So we're totally in on Panarin!
- resqmed99

Does the opposite tend to happen with an EK rumor?

They are the definition of Murphy’s law this year (but I like Murphy so far in his return). Might be a piece to build around as 4/5 with size to complement the skill guys on D coming up.


Anyone see if Sikura/Dahlstrom are playing tonight?
- EnzoD

Agreed! I don't know about your question though.

fixed...
- Slofire94

Haha, thanks.

Probably unfair about Kampf, Kahun, Gustafsson - very possibly (but probably not probably) quality lower-line/pairing skaters in the Show.
- StLBravesFan

Kampf, Kahun, Perlini and Hayden belong in the NHL, yeah, probably bottom 6 players but still with value and upside. Gustafsson is 27, not a kid anymore, if he hasn't figured it out yet it's probably doubtful it is going to change much going forward.

Patrick - 2nd pick of the draft
Provorov and Koneckny - 7th and 24th picks
Hart, Allison, Frost - we will see how they are when they make it to the NHL.
Koneckny, Sanhiem, Provorov all up for new contracts after this season, lets see where they fall. Simmonds also. A whole bunch of that cap space will be gone.

You pick that high you better draft well. Is Philly stocked or poised to be competitive.....maybe. They will be cup contenders based on what? What changes to get them from where they are at the bottom of the east?

Hextall never adequately addressed the goalie situation. We complain about Kruger or Manning or Rutta, Hextall handed Dale Weise a 4 year deal at $2.3, Lehtera is at $4.7 You have Giroux, Simmonds, Vorachek, Weise, Raffl, Lehtera all at 30 or over.

Since 2011-12 the Flyers have not realistically been cup contenders. Bottom line, they have not won or really been in the discussion for the Cup.

It's easy to Cherry pick trades and/or picks in a vacuum. Not defending Bowman, but his drafts have produced Jokiharju, Schmaltz, Hartman, Saad, Shaw, Danault, Teravianen, Hayes, Debrincat and others, all making contributions at the NHL level and none of them picked in the top 15 of the draft. They have guys like Boqvist, Beaudin, Barratt, Mitchell, Krys and Wise in the pipeline, seemingly decent picks, even though not high 1st rounders.

Bowman has handed out bloated contracts with NMC's, failed at some trades, reacted late and/or misread the market but I think his biggest flaw is that he has in many ways failed to set a direction and stick to it. He should be gone, but I would just as well hire one of the Asst. Gm's then rehash one of the old ones.
- TheTrob

Fair arguments, good points. Hextall took over in 2014, after the disastrous signings of Lecavelier and Emery. They were a bit hamstrung after those.

Flyers still have many 'maybe' prospects, but I think those guys will mostly pan out as very good NHL players.

I do agree that we should probably go with a fresher guy rather than recycling the old boy's club that seems to always happen in the NHL. I would love to have Yzerman, but he seems destined for Detroit.

The Barstool sports article about Barratt from November is great and the highlights are hilarious. He lights some dude up in the middle of the ice and makes a cry baby face at someone too. Anyone looking for the next Shaw or Bolland type, they may have that player there. Maybe closer to a healthy Bolland with his skill level.

- fattybeef

Barratt will most likely not be a full-time top 6 talent but could be an all-terrain forward who could slot anywhere in the lineup and be effective. If he does surprise and be a permanent top 6 fixture, he could be similar to Gallagher in Montreal. Otherwise, I could see him as Shaw-like. Either way, a forward who brings the sandpaper, has offensive skills, and is versatile position and line-wise.

He is also quite humble off the ice despite his gritty on-ice personality. Coaches love him because he listens and takes to feedback well.

Panarin....
With Calder Trophy winning superstar Panarin the team finished in first place
Without Panarin the team finished in last place.
With Panarin Kane hits 100 points
Without Panarin no way Kane does that well.
Was Panarin the sole reason for these things? No'
Was Panerin a huge factor in these things? Absolutely.
Getting rid of Panarin the way they did with less than half value coming back was the second worst trade in Blackhawks history and perhaps the worst in a long long line of bad trades. Nobody should be surprised at the state of this team. The trend suggests more damage coming.

Panarin....
With Calder Trophy winning superstar Panarin the team finished in first place
Without Panarin the team finished in last place.
With Panarin Kane hits 100 points
Without Panarin no way Kane does that well.
Was Panarin the sole reason for these things? No'
Was Panerin a huge factor in these things? Absolutely.
Getting rid of Panarin the way they did with less than half value coming back was the second worst trade in Blackhawks history and perhaps the worst in a long long line of bad trades. Nobody should be surprised at the state of this team. The trend suggests more damage coming.
- Savoy

Second worse? There are a whole lot of worse trades. Saad may not be Panarin, but he is far from a bust.

