imo Dale Tallon is the "true" architect of the 3 Blackhawks Championship.

At the time of the draft Joki wasn't traded yet. That being said we had Joki, Boqvist, Beaudin, and Mitchell all good defensive prospects on the rise. I don't think we needed Byram at the time, but then again we didn't know Joki was going to be traded. Not saying Dach was my first choice (I wanted Turcotte) but he isn't doing too bad currently.

Ya know, I can say all I want how much I dislike Dach and his playing style, but I like the way you explained this. Sure, dach is okay. Do I wish he could control a game in the same way that faster players could? Sure. However, I do believe us trading for maatta before the draft sealed the picking of either turcotte or dach. I admit, I was very angry when we traded for maatta, cuz I knew how slow he was. The writing was on the wall that we weren’t taking byram at that point. Sure we had great prospects, but none projected to be number ones like byram.

Sure, maybe Dach could be good. But what really sucks is that we have to face byram in conference for the 10 plus years. I genuinely don’t think the hawks will ever consistently get the better of the byram or the Avs in that timeframe. Ergo, I don’t really see dach for what he may be, I see him for what he will have to deal with for years to come.

No way Car does that trade. On Dach at the draft, Hawks had no top 6 forward prospects whatsoever so i understood why they chose him over Byram. The Joki trade I just can't understand why Blowman chose Nylander. Hawks assumed nearly all the risk in that trade w/o getting anything additional in return.

Here’s the problem with the top six forward prospects point. We have debrincat, strome, kubalik, even Saad. Cat and strome are both 22 or under and consistent producers. On top of that, toews and Kane aren’t going anywhere for at least another 3 plus years. Lastly, offense hasn’t been our problem the last few years. The fact that it is now is because JC plays a **** defensive system that emphasizes the worst in our team.

Essentially, taking dach was fixing a problem that wasn’t a problem YET. Byram fixed a problem that was IMMEDIATELY a problem. Sure we have plenty of prospects, but ask Carolina and Nashville if that’s a problem. It’s not. In fact, it actually gives you plenty of trade capital, that is if Blowman doesn’t give up a top prospect for a **** forward straight up. Plus, this next has a stacked crop of forwards. Are the hawks gonna pass on a plethora of top forward prospects to take a defenseman this time? Or let the problem go unfixed again?

It takes 5 players to play defense. Maybe defense has been an issue because our forwards can't play **** for defense or don't care to. How many times do you see the Hawks having 3 forwards behind the net in the ozone, which turns in to an odd many break? Maybe part of the issue with the team is we only have 2 legitimate top 6 2 way forwards w/o including Dach. I would also argue that on a truly good team Kubalik and Strome are in no way top 6, but 3rd line players. Strome can't do **** without ADB and/or Kane.

That’s absolutely fair, but, how often do our defensemen get outpaced night in and night out? How many times do our defenders struggle to skate with the puck? How often do they struggle to even move the puck?

I understand the struggle to play 5 man defense, but this team needs to at least be able to get the puck up ice first, keep up with the opposition first, and actually hold the freakin offense zone line first! Dach doesn’t change any of that. In all honesty, Colorado was the first game all season where it looked like he actually gave a damn for the whole game. Then he disappears, AGAIN, against a lowly devils team. Now, everyone disappeared to be fair. But the Blackhawks M.O. used to be having great defense lead the charge with Keith, seabs, hammer, and oduya. Even leddy! They all kept pace with the play and knew how to move and move the puck.

I’ll finish my argument by simply saying, this team is not any better, if not worse, than last year. How is that possible when we have maatta, nylander, Shaw and dehaan (when healthy)? Oh yea, and DACH!! Is it possible a guy like byram, who is nhl ready (don’t question why he’s in juniors, Colorado didn’t need him this year, that simple), and able to jump straight into the team, could help? More than dach? Sorry, but my answer is yes. Nothing was gonna get us in the playoffs this year, but at least we’d have byram and a chance at lafreniere or byfield in next year’s draft. Honestly, just poor decision making by bowman and mark Kelley.