Realistic Pessimism

Created by: SlickWilly

Team: 2023-24 Chicago Blackhawks

Initial Creation Date: Sep. 26, 2022

Published: Sep. 26, 2022

Salary Cap Mode: Basic

Legend

Left Handed

Original Team

Waivers Exempt

Right Handed

Position

Trade Clause

Max Perf. Bonus

Expiry Status

Term Remaining

McDavid, Connor

$12,500,000 ( Performance Bonus

$250,000)

NMC

UFA - 5

Description

Reality with a touch of pessimism:

We are the worst team in the NHL, but we lose the lottery and pick third (Brayden Yager).

We trade AA and Domi at the deadline but they don't garner much value.

Kane wants out at the deadline but the market is lower than expected for him after he declares he wants to go to NYR, COL, and TB only.

Toews's injuries flare up again so he doesn't get traded and then just retires.

Not a prediction, just an outlook as to what things could look like if things don't go right this season.
Lines that follow are not line matchups, but an organizational depth chart of importance.

Moral of the story : Even if we win the lottery and you can replace Yager with Bedard, we still have a lot of work to do. Our peripheral drafting needs to be solid and pretty much all of the high upside guys we gambled on need to hit for us to even have a competent top 6. Our defense still looks questionable.

Areas of need : RW and RD (among literally everything else)

Free Agent Signings

RESERVE LIST	YEARS	CAP HIT
Commesso, Drew	3	$925,000
Greene, Ryan	3	$925,000
Hayes, Gavin	3	$925,000
James, Dominic	2	$925,000
Kaiser, Wyatt	3	$925,000
Ludwinski, Paul	3	$925,000
Nazar, Frank	3	$925,000
Rinzel, Sam	3	$925,000

RFA	YEARS	CAP HIT
Beaudin, Nicolas	2	$800,000
Galvas, Jakub	2	$1,000,000
Jones, Caleb	2	$1,000,000
Kurashev, Philipp	2	$1,000,000
Mitchell, Ian	2	$1,000,000
Söderblom, Arvid	2	$1,500,000

CREATED		YEARS	CAP HIT
Yager, Brayden		3	$925,000

Trades

CHI

2023 3rd round pick (MIN)
2024 4th round pick (ANA)

Additional Details:

anywhere

ANA

Domi and AA

CHI

Sýkora, Adam
2023 1st round pick (NYR)

Additional Details:

pick 32, with Kane and Panarin reunited, the offensive dynamo cannot be stopped and Igor wins finals MVP

NYR

Patrick Kane half retained

Buyouts

Brett Connolly: $1,166,667
Henrik Borgström: $183,334

Recapture Fees

Duncan Keith: $1,938,456

Draft	Round 1	Round 2	Round 3	Round 4	Round 5	Round 6	Round 7
2023
2024
2025

ROSTER

LONG-TERM OUTLOOK

EMBED

TEXT-EMBED

ROSTER SIZE	SALARY CAP	CAP HIT	OVERAGES	BONUSES	CAP SPACE
34	$83,500,000	$56,334,289	$0	$2,682,500	$27,165,711

Left Wing	Centre	Right Wing
Reichel, Lukas $925,000$925,000 ($505,000$505K) LW, C RFA - 1	Yager, Brayden $925,000$925,000	Raddysh, Taylor $758,333$758,333 RW RFA - 1
Hayes, Gavin $925,000$925,000 LW RFA - 3	Nazar, Frank $925,000$925,000 RW, C RFA - 3	Johnson, Tyler $5,000,000$5,000,000 RW, C, LW M-NTC UFA - 1
Sýkora, Adam $838,333$838,333 ($80,000$80K) LW, RW RFA - 3	Dach, Colton $825,000$825,000 ($82,500$82K) C RFA - 3	Johnson, Reese $800,000$800,000 RW, C RFA - 1
James, Dominic $925,000$925,000 LW, C RFA	Ludwinski, Paul $925,000$925,000 C RFA - 3	Entwistle, Mackenzie $800,000$800,000 LW, C RFA - 1
Kurashev, Philipp $1,000,000$1,000,000 LW, C, RW RFA - 2	Greene, Ryan $925,000$925,000 C RFA
Hardman, Mike $800,000$800,000 LW, RW UFA - 1	Blackwell, Colin $1,200,000$1,200,000 C, RW UFA - 1
Katchouk, Boris $758,333$758,333 LW RFA - 1	Lafferty, Sam $1,150,000$1,150,000 RW, C, LW UFA - 1