How about the Esposito, Roenick, Chelios, Belfour, Hasek trades to name just a few that were way worse.

Panarin....
With Calder Trophy winning superstar Panarin the team finished in first place
Without Panarin the team finished in last place.
With Panarin Kane hits 100 points
Without Panarin no way Kane does that well.
Was Panarin the sole reason for these things? No'
Was Panerin a huge factor in these things? Absolutely.
Getting rid of Panarin the way they did with less than half value coming back was the second worst trade in Blackhawks history and perhaps the worst in a long long line of bad trades. Nobody should be surprised at the state of this team. The trend suggests more damage coming.
- Savoy

And 0 playoff series wins. Please, regular season doesn't mean anything.

I have a trade proposal, trade the entire franchise to Seattle for the expansion rights. Only way to solve this mess.
- riozzo

Vegas and Seattle have a BIG advantage with the way the expansion draft works.

They basically are drafting almost all middle-six / middle pairing skaters - WITHOUT the burden of bad "legacy contracts".

They get clean rosters with decent players who can play in the league - and with good coaching, can surprise.

At least Vegas did; we'll see what Seattle can do.

I haven't read all of these comments yet but just wanted to add (hopefully) that Stan and McD really erred with the TIMING of firing Q. They must have thought this roster was good enough for the playoffs and all they needed was a new, inexperienced coach to get them there. (huh?)

I think Q would have done better than JC over the recent stretch. But what about after the new year or around the trade deadline? The expectations of a young, inexperienced coach would be low for a team already out of the playoffs. Maybe the team trades some veterans and has even more youngsters on the roster that a young coach could help, etc.

But now that I write that. In the context of that recent blog about a hopeful future, the idea of adding a couple solid free agents along with some young stars to an aging core... well, that's going to take a special coach to manage. A Hall of Famer.... Firing Q was a mistake. Period. But it was made worse when it happened. Hiring JC was a mistake too. He's not ready. I hope he figures it out quickly and I think he'll be a good NHL HC some day, but he's pretty green.

Second worse? There are a whole lot of worse trades. Saad may not be Panarin, but he is far from a bust.

How about the Esposito, Roenick, Chelios, Belfour, Hasek trades to name just a few that were way worse.
- TheTrob

Before you engage, please know in their opinion Panarin > Gretzky, Mario Lemieux & Messier...probably combined too

Before you engage, please know in their opinion Panarin > Gretzky, Mario Lemieux & Messier...probably combined too
- PatShart

Does Messier have any Front office experience??

And 0 playoff series wins. Please, regular season doesn't mean anything.
- powerenforcer

It does this year: regular season means the Hawks don't even get INTO the tournament.

This has nothing to do with who the coach is.

We were bad with Q

We’re still bad with this new guy

We’d be bad with whoever you wanna put in charge

Why? Because the bottom line is we have the least talented roster in the entire NHL.

EK has a rumor surrounding Nylander for Doughty. I don't know who adds, but if true, I don't see Keith to Toronto. He also gave his list of teams interested in Panarin ... Hawks not on it.
- I Am The Breadman

I don't see how the could add Doughty to Taveras and the impending contracts due to Matthews and Marner. Can't pay 40-45M for four guys otherwise you'll end up like the Hawks minus the multiple cups.

As far as Panarin goes, this all has to do with him being TRADED in season. Nothing to do with FA. I think he's gonna stay in Columbus and they will keep him (due to their success) and he will walk in FA then return to the Hawks

I think what the Hawks need to do is simple on the surface and very, very difficult to actually execute.

(1) They need to terminate Bowman.
(2) They need to move McD to be in charge of all non-hockey categories. This may be difficult to do because of this ego and perception that this is a demotion. If he doesn’t accept it, move on with out him by bringing in a new marketing/business person.
(3) This one’s the hardest and I don’t believe that Rocky can pull it off without help. He must hire a new head of hockey operations who would be responsible for all facets of the on-ice product. The candidates must come in and articulate vision and their plans for how to get there. (I keep hearing how bright coaches and GMs in other sports come in with knowledge of the teams heritage, current strengths and weakness, articulated visions of where they want the team to be and how they will get them there. ). Hockey sounds like they just rehire someone because they did something decent once.

Once the hawks have the chief hockey guy ( clever unintended pun) in place, it then becomes his job to hire the right gm (who hires the right coach) to begin implementing the chief’s vision. There should be some form of public communication about what they plan to do, how they plan to get there, and what the expectations are along the way.

