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Hockey season approaches, and as it does, we have a few somewhat intriguing topics to discuss.

The hockey world is fairly churned up this morning over revelations that Winnipeg defender Jacob Trouba may be on the market.

Trouba is probably going to be a #2 defenseman on some team's blue line for the next several years. And, with all quality young players coming on the market, Hawk fan speculation has turned to "what if he could be acquired by Chicago?"

The chances of such a move are essentially nil.

Look at it this way: after each Chicago Stanley Cup, there's been a salary cap bleed and a rebuild. But one thing some Hawk fans fail to see is that over time since 2010, the team has slowly accumulated more long-term big money commitments to a growing core of players. and a stagnant salary cap.

As a result, there is fairly compelling evidence that the post-2015 rebuild is going slower and tougher. And might not lead to another Cup.

The reasons are simple. Draft position and dollars. The Blackhawks have gone the route of other top teams—and rightfully so— of shipping off draft picks and prospects for late-season roster tweaks. Sometimes it works (2015), and sometimes it doesn't (2016).

Meanwhile, for every Artemi Panarin acquired, there's a Brandon Saad (and a Patrick Sharp) sacrificed to the salary cap monster.

And it's not a new story. It's just a new team. Look no further than the de-escalation of the Detroit Red Wings since their last Cup. Still a good, competitive team and, until recently, still stocked with some great star names, but just not able to balance their big salary commitments with younger talent acquisition.

So the reality of the Hawk blueline, for example, is grooming decent prospects like Gustav Forsling or Ville Pokka to eventually work their way into some role at the NHL level—not acquiring a Jacob Trouba or an Oliver Ekman-Larsson.

The Hawks, as a team built and paid to contend, don't have the significantly valuable spare parts to trade for talent like that, and they don't have the cap room 1-2 years out for subsequent contracts for elite prospects.

That's not an opinion. It's a fact.

is it possible Stan Bowman et al could hit on a later round draft pick (or a later pick in any round), and come up with a Colton Parayko? Sure. Have they since grabbing Brandon Saad at #43 overall in 2011 (five years ago)? No.

Is it possible they can scour the globe and unearth another Panarin? Yes, but, as time passes and if there are more first round exits or worse still missed playoffs, the odds are not as good those players can be persuaded to forego more salary cap room for their second contracts elsewhere.

Which leads naturally to the "debate" over signing undrafted QMJHL free agent Alexandre Fortin. In a league where players are drafted at 17-18 years of age, there are always players who emerge from undrafted or latter round status to become very good NHL players.

Is Fortin one of those? Way too early to tell. He's been one of the best, if not the absolute best—Hawk prospects this summer. So for a team with arguably a "bottom third" prospect pipeline, it would seem the Hawks need to place some chips on Fortin, sign him to a contract, and see if he continues to develop.

In the WCH, last night we saw Hawks on both ends of the ice. Jonathan Toews and Corey Crawford's Canada side advance to the finals, with Artem Anisimov and Artemi Panarin relegated to third or fourth place. Today, Marcus Kruger and Niklas Hjalmarsson face Marian Hossa.

Good news, all of these players have looked good in their roles in the WCH, especially Toews and Hossa.


All for now,


JJ

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