Left Defense	Right Defense	Goaltender
Korchinski, Kevin $918,333$918,333 ($1,000,000$1M) LD RFA - 3	Jones, Seth $9,500,000$9,500,000 RD NMC UFA - 7	Commesso, Drew $925,000$925,000 G RFA - 3
Vlasic, Alex $916,667$916,667 ($850,000$850K) LD UFA - 1	Rinzel, Sam $925,000$925,000 RD RFA	Söderblom, Arvid $1,500,000$1,500,000 G RFA - 2
Del Mastro, Ethan $855,833$855,833 ($82,500$82K) LD RFA - 3	Murphy, Connor $4,400,000$4,400,000 RD M-NTC UFA - 3	Mrázek, Petr $3,800,000$3,800,000 G M-NTC UFA - 1
Kaiser, Wyatt $925,000$925,000 LD RFA - 2	Mitchell, Ian $1,000,000$1,000,000 RD RFA - 1
Allan, Nolan $825,000$825,000 ($82,500$82K) LD RFA - 3	Stillman, Riley $1,350,000$1,350,000 LD RFA - 1
Galvas, Jakub $1,000,000$1,000,000 LD UFA
Beaudin, Nicolas $800,000$800,000 LD UFA - 1
Jones, Caleb $1,000,000$1,000,000 LD/RD UFA - 1

Scratches	Injured Reserve (IR)	Long Term IR (LTIR)
	McCabe, Jake $2,000,000$2,000,000 LD/RD M-NTC UFA - 2

Top Comments

Sep. 26, 2022 at 12:21 p.m.

csick

KFTW

Joined: Jul. 2018

Posts: 43,265

Likes: 24,115

3rd pick should be Adam Fantilli and he should be in the same convo Hughes and Eichel were at their drafts

Sep. 26, 2022 at 12:26 p.m.

SlickWilly

Joined: Nov. 2017

Posts: 3,238

Likes: 2,190

Quoting: csick

3rd pick should be Adam Fantilli and he should be in the same convo Hughes and Eichel were at their drafts

I think Fantilli goes 2 and Michkov slips to 4. Yager has risen quite a bit and his shot is absurd, not quite as much as Bedard but its up there. I think scouting departments will value ease of access to watch him and his high end shot over Michkov's all around tool kit. If Fantilli is at 3 I take him.

Sep. 26, 2022 at 12:28 p.m.

Jco5ta5

Hawks Fan

Joined: Jul. 2019

Posts: 2,645

Likes: 1,675

I can’t see Toews retiring and the dude was healthy all last season. He put up 12 goals in essentially 50 games (didn’t have one the first 19) which is a 20 goal pace and was getting stronger as the season went on.

We are for sure over estimating Kane’s value on this site but Kane will garner much more than 32nd overall and a prospect. Tons of lesser players fetch more at the deadline.

I honestly don’t think this is the worst team in the league. With Toews yet another year removed from his health issues, Kane being Kane, new coach and system, and Mrazek with a new and improved offseason training I can see this team willing itself to more wins than expected. I just don’t see this team worse than Arizona or Philly tbh.

Sep. 26, 2022 at 12:29 p.m.

csick

KFTW

Joined: Jul. 2018

Posts: 43,265

Likes: 24,115

Quoting: SlickWilly

I just can’t see Michkov falling unless a team has a shorter rebuild. But Arizona and Chicago aren’t competing for at least 3-5 years, so I don’t see how they pass on the 2nd best player available

SlickWilly liked this.

Sep. 26, 2022 at 12:33 p.m.

SlickWilly

Joined: Nov. 2017

Posts: 3,238

Likes: 2,190

Quoting: Jco5ta5

Right, I don't think that happens with Toews either. Everything seems behind him now, but in a world where everything goes wrong, it comes back. I do think Kane could get more, but we've seen GMs overplay their hand at the deadline and have to settle for less for the sake of getting a deal done (Robin Lehner, Debrincat, to name a few) I know most have been done under TFG but this is a floor of what can happen basically. I was planning on making another one at some point with a ceiling of everything going right. I do think our goaltending and defense will be major detriments to the team, and if we cant score to make up for it we're boned. We'll see what happens. This was kind of a "worst case scenario" vibe

Jco5ta5 liked this.

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