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Chicago Blackhawks Sign Cole Guttman

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Aug 18: The team has now officially announced the two-year entry-level contract. It will carry a $950K cap hit.

Aug 17: The Chicago Blackhawks front office certainly isn’t on vacation. After signing Jack Johnson late last night, the team is now expected to sign college free agent Cole Guttman according to Scott Powers of The Athletic.

Guttman, 23, was a draft pick of the Tampa Bay Lightning but failed to sign his entry-level contract by this week’s deadline, making him an unrestricted free agent. Because of his age, he’ll be limited to a two-year deal.

Serving as captain of the University of Denver, he led the Pioneers to a national championship earlier this year and was tied for second in team scoring with Edmonton Oilers prospect Carter Savoie (behind Bobby Brink of the Philadelphia Flyers). His 19 goals and 45 points were easily career highest, though the 2017 sixth-round pick has put up strong totals throughout his four years in college.

Relatively undersized, Guttman is the kind of no-risk lottery ticket that the Blackhawks can afford to take a chance on as they rebuild. If he’s unable to deliver NHL minutes there’s nothing wrong with him adding some skill to the Rockford IceHogs.

If he can get to the highest level, however, it becomes another young forward for general manager Kyle Davidson to build around, or even potentially a trade chip to sell over the next few years. As we’ve seen so far this offseason, 23-year-old players are not safe from the rebuild machine in Chicago, as they set their sights further down the road.

For Guttman specifically, there’s probably no better place in the league to try and land regular NHL minutes. Signing with Chicago will give him an open path to playing time if he can show he deserves it, allowing his professional career to start on the right foot.

Chicago Blackhawks Sign Jack Johnson

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Aug 17: The Blackhawks have made it official, announcing Johnson’s one-year deal.

Aug 16: According to several reports including Peter Baugh and Scott Powers at The Athletic, the Chicago Blackhawks are signing Stanley Cup champion Jack Johnson to a one-year, $950K contract for the upcoming season.

This follows the Blackhawks’ offseason plan so far of accumulating talent that could be worthwhile trade chips at the deadline, while also not filling the NHL roster with enough to push them out of the bottom of the standings.

While Johnson did play a role in the recent Colorado Avalanche championship run, it was a limited one as a support piece for one of the best defensive corps in the NHL. That won’t be the case in Chicago, where the team is quite clearly looking to finish with a high lottery chance while accumulating more future assets.

Notably, an addition like Johnson also points to another strategy for the Blackhawks new front office. It appears, at least, as if the team is not going to carry as many young players as most rebuilding teams do. Instead, they have loaded up their minor league depth with talented veterans and could be trying to give their top prospects a chance to “experience winning” with a top AHL club instead of thrusting them into the NHL spotlight on a losing roster.

With deals for players like Johnson, Colin Blackwell, Max Domi, Andreas Athanasiou, and Alex Stalock, the team has acquired quite a few veteran names that will fill out the roster but not move the needle very much.

A good example of this may present itself with Alex Vlasic, who played 15 games at the end of last season with the team after signing out of Boston University. The Blackhawks now have six defensemen on one-way contracts (with Johnson being the cheapest), and a player in Nicolas Beaudin who is no longer waiver-exempt. Vlasic then might be on his way to the minor leagues for a good portion of the season, if not all of it, as he starts his true rookie campaign.

It is a good opportunity for Johnson to continue his career at age 35, especially after finally winning it all this year. The third overall pick from 2005 has 1,024 regular season games to his name but just 30 playoff appearances before his stint in Colorado. You can bet his name will be thrown around at the deadline as a potential depth addition for another playoff team, though what he can bring to the table is obviously limited at this point.

Alex DeBrincat Wasn't Interested In Extension Before Trade To Ottawa

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  • In his latest mailbag column (subscription link), Scott Powers of The Athletic reports that Alex DeBrincat didn’t show interest in signing a long-term deal with the Blackhawks before his trade to Ottawa last month. The 24-year-old was only eligible to sign an extension at the start of the new league year on July 13th (a few days after the swap) and is owed a qualifying offer of $9MM next summer.  That amount will likely be the starting point for extension negotiations with the Senators as he’s coming off his second 41-goal campaign over the last four years.

Parker Foo Re-Signs In KHL

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Among NHL reserve lists, there are plenty of teams that own exclusive rights to players who have never suited up for them. Unsigned draft picks are the most common types of these but in most cases, those rights expire eventually – usually two or four years after they are drafted.

Some others though are maintained indefinitely, as they play in a league without a current transfer agreement. That’s the case for Parker Foo, whose rights are still owned by the Chicago Blackhawks, despite being drafted more than five years ago.

Selected 144th overall in 2017, Foo was a junior teammate of Cale Makar with the Brooks Bandits of the AJHL. He then went to the NCAA to play for Union College, before leaving for the KHL in 2020.

That move, which took him to join Kunlun Red Star, helped him qualify for the 2022 Olympics for China. The country used that KHL team as their entry in the Games, which they hosted earlier this year. Foo also played for China at the World Championship, though they competed in the lower division tournament.

