A couple of my better sources on the Hawks dropped me lines today, confirming some of the things I’d expressed on the previous blog’s thread.


1) Brad Richards, in all likelihood, will not be a Hawk.

(I caveat that because you never can rule anything out when you have $14 million in cap room)

2) The emphasis this offseason is on rebuilding depth– not adding big contracts

One ex-Hawk who very well might be returning, I am told, is Ben Eager.

This accompanies a rumor I heard a few weeks back and blogged here, that John Madden may be returning. Look also for more lower-priced, 4th line type additions.

3) Stan Bowman is serious about a couple of things he’s saying.

The first being the very real possibility of 2011 first round pick Mark McNeill making the team. The Hawks were overjoyed that a player they had ranked much higher fell into their laps. This doesn’t mean McNeill will make the team— it only means it’s not just talk.

The second being that John Scott will get some more ice time in certain situations— the Hawks believe he makes a difference in terms of limiting nonsense from other teams.

4) The Hawks had a very successful draft.

I will be posting Wiz’ complete draft grades in the next day or two. The two names a lot of people are talking about in terms of being steals where the Hawks grabbed them are McNeill and Brandon Saad.

Interestingly, the Hawks 2nd first round selection, Philip Danault, was compared to Valteri Fillipula (as I did independently) by Red Line Report. At least 5 players (McNeill, Saad, Danault, Adam Clendening and 5th round selection Maxim Shalunov) project as potential top 6/top 4 players.

While the Hawks probably have few bona fide projectable superstars in their system, after last season’s talent sell-off and the last three drafts, they are now stacked to the rafters with projectable, solid NHL players. The pipeline is overflowing with legitimate NHL prospects. While most teams have talent pipelines sporting 5-15 (at most) future NHL players, the Hawks have set themselves up with possibly 20 or more (players in bold have already seen limited NHL action)

Mark McNeill, C Rd. 1/2011
Philp Danault, LW Rd. 1/2011
Kyle Clendening, D Rd. 2/2011
Brandon Saad, LW Rd. 2, 2011
Dylan Olsen, D Rd. 1/2009
Jeremy Morin, LW Rd. 2/2011
Kyle Beach, LW Rd. 1/2008
Kevin Hayes, LW Rd. 1/2010
Marcus Kruger, C Rd. 5/2009
Shawn Lalonde, D Rd. 3/2007
Brandon Pirri, C Rd. 2/2009
Ivan Vishnevskiy, D Rd. 1/2008
Jimmy Hayes, RW Rd. 2/2009
Stephen Johns, D Rd. 2/2010
Alexander Salak, G FA
Ludvig Rensfeldt, LW Rd. 1/2010
Justin Holl, D Rd. 2/2010
Igor Makarov, RW Rd. 2/2006
Ben Smith, RW FA
Philippe Paradis, LW Rd. 1/2008
Rob Flick, C Rd. 4, 2009
Joakim Nordstrom, C Rd. 3, 2010
Ryan Stanton, D FA
Maxim Shalunov, C Rd. 5, 2011
Kent Simpson, G Rd. 2, 2010

In all, 8 former first round picks and 9 former second rounders. (If I am off by years or draft rounds on any of these, my apologies—I know I nailed all the first and second rounders).

Thanks for reading,



JJ

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