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Snapshots: Strome, Hallander, NHLPA Update

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The last few days have come with a few new contracts in the NHL, with restricted free agents like Justin Bailey and Oliver Kylington inking new two-way deals. We’re still waiting on the big RFA dominoes to fall though, with one of those being Chicago Blackhawks forward Dylan Strome who remains unsigned. This morning, Blackhawks GM Stan Bowman told reporters including Brandon Cain of NHL.com that the team has had conversations with Strome’s representatives and is optimistic something will get done, but couldn’t provide any timeline on the process.

Strome, 23, was included in our look at the mid-tier restricted free agents still waiting on contracts, but for Chicago, he’s all that really matters right now. The team’s roster appears largely set for the upcoming season, given that Strome’s eventual deal will likely eat up a good chunk of the remaining cap space. The young forward hasn’t lived up to the third-overall pick that Arizona used on him in the 2015 draft but does have 89 points in 106 games since coming to Chicago. As the team inevitably moves away from aging franchise icons like Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane over the next few years, a player like Strome could step up and be a leader for the Blackhawks.

  • When the Toronto Maple Leafs dealt Kasperi Kapanen to the Pittsburgh Penguins, much of the focus was on the first-round pick coming the other way. The Maple Leafs actually acquired another piece in that deal though, 20-year-old center Filip Hallander, who had been drafted in the second round in 2018. Hallander was expected to come to North America this winter to take part in training camp with Toronto but is now going to stay in Sweden where he plays for Lulea HF in the SHL. Hallander has 10 points in 21 games this season and is an intriguing prospect for the Maple Leafs, whose system didn’t have much center depth beyond the NHL.
  • In his daily update, Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic tweeted this morning that there is a call scheduled for this evening between the executive board of the NHLPA to update the player reps on where things stand. LeBrun does not expect the call to include a vote as the documentation for the upcoming season is not yet completed. While there seemed like some momentum for things to be finalized this weekend, it does not appear as that will happen tonight.

Kirby Dach Named Team Canada Captain

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Though it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise, Kirby Dach was officially named team captain today for Canada at the World Junior Championship. The Chicago Blackhawks forward has a full NHL season under his belt and is expected to be one of the most effective players in the entire tournament. He’ll be joined in the leadership group by Dylan Cozens and Bowen Byram, who have both been named alternate captains for the event.

The captaincy is often given to a returning player, but Dach actually didn’t get to play for Canada last year because he was too busy with the Blackhawks. The 19-year-old forward was picked third overall in 2019 and stepped nearly directly into the NHL, scoring 23 points in 64 games with Chicago. His play in the postseason bubble was even more impressive when he was one of the most dangerous players on the ice for the Blackhawks and recorded six points in nine games.

Cozens meanwhile returns to the WJC after dominating a year ago, scoring nine points in seven games for Canada to help them win the gold medal. The Buffalo Sabres prospect trailed only Alexis Lafreniere and then-captain Barrett Hayton in scoring for the team and should be another top player for Canada this year. An absolute freight train when he gets up to full speed, Cozens’ size, skating ability, and reach make him an incredibly difficult player to contain.

Byram will wear an “A” and likely anchor the top pairing for Canada after playing a lesser role last year at the tournament. The fourth-overall pick from 2019 has almost limitless upside at the offensive end and should be a big part of Canada’s quick transition game. Another excellent young defenseman in the Colorado Avalanche system, this WJC could certainly be his coming out party in front of the rest of the hockey world.

Snapshots: Lindblom, Zadina, Saarela

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One year after being diagnosed with a rare form of bone cancer, Philadelphia Flyers forward Oskar Lindblom is still cancer-free. The young man had his second checkup and scans were clear, according to his girlfriend on Instagram. The news received an outpouring of congratulations from all over the hockey world as teammates, opponents, and fans all want to see Lindblom back on the ice.

The 24-year-old forward was off to a blistering start in 2019-20 before his diagnosis, scoring 11 goals and 18 points in the first 30 games of the season. To the surprise of many, he made an emotional return for the Flyers in the postseason bubble, playing in two games during their second-round series against the New York Islanders. One of the most natural goal-scorers on the Flyers roster, his return should give the team quite a boost this season should his health remain intact and his play goes back to previous levels. From everyone here at PHR, congrats Oskar!

  • Filip Zadina is on his way back to Detroit to join the Red Wings for training camp, leaving HC Ocelari Trinec after scoring 14 points in 17 games in the Czech Republic. The 21-year-old forward hasn’t yet made his mark at the NHL level but should have an inside track for a roster spot this year. In 37 games with the Red Wings, Zadina has nine goals and 18 points.
  • Chicago Blackhawks fourth-round pick Antti Saarela won’t be coming to North America for a while yet after his club team exercised an option year for 2021-22. The 19-year-old forward still has a lot of development to do anyway, so staying in Europe another year probably isn’t very upsetting for the Blackhawks anyway. He has shown improvement this year though, scoring ten points in 17 games, nearly reaching his total from last season already.

