Chicago needs to improve there defense, and that trade is horrible for the hawks.

Yikes.

Stan does like to acquire locals, but I don't think Dvorak and his $4.5 contract is what Stan's looking to acquire.

Gotta agree with this statement wholeheartedly. Defense alone is only making us a playoff team. Goaltending alone should at least get us to the playoffs though. The depth of the offense is actually a question mark in my mind funny enough. This is all without mentioning the biggest flaw: coaching. This is not a cup contender till Colliton is gonnnneeeee.

Also, open question: are we actually at the point where we’re going to mortgage two to three years of a “decent” team for a very thin future? Don’t get me wrong, I know we have good young players, but many are still vastly unproven not to mention hawks have continued to insist on making that “one last trade” to get us over the hill. Seems to me it’s more of the same with giving up on youngsters early as usual. I get being desperate drain the last little bit of the Kane and toews era, but we all this team, even with “one last trade,” isn’t good enough to be contenders right? I just wanna believe one eye can be on the future while the other is on now. Then again, I’ve mentioned before how much I don’t care if we are good with Kane and toews anymore as long as the era after is being cultivated and fully focused on.

Sign Tatar, move Strome and De Haan for Dunn, and this team is as close as they will be. I don't see the issue in going for it this season, they already traded the 2022 1st, so it's quite obvious they want to win. The Coyotes, Predators, and even the Blues don't scare me this year. The wild are good, but Talbot is not going to play that good for much longer, everyone knows what he is, that crease should be Kahkonen's at this point if they were smart. Colorado lost Grubauer, Graves, and Donskoi. I don't think Kuemper is better than Grubauer. The Jets fixed up the D core really nice, I like them a lot with Dillon and Schmidt in the top 4. The Stars improved with Suter, but really need healthy forwards.

In my opinion, the Jets are one of the better teams in this division with what they did to their D core. If the Stars can stay healthy, sure they'll be decent. You can't write off Colorado, but they lost 3 good players in a span of a month. The hawks added Fleury, Jones, and McCabe in a span of 2 weeks.

Translation: This division is wide open.

Coyotes and preds I can at least confidently say SHOULD finish bottom 2 in the division. The stars are good when healthy, no question, so that’s a threat. The blues are a strange case where yes Dunn is gone and maybe Pietro being gone still stings. They are however gonna get back parayko who was injured the vast majority of the season and should be better, so they CAN be a threat. The wild are stealthy becoming a great team and doing things patiently the right way, and they are a threat. The jets are the jets, very good in most positions and should be a big threat. Depth of offense might be my biggest concern. Then there’s the Avs. Full disclosure: I freakin love this team. Sakic did an amazing job with this team. As to their losses in free agency or the expansion, that’s already been addressed in house or otherwise. Grubauer and kuemper are a wash to me in all honesty. Grubauer did have an awful series against the knights. Donskoi is being replaced full time by Newhook who’s gonna be out of this world. Graves is being replaced full time by byram, whose sky is the absolute limit and he’ll be we protected in the lineup.

To sum up, I’m convinced it’s an open division, but only in the middle. Avs are still the gold standard and the jets are right there too. Dallas when healthy is a nightmare and are in the 3 spot in my opinion. The wild are probably are closest competition as they have such a great workman style to their team and life miserable on any team they face. They outwork EVERYONE. They’re in the 4 spot to me. As for the blues, I could see them being slightly below us in the 5-6 spot with us. They’ve got some questions that need answering, but they still have pedigree, as much as I hate that team.