Hawks add more depth with Gabriel
MONTREAL — With none of the Blackhawks’ current group of forwards contributing much, why not try a new one?
That seems to be Hawks interim general manager Kyle Davidson’s thinking behind his second small trade within a week that sent defenseman Chad Krys to the Maple Leafs for forward Kurtis Gabriel on Thursday.
Gabriel, 28, doesn’t have much of a track record of NHL success, having tallied just five points in 49 games since 2015 with the Wild, Devils and Sharks.
His best season at the NHL level came in 2018-19, when he had four points in 22 games with the Devils. He has never been a prolific scorer in the AHL, either; he had just two points in 13 appearances for the Toronto Marlies so far this season.
But he does have good size (6-4, 200 pounds) and at least provides another warm, semi-experienced body to help fill injured Jujhar Khaira’s shoes and potentially spark something among the Hawks’ lethargic group of bottom-six guys.
Gabriel is expected to join the Hawks in Toronto on Saturday. His contract carries a cheap $750,000 salary-cap hit and expires after this season.
Krys, 23, was the Hawks’ second-round pick in 2016, but he had been jumped by other prospects on the depth chart and seemed destined to play out his Hawks tenure in the AHL. He’d made it into the Rockford IceHogs’ lineup only 14 times over the last two seasons combined, tallying three assists.
Strome missing ‘trust factor’
Dylan Strome’s roller coaster of a season took another rapid descent Thursday.
After interim coach Derek King talked animatedly with him at center
ice during the morning skate, Strome’s shoulders dropped as he slid around the ice; it was clear what had occurred. King later confirmed Strome was a healthy scratch against the Canadiens.
“We keep pounding it in him — the big thing with him is, he’s going to have to change his game a little bit to play,” King said.
Just last week, Strome appeared to be ascending again. King slotted him in a role — on the second line alongside Kirby Dach and Alex DeBrincat — that properly fit his
offensive abilities.
He then put forth four seemingly solid, consistent performances. He scored a big goal Sunday against the Islanders, had an assist Tuesday against the Rangers and generated a 58.1% scoring-chance ratio during his even-strength ice time, third-best on the Hawks during that span. He looked increasingly comfortable and noticeable on the ice.
Even that evidently wasn’t enough to retain that spot, though. Newly recalled Philipp Kurashev
essentially took it from him Thursday.
Team management’s continued pattern of giving Strome opportunities, then abruptly taking them away is difficult to understand. Ex-coach Jeremy Colliton had completely soured on him by the time of his firing, but King seemed to be following a more patient approach — until Thursday.
It seems the Hawks might have decided Strome’s only path forward with the organization is to repurpose himself as a defensefirst,
bottom-six grinder.
“You can’t base everything on points, right?” King elaborated. “It’s [about] the trust factor. When we’re late in the game and I need to go to three lines, is he going to be that guy on one of those three lines that I can trust on a D-zone faceoff or when trapped in our end? And right now, we’re just not trusting each other to that extent.
“He has a lot more to give, and he realizes that. Has he been playing better? For sure, he has. But it’s those little details of the game.”