Chicago Blackhawks Reorganize Front Office

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The Chicago Blackhawks have announced a reorganization at the very top of their front office, naming Danny Wirtz CEO, hiring Jaime Faulkner as President of Business Operations, and elevating Stan Bowman to President of Hockey Operations and General Manager. These moves follow the removal of John McDonough earlier this year, after which Wirtz served for a time as interim president.

Bowman will continue to oversee the entire hockey operations department and serve as general manager, while Faulkner will take over the business side and focus on fan experience. She will also represent the Blackhawks as an alternate governor. Wirtz explained exactly why he sees the two as a good pair to lead the Blackhawks:

Jaime and Stan bring a modern leadership style that embodies the approach needed to evolve in these dynamic times, continuing to elevate the Blackhawks to elite levels on and off the ice. I look forward to partnering with them and watching them work together with our on and off ice teams to achieve our collective goals. Both with backgrounds in data and analytics, Jaime and Stan are a dynamic duo whose partnership will trickle down to everything in our organization from on-ice hockey strategy to the fan experience at the United Center and beyond.

McDonough, who had served as president for the Blackhawks since 2007, was released in April. At the time, questions were raised about the future of Bowman, who had been hired by McDonough in 2009 and backed even when the Blackhawks’ on-ice performance started to waver. With this new appointment, it seems as though Wirtz—who happens to be the son of team owner Rocky Wirtz—has continued confidence in Bowman as the leader of the team’s hockey operations.

Blackhawks Recall Brandon Hagel

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Brandon Hagel’s time in the Swiss NLA has come to an end as NHL.com’s Brandon Cain notes (Twitter link) that the Blackhawks have recalled the winger from HC Thurgau.  He is expected to spend the holiday season back home before making the trip to Chicago for training camp as things stand.

The 22-year-old opted to head overseas back in late September and it certainly was a good decision as he picked up eight goals and seven assists in 14 games to put him second on the team in scoring.  It’s a step up offensively from his production in the minors last season (in terms of points per game) when he had 19 goals and 12 assists in 59 games with AHL Rockford.  He did well enough to earn one game with the big club right before the pandemic shut down the rest of the season.

Hagel will soon head to training camp with an eye on trying to earn one of the final spots on the roster but at this point, it seems more likely that he’ll wind up back with the IceHogs or perhaps on the taxi squad if those plans get finalized.  He’s entering the final year of his entry-level contract so a lot will be at stake in this shortened season.

What Your Team Is Thankful For: Chicago Blackhawks

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We’ve now made it past Thanksgiving and the holiday season is right around the corner. Like the last few years, PHR will take a look at what teams are thankful for but this year comes with a bit of a change. Normally teams would have an idea of where their season was heading, coming up on the one-quarter mark with mountains of statistics to analyze. Instead, in this unprecedented year, the season hasn’t even begun. We’ll still take a look at what each group is excited about and what they could hope for once the calendar turns to 2021.

What are the Blackhawks most thankful for?

The World Junior Championship.

Kirby Dach isn’t a junior player anymore. In fact, he’s barely a prospect at this point, after playing in 64 regular season games and then being one of the Blackhawks’ best players in the postseason. He’ll almost certainly be part of the team’s NHL roster whenever the upcoming season starts. Despite all that, Dach is about to play against the best junior-aged players in the world. The 19-year-old was loaned to Team Canada’s month-long selection camp and is expected to play in the upcoming tournament unless it somehow gets in the way of the NHL season (which appears very unlikely at this point).

Dach didn’t get to play at the WJC last year, he was too busy suiting up for the Blackhawks. It’s not often that a player gets to go back to the tournament after missing it for professional action, but that’s exactly what the Blackhawks chose for Dach while he and the rest of the NHL players wait around for a season that is still uncertain. There’s a very real chance that the young forward is the best player in the tournament, given his experience and success at the highest level. But even if he isn’t, Dach will certainly be able to shake off any offseason rust and should be ready to fire as soon as NHL games start.

Who are the Blackhawks most thankful for?

Dominik Kubalik.

Players like Dach and Adam Boqvist may be the next generation of stars for the Blackhawks, but both cost high picks to bring in (third overall for Dach, eighth for Boqvist). Kubalik on the other hand was just a forgotten seventh-round pick by the Los Angeles Kings that Chicago managed to acquire for a fifth in 2019. He wasn’t even signed at that point and it certainly wasn’t clear that he would be a difference-maker at the NHL level.

But a difference-maker he is. Kubalik burst onto the scene with 30 goals in his rookie season, earning himself a third-place finish in the Calder Trophy voting behind Cale Makar and Quinn Hughes. He was another one of the success stories in the postseason for the Blackhawks with eight points in nine games and earned himself a new two-year contract this fall. If the Blackhawks have any chance of competing in the next few years, it will be because of savvy additions like Kubalik, who cost almost nothing and has now become one of the team’s most important players.

What would the Blackhawks be even more thankful for?

Breakout goaltending.

No one believed the Blackhawks would go with a tandem of Collin Delia and Malcolm Subban in net, but that is what it appears will happen whenever this season begins. Both players have shown flashes of potential, with Subban even a first-round pick in 2012, but neither has had any sort of sustained success at the NHL level. If the playoffs are a realistic target and there isn’t any help coming, the Blackhawks desperately need one of the two to take control of the net and become the kind of mid-career breakout goaltender that Jordan Binnington was for the St. Louis Blues was in 2018-19.