Now, the 23-year-old has re-signed with Kunlun, meaning any potential return to North American hockey will have to wait. Foo’s rights, meanwhile, will stay with Chicago indefinitely while he plays in the KHL.

Interestingly enough his brother, Spencer Foo, was also part of Kunlun the last few years and on that Olympic squad but he signed a contract with the Vegas Golden Knights last month. In an ironic twist, Spencer went undrafted in his youth and is now on his second NHL contract (playing four games with the Flames a few years ago), while fifth-round pick Parker has never signed.

Chicago Blackhawks Re-Sign Caleb Jones, Philipp Kurashev

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The Chicago Blackhawks announced that they have official re-signed forward Philipp Kurashev and defenseman Caleb Jones each to one-year contracts. Jones’ contract is worth $1.35MM, while Kurashev’s is worth $750K. Both players were currently RFAs. By re-signing the pair, Chicago has now re-signed all remaining RFAs on their books, concluding all of their remaining necessary offseason work at least.

Caleb, the younger brother of fellow Chicago defenseman Seth Jones, recently completed his first year as a member of the Blackhawks, where he set several career-highs, including five goals and 10 assists for 15 points over 51 games. While not possessing his older brother’s star-power, the younger brother has established himself as a reliable defender for the Blackhawks who can play in all situations. In the low-points of a full rebuild, Chicago is in a position to evaluate all talent in the organization and see who can take the next step with them, and with minutes surely available for the taking, the 25-year-old will have plenty of opportunities to show the Blackhawks he is part of the plan.

Once a dynamic junior player, Kurashev hasn’t yet found the success in the NHL that he had had as a member of the Quebec Remparts of the QMJHL or the Swiss national team. Kurashev put up as many as 65 points in a season with the Remparts and impressed as much, if not more so, playing for Switzerland over three World Junior Championships. Between 2017 and 2019, Kurashev recorded 22 points in 24 games in the tournament, highlighted by his 10 goals and four assists in just 12 games at the 2019 World Juniors. Since coming to the NHL, Kurashev has been a solid player, but hasn’t taken the next step many were hoping for during his sensational junior performances. As a rookie, Kurashev had 16 points in 58 games for Chicago, following it up with a relatively similar 21 points in 67 games in 2021-22, in addition to three points in three games in the AHL. Much the same as Jones, there will be plenty of opportunity for Kurashev to take another step in development and impress Chicago’s brass as the rebuild moves on.

Chicago Blackhawks Sign Kevin Korchinski

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August 11th: CapFriendly has reported the expected financial terms of the deal. Korchinski’s $950K cap hit is made up of an $855K base salary and a $95K signing bonus. It also contains $1MM in Type A performance bonuses and pays $82.5K per season in the minors. Interestingly, the contract will also pay Korchinski a $10.5K salary each year he spends in juniors, which The Athletic’s Scott Powers reports that the defenseman is likely to spend a year or two in the WHL.

August 10th: The Chicago Blackhawks made big moves to acquire the seventh-overall pick in this year’s draft and used it on super-talented WHL defenseman Kevin Korchinski. Today, they’ve officially added him to the organization, signing the young Korchinski to a three-year, entry-level contract.

If you want a defenseman that has the puck on his stick every time he is out there, it’s Korchinski, who is involved in the play at all times. This is not a player who relies on dumping the puck out or giving it to his partner to deal with; he wants to be in control of every breakout.

Blackhawks general manager Kyle Davidson explained on the draft floor that it was Korchinski they were always targeting as they moved up the board, by sending Alex DeBrincat to the Ottawa Senators for a package that included the seventh selection. If he hits, he’s going to be a tremendous addition to the team for a long time, anchoring their defense.

The question is whether or not he will hit, and quite frankly, there isn’t a lot to go on just yet. Korchinski played just 24 WHL games before the 2021-22 season, meaning his experience level is still relatively low to many of his peers. A June birthday, he had only just turned 18 a few weeks before the draft, and will likely take a little while before he’s manning the Blackhawks blueline on a regular basis.

After missing the cut at the current World Juniors, he is a strong candidate for the tournament in December and is expected to spend the season with the Seattle Thunderbirds once again. His entry-level deal will slide, provided he doesn’t play ten games in the NHL next season.

Prospect Jalen Luypen Traded In The WHL

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  • After signing his entry-level deal earlier this month, Blackhawks prospect Jalen Luypen is on the move in the WHL. Tri-City announced that they’ve acquired the 20-year-old from Edmonton in a swap that included multiple conditional draft picks that are likely dependent on where the forward plays next season.  Chicago could turn Luypen pro with AHL Rockford or send him back to junior for an overage year where he’d try to improve on the 64 points in the 66 games he played last season.

