I'm fine with that trade. I also like the Maroon signing and term. I'd swap the amounts for Hino and Duclair, but that's minor details. Hino's played great with any line. Duclair has talent for sure, but it really isn't coming together yet. This also gives "optionality" to Bowman in a few different ways. Maybe Sikura doesn't pan out quick like he's hyped...so insert Hayden a powerful RW. If the team doesn't perform as well overall, Bowman can make some moves at the TDL for picks and even take on a little salary considering Hossa will be LTIR and you could send down 1 more forward and still ice a team.

Agreed. I'm not convinced on Duclair. He has so much potential but doesn't seem to have the ability to put it all together. I'd like to seem him play longer with more talented line mates and then get a better idea if he can actually be worth keeping. I have liked Hino this year. He seems to create chances when playing in a top-9 role. IMO I'd give Duclair an early look at top-9 or top-6 line for like 10 games and if he doesn't show ability move Hino there

5 Stars for being realistic and well thought out

one of the better rosters I've seen minus that Tomas Jurco signing ..

I like it. It's practical and fits within the plan that seems to be developing. Is this a Cup contender though? I don't think it is. I hope I'm wrong.

Hoping so hard the Blackhawks win the draft lottery and get Rasmus Dahlin. Barring that, they'll still end up with a good 1st round defenseman from this draft. Henri Jokiharju will be ready in two seasons. Blake Hillman is about to sign and Ian Mitchell will likely sign in a year or two and could reform their top Denver pairing. Joni Tuulola looks interesting. Forsling should round into shape in the next season or so. All of this bodes well for the current weakness of a thin/poor defense becoming a deep strength about the end of the 2019-20 season. The problem with that is that's the last year of Crawford's contract and the last year of Quenneville's contract. It's essentially the end of the "window" with this core. I doubt Crawford or Quenneville stay after that if they're still around then. Seabrook will be 34 and Keith will be 36 and they'll still be on the books for 4 and 3 more years. Plus, that's when the expansion draft and the lockout are expected to happen. Will there even be a season? If this was a team in full rebuild mode, I'd feel fine about all of the moves to build the next wave for a Cup run in a couple of years. I feel like Bowman is of two minds that aren't serving either purpose well - the future and trying to compete now. Just about the time the young D is ready to compete for a Cup, the expansion draft happens and you lose one of them and your core (Toews, Kane, Keith, Seabrook, Crawford) basically ages out in a lockout shortened season. I have a hard time imagining they'll be ready to be a true Cup contender again until 2020. I think Bowman knows what he's doing with the young players but I'm not convinced that Quenneville understands what to do with them and how the game is changing. DeBrincat could have competed for the Calder if he'd been paired with Kane and been a Top 6 forward for more of the season. Why can't we see a skill line like DeBrincat, Schmaltz, and Kane play a few games and see what happens? Yes, they're small but speed and skill is the way the league is going. Part of me is patient and sees the youth movement plan and part of me thinks they should trade future assets and aim for win now provided Crawford returns as himself from earlier this season (trade Keith because he'll waive his NMC to go to a contender, trade Anisimov, pursue Tavares, put Seabrook on waivers or whatever needs to happen, trade for Karlsson, sign Carlson, all the crazy, unsustainable stuff to chase the Cup for 2-3 more seasons.) I just can't see how they're going to reconcile the undeveloped youth with the aging core. They lost those team drafted/developed prospect pieces in the middle to salary cap dumps/bad contracts that they probably needed to make it work: Teravainen, Danault, Leddy, Johns, Raanta.

It's not like this has any impact on the team. He is a RFA and you don't let assest walk for nothing unless they have literally no value, which whether you want to believe it or not Jurco does. He can just be waived whenever with no impact.



I think the days of the Hawks being very serious contenders are past them for the time being. I just want to see them winning games and winning at least a playoff series. You look at teams like Nashville and its seriously hard to see the hawks being better than them for the foreseeable future.