BICKELL DOESN’T SEE HIS FUTURE WITH HAWKS
He isn’t confident Hawks will keep him around after another stint in minors
ROCKFORD — There’s plenty for Bryan Bickell to dislike about being in the AHL again with the IceHogs.
There’s living in a hotel with his family. The bus travel isn’t as convenient or luxurious as the private jet the Blackhawks take. It’s not the NHL in a lot of ways.
But when it comes down to simply playing hockey, Bickell is happy. And that’s a feeling he hasn’t experienced much this season with the Hawks.
“I just want to play,” Bickell said after a recent morning skate.
“Everyone’s going to screw up down the road. Here, I get the minutes and get confidence and have fun. Up there, it wasn’t fun. It was hit or miss. You don’t know if you’re in the lineup or you’re going to play five minutes or play 12 minutes. It was more in my control, but it seemed like it wasn’t. It was a short leash where I couldn’t break through. Hopefully, I can break through again.”
Bickell has been through this before, but this time the mountain back to the NHL seems harder, at least while he’s still with the Hawks. Unlike the first time he cleared waivers and was assigned to the AHL this season, he isn’t nearly as optimistic about his future with the organization.
Bickell produced with the IceHogs the last time around, tallying seven goals and seven assists in 12 games. His play earned him a return trip to the Hawks, but it didn’t lead to better results. He had two assists in 16 games and never fully regained coach Joel Quenneville’s confidence.
Bickell’s ice time diminished to around five minutes per game in early January, and hewas a healthy scratch for four consecutive games before being put on waivers and reassigned to the AHL.
Bickell’s agent, Todd Diamond, recently said he didn’t believe Bickell’s future was with the Hawks. Bickell concurred.
“Situations like the situation I’m in right now with the year and the past, where it’s trending, you always think about other teams and what I could bring to the game and help out teams wherever,” Bickell said.
“I’m always going to be a Hawk. It’s a second home for me. If it comes down to it and the trade rumors come around and if I do get traded, I’m going to do whatever it takes for the team to win. If it’s here, somewhere else or anywhere, I’m just going to do my best to help the team out.”
Bickell said he hasn’t had much dialogue with the front office. He was unsure whether the Hawks would attempt to buy him out in the offseason if a trade doesn’t occur.
“I don’t know if I have control of getting a buyout,” said Bickell, whose four- year, $ 16 million contract expires after the 2016- 17 season. “I think that’s in their hands. We’re going to go day by day right now.
“I don’t really talk too much. I don’t really ask questions. I just sort of play and let my game kind of predict what’s going to happen. I don’t really know what’s next or what’s the future or whatever.”