What should be on the Blackhawks’ holiday wish list?

More young defense.

The Blackhawks have a bunch of talented defense prospects, between Boqvist, Ian Mitchell, Alec Regula, Nicolas Beaudin, and others. But there’s no guarantee that any of them realize their potential at the NHL level and with the legendary duo of Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook clearly on their way out, new leaders will have to step up.

In 2019, Chicago traded away Henri Jokiharju in exchange for Alexander Nylander, moving some of their prospect capital from defense to forward. If any of those young defenders bust, that move could be regretted for years. It’s not necessarily more lottery tickets that they should add, but young players that are a little more established to fill out the depth chart.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Dylan Strome Contract Talks Likely To Be Stalled Due To Agent Change

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  • Blackhawks center Dylan Strome could see his negotiations delayed following the departure of his agent Mark Guy, suggests Ben Pope of the Chicago-Sun Times. Guy has left Newport Sports Management after spending more than 20 years there to move to the auto industry.  Both GM Stan Bowman and head coach Jeremy Colliton have indicated a willingness to re-sign Strome but until the restricted free agent finds new representation, those talks will probably have to be shelved for the time being.

Antti Saarela Out 2-4 Weeks

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Chicago Blackhawks draft pick Antti Saarela was a likely candidate to represent Finland at the upcoming World Juniors, returning to the tournament after taking part last year. That has been thrown into question today as Brandon Cain of NHL.com reports that Saarela will be out two to four weeks with an undisclosed injury.

The 19-year-old forward was selected 123rd overall by the Blackhawks in 2019 but managed to secure a full-time spot on Ilves last season, scoring 12 points in 40 games. He returned to the Finnish club this year and had ten points in his first 17 games, looking more dangerous every time the puck touched his stick while maintaining his excellent skating abilities.

After going scoreless in seven games at the World Juniors last year, this year’s tournament would have been a chance for Saarela to exact some revenge and raise his international profile. Given that the tournament is almost exactly four weeks away he could potentially recover in time, but it obviously isn’t a guarantee.

Saarela isn’t yet under contract with the Blackhawks, but the team has until 2023 to sign him. If the big development step he has taken this year is any indication, a future in the NHL is waiting for him down the road.

Blackhawks Loan Philipp Kurashev And Michal Teply

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Nov 24: After playing just a single game with BK Mlada Boleslav, Teply’s loan has been changed to HC Stadion Litomerice.

Sep 5: Chicago has opted to loan two more prospects overseas as they announced that they’ve loaned center Philipp Kurashev to HC Lugano of the Swiss NLA and winger Michal Teply to BK Mlada Boleslav of the Czech Extraliga.  Both players will likely return when NHL training camps for 2020-21 get underway.

Kurashev played his first full professional season in 2019-20, suiting up in 36 games with AHL Rockford, collecting seven goals and 12 assists in 36 games.  However, he was not recalled by the Blackhawks at any point during the season.  The 20-year-old was a fourth-round pick (120th overall) in 2018 and has two years remaining on his contract.

As for Teply, the 19-year-old opted to leave the Czech Republic to play junior hockey with the Winnipeg Ice of the WHL this season.  The decision proved to be a smart one as he had 29 goals and 34 assists in 53 games which earned himself an entry-level contract back in April.  Teply was a fourth-round pick of Chicago (105th overall) back in 2019.  He’s still eligible to play in the WHL this season but Teply could also suit up for Rockford whenever their 2020-21 season kicks off.

The two players join winger Tim Soderlund (Almtuna, Allsvenskan) and winger Matej Chalupa (Hradec Kralove, Czech Extraliga) as Chicago prospects that are on loan.

Chicago Blackhawks Add To Hockey Operations

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The Chicago Blackhawks have made three hires to their hockey operations department, adding Kendall Coyne Schofield, Erik Condra, and Juan Gonzalez.

Coyne Schofield, an Olympic gold medalist and one of the most decorated players in U.S. women’s hockey, will join the Blackhawks as a player development coach and youth hockey growth specialist. The 28-year-old is from the Chicago area and is perhaps best known to NHL fans for her outstanding fastest skater performance at the 2019 All-Star game. Coyne Schofield will continue to train and compete with the U.S. Women’s National Team while working with Chicago.

Condra, who is apparently announcing his retirement with this news, joins the organization as a player development coach after a long professional career. Condra played last season with the Colorado Eagles of the AHL, scoring 35 points in 53 games. The 34-year-old has played over 400 games at the NHL level, including six in the 2018-19 season for the Dallas Stars.

Gonzalez will become the Rockford IceHogs strength and conditioning coach after previously working with USA Hockey as an advisor, designing off-ice programs for the U17 and U18 teams.

The team has also promoted Meghan Hunter to the director of hockey administration and amateur scout. Hunter had previously served as a senior executive assistant to the general manager. The 39-year-old was a dominant player in her own right, scoring 42 goals and 78 points as a freshman for the University of Wisconsin in 2000-01.

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