddy-Rozsival
Brookbank

Crawford
Khabibulin


Something like that. And subject to change.


All for now,


JJ

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