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Forum: Chicago BlackhawksYesterday at 11:44 a.m.
Thread: Can Davidson get through the off-season without doing anything stupid?
Davidson has made it clear that he plans on making the team better next year. I believe this is the right path, especially with winning the past two lotteries and not being eligible for Hagens next year. But how much better should Davidson try to make the team?

There are quite a few above average players available in free agency (Guentzel, Stamkos, Reinhart, etc). Will Davidson be willing to give a contract longer than 2 years before he gives Bedard his next contract? What is his cap & term limit for big target UFAs? Is it even the right time to be adding a big target UFA when we likely won’t even be in playoffs next year? There will be more UFAs every single year, including Drai next year and McDavid the following. When it comes to adding players I am fine for the most part if he wants to add a big name player but can hopefully sign them to a team friendly deal. It would be nice to create a culture similar to what Boston had with Bergeron where guys took less across the board. I am worried that a signing now could cause cap implications in the future and prevent us from making a move down the road. We are not going to have unlimited cap space forever. Other dumb signings can happen to smaller target UFAs as well but Davidson seems to have a good grip on the contracts given to these type of players


When it comes to trades, I would like to weaponize our cap. Bring on a bad contract or buy them out. I am not fine with trading a ton of assets to acquire a player. Now is not the time and I would rather wait on any assets and make this type of trade in 2-3 years. Davidson has been fine with trades so far. Although trading up in the 2024 draft over a month away was a little odd.

I actually think the 2023 draft could have gone a lot better (I can make a write up on this later). Aside from Bedard and Moore, I’m not crazy the way the draft went. Particularity the 2nd round. In the 2024 draft it seems like Davidson needs to make a decision on Demidov or Levshunov. DraftKings currently has Levshunov as the favorite for 2nd overall. I just hope the organization does their homework here.

Here are some common Blackhawks scenarios we need to navigate soon:
2nd overall: I’d prefer Demidov
18th overall: Hage, Jiricek or Emery
Trade for Marner: absolutely not. I think this has mostly been pushed by media and fans. Haven’t really seen any truth to it.
Guentzel: as long as the deal is not an absurd cap hit.

As the Blackhawks continue to build around Bedard this summer, how confident are you in their ability to make trades, signings and draft? Can the Blackhawks survive the summer without doing anything you see as a very bad move that will bite us in the future?
Forum: Armchair-GMMar. 15 at 7:47 p.m.
Thread: Build for Bedard
Not bad. Just my personal opinion on some things.

Find a different veteran defenseman to sign in Smiths place, I'm not bringing on the dude that broke Bedard's jaw like <a href="/users/slickwilly" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">@slickwilly</a> mentioned. If you sign Zaitsev it should be as the 7th defenseman and in his spot rotate all the young defenseman who are on the cusp of being NHLers. Commesso is not ready to be a backup yet. I think he needs to spend another year in Rockford and hopefully gets called up for a couple games here and there. No need to trade Donato. He is a good 4th liner. Using a retention slot will only leave them with 1 retention slot come the deadline and it will be more useful then if they want to trade Hall, Smith, Athanasiou, or Raddysh.
Forum: Armchair-GMMar. 8 at 12:55 p.m.
Forum: Mock-DraftMar. 4 at 12:58 p.m.
Thread: Mock Draft without Coming Soon Explanations
<div class="quote"><div class="quote_t">Quoting: <b>Z0ra</b></div><div>Plus, I actually doubt that he will be available before the Hawks 2nd round pick.</div></div>

I shouldn't have said "no way" to the hawks drafting Howe at 19 because it is a possibility whether I agree with it or not. I have revisited Howe since I last reviewed his game in December and think he likely lands somewhere in the 20s. So maybe not the largest stretch but 19 is certainly on the higher side.

The way I see the hawks draft playing out is they will draft the best available player with their own first. If that pick is a forward then they will draft a RD with the Tampa pick. If that pick is a defenseman, they will draft a forward with the Tampa pick. This factors in big time of picking Howe with the Tampa pick or any forward for that matter.

One other possibility if the hawks want Howe and don't think they can get him with their own 2nd is moving up that pick. The hawks have a ton of draft picks since 2022 going forward. It's time to get quality not quantity with some of these picks so I would not be surprised if we see Davidson move up the Tampa pick or our second rounder.