I spoke with a reliable source this morning on the Mikkel Boedker rumor I first heard from him, as well as (finally) whether the Hawks were/are legitimately interested in Jonathan Drouin—as well as the team's overall stance/plans regarding their roster plans before the trade deadline.
RUMORS
Boedker
Arizona and their impending UFA forward are talking about a new deal, with not a lot of progress at this point. However, Arizona also remains a surprise playoff contender in the anemic Pacific Division. If that remains the case, then the likelihood of Boedker getting moved before the trade deadline goes down. If Arizona fades in the standings, then the status of contract talks could greatly influence his marketability prior to the deadline.
Drouin
I finally got confirmation, from my sources, of the Hawks interest in the Tampa Bay left wing. The sticking points here are the Hawks not being insanely interested in Drouin—they like him and his upside—but not at the price currently being asked by Lightning General Manager Steve Yzerman. Further, the Hawks lack the specific assets Yzerman wants—most likely a young, high upside blueliner who could be plugged in to Tampa’s back-end relatively soon, if not immediately.
What Can Be Expected
My source is fairly confident the Blackhawks are going to make a move (or moves) by the trade deadline. Meanwhile, he confirmed as well that the Hawks love (“LOVE… with heart emoticons) Erik Gustafsson—who they see as still “raw… but improving and moving toward a significant upside right now. This makes Rockford blueliner Ville Pokka the Hawks’ “most likely… trade chip. Also that the team does not view any current roster or system players (including Andrew Shaw and Richard Panik) as “the answer… at left wing on Jonathan Toews’ line. The gist of what I heard is: “it’s fine for now, but . . .…
What this can be taken to mean is: if there is a move or moves before the TDL, the likely acquisition will be some kind of left wing who can play in the top 6.
Chicago Blackhawks at Montreal Canadiens 7:30PM Eastern/6:30 Central NBCSN/RDS/SportsNet/CSN Chicago
THE BUZZ
The Canadiens started the season red hot, but have cooled off a bit of late. The Hawks come into the game winners of 8 straight, riding a wave of confidence. If there’s any negative to the Hawks’ play of late is that they are still giving up a lot of shots many nights. One important (and possibly mitigating) factor there though is the quality of shots opponents are getting—I plan to look into this more in-depth this weekend.
PROJECTED LINEUPS
Chicago
Shaw Toews Hossa Panarin Anisimov Kane Desjardins Danault Teravainen Panik Rasmussen Garbutt
Keith Hjalmarsson van Riemsdyk Seabrook Scuderi Rozsival
Crawford
Montreal
Pacioretty Plekanec Gallagher Eller Galchenyuk Andrighetto Fleischmann Desharnais Byron Carr Mitchell Flynn
Markov Subban Beaulieu Petry Emelin Barberio
Condon
I’ll have a recap tomorrow.
JJ