Blackhawks Offseason Update

The Chicago Blackhawks have had a busy Offseason so far.

The 2024 RHL Entry Draft took place where the Chicago Blackhawks had 4 draft Selections.  In the 1st Round the Hawks selected forward Trevor Connolly.  He's got explosive Skating, and dynamic offensive skills.  Projects to be a 1st or 2nd line Forward, as long as the off ice issues are put to rest and he matures with age.  In the later Rounds they took Defenders Jakub Fibigr, Albin Sundin and Fowrard Connor Clattenburg.   Fibigr as the potential to be a #4 dman in the league, with expectations of being a bottom paring defender for sure.  Sundin projects to be a solid bottom pairing defender in the future and Clattenburg could turn out to be a 3rd or 4th line winger.  

Jack Campbell had a great year for the Hawks last season, but after re rates, the Club could not see him doing as well again this season, so the club begain searching for a new Starter for the upcoming season.   The hawks acquired Adin Hill from the Lightning in exchange for prospect Nico Myatovich.   

"Hill is a solid starting goaltender, who will be a ufa after this season.  If he does good, we have the option yet to extend him and keep him a blackhawk for even longer.  We are confident that Hill and back up Schmid will be a good duo in nets with a strong defensive D set in front of them.  With this move, we started looking to move Campbell, as a 5M 3rd stringer was not gonna cut it for our franchise.  We needed to move some salary and make better use of the Salary Cap"  says Schurman.

The Hawks found a deal where Campbell, J.Schultz, 5th and Strbak were moved for Delia, Oesterle, 7th.

"Schultz turned out to be a 7th defender after Free Agency, making over 4M.  Too much!   This was a salary dump move where we gave up a bit of futures to make it happen"

The Hawks had a busy Free Agency.  Resigning some players from last year in Cory Perry, Derek Ryan, and Vincent Desharnais.

They also added a strong Defensive D man in Ilya Lyubushkin.  He will be a top PK man, and add to to a strong Defensive d group for the Hawks.  The Hawks back end now looks like this:  Ekholm, Bouchard, York, Lindgren, Lyubushkin, and Desharnais.   The Hawks were looking for a big forward to grab, but had no  luck and there were not alot of options this offseason.  But the Hawks have room to add someone thru a trade or sign some fowrards next offseason if needed to keep building this franchise up.

The Hawks also added Janmark to the club, to be a good PK guy and a bottom 6 forwad.  Hutton, Mackey, and Simek were also added to the Hawks Defense for some depth.   Free Agency is still going on, the hawks seem to be done, but who knows, another depth signing could be made in the future.