Big fixes needed for big problems
Fire Colliton? Dump Bowman? Trade Kane? Everything must be on table for Hawks.
ST. LOUIS — One thing the Blackhawks have made abundantly clear over the last few weeks is they don’t want to be judged based on how banged up they are.
Injuries to Duncan Keith, Calvin de Haan, Andrew Shaw and Drake Caggiula simply are part of hockey, and the next man is expected to step up. Good teams thrive and survive no matter who is lost.
The Hawks are not thriving. Nor are they surviving. And right now they are not good.
In fact, they are bordering on being a hot mess.
The Hawks have been trending downward since they won the 2015 Stanley Cup. But despite two seasons of postseason failure and another two without a playoff appearance, they appeared to have hope this year.
Just a few weeks ago, the Hawks were 9-7-4, riding hot goaltending toward a potential playoff run. Then injuries hit — yes, they do matter to an extent — and the bottom started to fall out, revealing just how tenuous things are for the organization.
The Hawks are 3-7-2 in their last 12 games with just one regulation win during that span. They suddenly look like a team that won’t be competitive this season with a long-term outlook that perhaps is even more uncertain.
Everything has to be on the table to fix what’s wrong.
The most obvious reaction to the Hawks’ troubles would be to make a coaching change. When the Hawks decided not to practice Friday in St. Louis, it was a bit of a surprise considering they also did not practice two days earlier in Arizona.
My antenna was up: Would Jeremy Colliton survive the three-game trip? The Hawks have had too many games this season in which they didn’t play hard either from the start or for a full 60 minutes, and at some point that falls on the coach.
But it’s difficult to see general manager Stan Bowman moving on from Colliton a little more than a year after he hired him to replace Joel Quenneville. It would be too much of an indictment for hiring Colliton in the first place.
The larger question is whether it’s time for Bowman to go. He has been GM for a little more than 10 years and presided over the greatest run in franchise history.
Save the debate about how large of a role he played in three Stanley Cups for a different day. He was instrumental, and that part of his legacy should be secure.
But that was then and this is now. The Hawks have to determine if Bowman is the right person to move them forward.
Most recently, he drafted Alex DeBrincat, traded for Dylan Strome and signed Robin Lehner. But he also gave out a number of bad contracts — Bryan Bickell and Brent Seabrook’s are the most egregious — that contributed to trades in which the objective was getting out of salary-cap hell rather than helping the Hawks become better.
I realize the Hawks love continuity, and firing Bowman would have a far greater organizational impact than firing Quenneville did. But the idea he’s the only person who can lead the team forward is ridiculous. If the Hawks don’t have in mind two or three replacements — either from within or around the NHL — they’re not doing their due diligence and just burying their head in the sand.
The most radical move would be to trade Patrick Kane. As I said, everything has to be on the table.
Don’t laugh. Wayne Gretzky was traded when he was 27. Kane is 31. He and has three seasons remaining on his contract with a $10.5 million cap hit — very reasonable for one of the best players in the league who has shown no signs of slowing down.
Whether Kane would waive his nomovement clause is the real issue. Probably not. But if he were to agree to a deal and bring back a ridiculous haul, that accelerates rebuilds. And no matter what the Hawks say, they are rebuilding — and have plenty of work to do.
Jonathan Toews’ contract is identical to Kane’s, but he doesn’t have nearly the same trade value. He’s going nowhere.
Kirby Dach and Adam Boqvist are obviously talented, but they still have to prove they can succeed in the NHL. Dach, 18, had a good week last month but hasn’t registered a point in 11 games. Boqvist, 19, has had some good games but also has looked overwhelmed at times.
Alex DeBrincat and Dylan Strome are players any team would want, but neither appears to be a superstar who can carry the Hawks. And their days of being cheap labor are over. DeBrincat’s contract extension with a $6.4 million cap hit kicks in next season, and Strome, who is scheduled to be a restricted free agent this summer, will be in the $4 million to $5 million range.
A failure to re-sign Lehner, who will be an unrestricted free agent after the season, could be catastrophic if Corey Crawford decides to retire and goalie prospects Kevin Lankinen and Collin Delia don’t prove capable of becoming NHL starters.
With 50 games remaining, the Hawks’ season likely is over. Comparisons to the Blues winning the Stanley Cup last season despite having the NHL’s worst record in January don’t hold water.
A better comparison is the Red Wings, the former powerhouse who failed to see the writing on the wall and have turned into the NHL’s worst team.
If the Hawks aren’t careful, that’s where they might suddenly find themselves.