I know the trend in today’s nhl is faster and smaller players. I’m sure the hawks need some of this, but it doesn’t seem like they know who and what they need. It seems to me they are operating without a well-thoughtout plan and are constantly reacting to events instead of controlling who they are and what they want to become.
- Spec41971

Sorry if it's been posted already, JJ rails on the fallacy
of Stan and Mcd, its good

https://www.the-rink.com/...as-no-clothes/#post-10685

Panarin....
With Calder Trophy winning superstar Panarin the team finished in first place
Without Panarin the team finished in last place.
With Panarin Kane hits 100 points
Without Panarin no way Kane does that well.
Was Panarin the sole reason for these things? No'
Was Panerin a huge factor in these things? Absolutely.
Getting rid of Panarin the way they did with less than half value coming back was the second worst trade in Blackhawks history and perhaps the worst in a long long line of bad trades. Nobody should be surprised at the state of this team. The trend suggests more damage comes ing.
- Savoy

I’ve said many times that trade will eventually go down as the single worst trade in the history of our franchise. That one move alone should have been enough to get Bowman fired.

Does anyone have a sound rationale why Colliton was not allowed to pick his assistants, but Stan has said at the end of the year he will be able to pick his assistants? What gives?

It makes no sense and it made walking into this situation 1000 times worse.

If he can pick them at the end of the year, why not let him from the get go?

And 0 playoff series wins. Please, regular season doesn't mean anything.
- powerenforcer

That narrative about Panarin is stupid. He was 7 points in 7 games against St. Louis, and everyone was crap against Nashville. Is Kane a non-playoff performer because of his series against St. Louis and Nashville? Is Keith? No.

Panarin is one of the best LW in the league. There's Hall, Ovechkin, Benn, Panarin, Gaudreau, Giroux, Forsberg... Panarin is absolutely in the conversation for best left wings.

Crap narratives like 'non-playoff performer' are what gets us trades like Panarin for Saad, or Leddy for Pokka.

I don't see how the could add Doughty to Taveras and the impending contracts due to Matthews and Marner. Can't pay 40-45M for four guys otherwise you'll end up like the Hawks minus the multiple cups.

As far as Panarin goes, this all has to do with him being TRADED in season. Nothing to do with FA. I think he's gonna stay in Columbus and they will keep him (due to their success) and he will walk in FA then return to the Hawks
- Savetheembers33

To your first point, I thought the same thing.

To your second point, I did leave off trade. Letting him walk is going to suck....

Kampf, Kahun, Perlini and Hayden belong in the NHL, yeah, probably bottom 6 players but still with value and upside. Gustafsson is 27, not a kid anymore, if he hasn't figured it out yet it's probably doubtful it is going to change much going forward.
- TheTrob

I would agree. All are at least bottom six guys (maybe minus Hayden but he still has room to grow). They're not KEY top 6 forward or top 4 d-men kind of guys but definitely depth guys you need to win.

Barratt will most likely not be a full-time top 6 talent but could be an all-terrain forward who could slot anywhere in the lineup and be effective. If he does surprise and be a permanent top 6 fixture, he could be similar to Gallagher in Montreal. Otherwise, I could see him as Shaw-like. Either way, a forward who brings the sandpaper, has offensive skills, and is versatile position and line-wise.

He is also quite humble off the ice despite his gritty on-ice personality. Coaches love him because he listens and takes to feedback well.
- AEL_Fox

I agree. Think Barratt is gonna be that glue kinda guy like a Bolland or Shaw that isn't gonna be special but does a lot of the right things and brings energy to the team night in and night out. That's something this team sorely lacks and needs. I wouldn't be shocked to see him get a few games at the end of the year like Sikura did this past year and the Hawks have done with a lot of their college guys who are pending FAs

I’ve said many times that trade will eventually go down as the single worst trade in the history of our franchise. That one move alone should have been enough to get Bowman fired.
- SimpleJack

Oh stop, we traded away the 6th best goal and 10th best point scorer of all time in Phil Esposito. That is a landslide for decades to come

Not trading away a guy who was 20th in points scoring last year

To your first point, I thought the same thing.

To your second point, I did leave off trade. Letting him walk is going to suck....
- I Am The Breadman

Yeah I just don't see it happening. I'm sure they would love to make something like that happen but Nylander for Colton Parayko makes A LOT more sense IMO

Yeah, I wasn't "going at you" or anything more so those who are shutting it down that he could come here. We wouldn't trade for him. It's going to happen through FA. It would suck to lose him for nothing, but if you're in a Playoff spot and have a chance to win a round or two you gotta try and go for it for your fanbase. Try like hell to sell him on the fact that he's going to be a main part of what you're doing and get to the ultimate goal and then when he walks you sell your fanbase that you gave it your all to keep him and you look for a piece or pieces to fill the gap and maybe improve your team

10 rows off the glass for $38 last home game......Tick Tock Stan and McD!