Latest On Chicago Blackhawks Rebuild

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After several stunning trades that saw Alex DeBrincat, Brandon Hagel, and Kirby Dach shipped out, decisions to leave Dylan Strome and Dominik Kubalik unqualified, and recent comments from top players suggesting frustration at the Chicago Blackhawks’ long rebuild plan, it’s tough sledding for fans of the team right now. The front office is actively trying to lose next season to secure a better draft position, which has led to plenty of speculation about the future of franchise icons Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane.

But there are other veterans on the roster, ones that aren’t so far along in their careers or entrenched in the Blackhawks’ history. What about Connor Murphy and Jake McCabe, two defensemen both still on the good side of 30 and capable enough to help almost any team in the league in a certain role?

They won’t be moved, according to Scott Powers of The Athletic, who answered mailbag questions today on all sorts of Blackhawks-related topics. The two veteran defensemen are both expected to stay with the club for the next few years, partly due to their hefty contracts but also because the team wants some capable NHL veterans in place to insulate their young prospects.

McCabe, 28, signed a four-year, $16MM contract with Chicago last summer that includes a seven-team no-trade clause. His $4MM cap hit is easily the largest of his career, and would be a tough contract to extract much surplus value from at this point. Asked to do too much last season, he ended up logging more than 20 minutes a night for the first time since 2017, and was outscored heavily at even-strength. Impressively though, even while receiving absolutely brutal deployment (McCabe rarely started a shift in the offensive zone), he actually did set a career-high in points with 22.

Part of the reason he played so much is because of Murphy’s up-and-down season, which saw him play just 57 games. Now 29, the 6’4″ defenseman is only just now starting the four-year, $17.6MM contract extension that he signed last August, one that includes a ten-team no-trade clause.

Murphy has never played more than 78 games in a single season and now carries a $4.4MM cap hit through 2025-26, making it difficult to trade him even if the Blackhawks wanted to. One thing to note about his deal, however, is that the salary drops to $3.65MM in the final season, and $1MM of that is due in signing bonuses. If there is a time to move him, it might end up being in the summer of 2025 when there is very little actual money owed.

That’s a long time from now though, meaning Murphy and McCabe appear to be stuck with a team that is trying to lose as many games as possible. That’s a tough situation for any veteran to play in, meaning they are still names to keep an eye on as the Chicago rebuild progresses.

Ethan Del Mastro Named To Team Canada Roster For 2022 World Juniors As A Replacement

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In Del Mastro, Hunt’s replacement, Canada will be bringing in a large, physical defenseman with some bite and playmaking ability, albeit with less experience. A fourth-round pick in 2021 by the Chicago Blackhawks, Del Mastro debuted for the OHL’s Mississauga Steelheads in 2019-20, recording seven assists in 57 games. With the OHL cancelling the 2020-21 season amid COVID-19 concerns and restrictions, Del Mastro himself missed the entire season, but came back better than ever this year, scoring seven goals to go with 41 assists, a plus-34 rating and 91 penalty minutes in 68 games. Though losing Hunt is far from ideal, Del Mastro’s addition to the roster gives Canada another quality two-way defenseman, this one with a bit more size added to his game.

Snapshots: Laxdal, Clune, Klinkhammer

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The OHL’s Oshawa Generals today named Derek Laxdal the 35th head coach in team history via a press release. Laxdal, 56, had spent the last eight seasons in the Dallas Stars organization. Before he was promoted midseason to the Stars’ NHL bench as an assistant coach in 2019-20, Laxdal was the head coach of the AHL’s Texas Stars from 2014-15 to 2019.

The news means that Dallas will indeed undergo a complete overhaul of their core coaching staff from last season. The organization replaced a pair of other assistants this offseason, hiring Alain Nasreddine and Steve Spott to replace Todd Nelson and John Stevens. For Laxdal, the news marks a return to the CHL after eight years, last serving there as the head coach of the WHL’s Edmonton Oil Kings from 2010 to 2014. His resume includes an ECHL Kelly Cup win in 2007 and ECHL Coach of the Year award in 2010 as the head coach of the Idaho Steelheads, a pair of WHL championships with the Oil Kings in 2012 and 2014, and a Memorial Cup championship in 2014.

  • The AHL’s Toronto Marlies announced via Twitter today that captain and former NHLer Rich Clune has announced his retirement from professional hockey after 16 seasons, moving to a player development role with the Toronto Maple Leafs. Clune hadn’t played in the NHL since 2015-16 saw him play 19 games with the Maple Leafs, but since then, he’d been an alternate captain or captain for the Marlies, providing an important leadership voice and mentoring the Leafs’ prospects. Clune joins Toronto’s player development department headed by Dr. Hayley Wickenheiser.
  • Former NHLer Rob Klinkhammer is returning to the Chicago Blackhawks organization as an assistant coach with the AHL’s Rockford IceHogs, per a team release. The news marks Klinkhammer’s retirement after he spent the last six seasons playing in the KHL. Klinkhammer, an undrafted free agent, played for Rockford from 2008-09 through 2011-12 and made his NHL debut with the Blackhawks in the 2010-11 season.

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