CHICAGO — The 2021-22 Chicago Blackhawks season probably has faded from fans’ memories already — because who really wants to remember anything that transpired on or off the ice during that turbulent time?
The team would rather have fans look forward as it begins to reinvent the franchise, including introducing potential season ticket holders to its hockey operations’ new executive team Monday during an event at the United Center Concert Club.
That braintrust includes general manager Kyle Davidson and associate GMs Norm Maciver and Jeff Greenberg.
And likely in attendance will be Brian Campbell, who still doesn’t have an official title but has been a fixture at Davidson’s side since October.
“I’ve always wanted to bring people in around me that bring different perspectives,” Davidson said in April, adding that Campbell and Maciver are former players while Greenberg was a Cubs executive. “Looking forward, I’d like to take that outside hockey, definitely outside the Blackhawks, and really build that breadth of expertise.”
Davidson also is keeping an eye on how some of the younger Hawks perform during the AHL Calder Cup playoffs. The Rockford IceHogs advanced to face the Chicago Wolves in a best-of-five divisional semifinal series; the Wolves took a 2-0 series lead into Sunday’s game in Rockford.
“It’s an exciting time and it’s a great opportunity for us to really enhance our evaluation and understanding of where they’re at,” Davidson said.
Here are the key dates and topics to track for the Blackhawks offseason.
Important dates
•May 29-June 4: NHL scouting combine at the KeyBank Center and LECOM Harborcenter in Buffalo, N.Y.
•June 30: Last possible date of the Stanley Cup Final.
•July 1: First buyout period begins.
•July 2: First deadline for teams electing salary arbitration to notify.
•July 7-8: NHL draft at the Bell Centre in Montreal.
•July 11: Deadline for qualifying offers.
•July 12: Restricted free agents may contact teams; first buyout period ends; last day for teams to offer their unrestricted free agents eight-year deals.
•July 13: Restricted and unrestricted free-agent signing period begins; players may accept qualifying offers.
•July 17: Deadline for players electing salary arbitration to notify.
•July 18: Second deadline for teams electing salary arbitration to notify.
•July 22: Qualifying offers expire automatically.
•July 27-Aug. 11: Salary arbitration hearings period.
NHL draft
The Hawks lost their first-round pick to the Columbus Blue Jackets when lottery-ball luck bounced the New Jersey Devils’ way — the team slotted just above them before the drawing.
Under the terms of the Seth Jones trade, the Hawks needed to win one of the top two spots to keep the pick, but those picks went to the Montreal Canadiens and Devils, respectively.
But the grass might be greener in 2023.
The consensus among experts is that next year’s draft class is stronger and deeper.
The Hawks could have as many as four picks in the first two rounds if they land the Tampa Bay Lightning’s top-10-protected first-round pick (which is likely unless some disaster befalls the Bolts next season), courtesy of the Brandon Hagel trade.
The Hawks also own the Lightning’s second-round pick, part of the acquisition of Tyler Johnson that allowed the Lightning to use Brent Seabrook’s contract for salary-cap relief.
With the Blue Jackets getting the Hawks’ 2022 first-round pick, the Hawks keep their 2023 first-rounder, and with a full-blown rebuild in effect they could be in the lottery again.
Draft experts are as wild about Regina Pats center Connor Bedard as they were about Connor McDavid. Another top center prospect, Adam Fantilli, plays with the USHL Chicago Steel and physically fits the mold of players the Hawks want in the future.
Sweden’s Leo Carlsson is a center/wing who has size at 6-foot-3 and can skate. And keep an eye on 5-10 left-handed Winnipeg Ice forward Zach Benson, whom TSN analyst and former Calgary Flames general manager Craig Button called “Patrick Kane-esque.”
“I always said this about Patrick Kane: He’s got the guts of a cat burglar,” Button said. “Zach Benson has those qualities.”
But those prospects are for down the road — the Hawks must start with the draft capital they have in 2022.
Québec Remparts center Nathan Gaucher (6-3, 207) is a physical two-way forward with scoring ability who could fall to the Hawks at No. 39.
Noah Östlund torched the U.S. for two goals May 1 to help Sweden win gold at the IIHF under-18 World Championship.
Draft watchers have noted London Knights defenseman Isaiah George (6-0, 195) is a smooth and efficient skater who makes good decisions in the defensive zone and is versatile enough to play special teams.
The Hawks might want to shy away from smallish skill players, but even at 5-11 and 172 pounds, forward David Goyette’s combination of puck handling and vision could be hard to pass up in the second round. The fact he wears No. 88 and plays for Davidson’s hometown Sudbury Wolves is just a bonus.
North Barrington native Lane Hutson is undersized (5-8, 148), but the defenseman led the U.S. national development under-18 team with 53 assists, something to consider given the Hawks finished in the bottom three in points by defensemen two seasons in a row.
At least this year Davidson and his new front office will benefit from having a scouting combine after the previous two were canceled because of the pandemic.
Teams also had fewer junior and tournament games to evaluate players, but Nolan Allan impressed then-Hawks GM Stan Bowman at the IIHF under-18 world championship in Texas — including when he plowed Russia’s Nikita Chibrikov into the bench early in the gold medal game.
“He’s got the size, the skating and the physicality,” Bowman said after drafting Allen 32nd overall last year. “He was a big workhorse for the Canadian team that won the gold medal.”
Fast-forward to this month, when Allan and second-round pick Colton Dach earned assignments to the Rockford IceHogs for the AHL playoffs.
Even though neither player had played in the first four postseason games, it’s another phase of their development.
“That doesn’t matter for me,” Allan said this month. “There’s other guys, they played here the whole year, so they deserve to play. It’s just soaking everything in and using this as experience.”
The coaching search
Davidson set early July as a target for a candidate list and the middle of the month to settle on his choice.
“We want to be pretty nimble with it,” he said. “So much going on at the same time right now.”
Davidson laid out some of the characteristics he’s looking for in a coach during a May 3 briefing with reporters.
“We want the coaches that are able to communicate, able to drive a message and create a positive culture and get players to want to come to the rink and compete every single night,” he said. “And that’s based on track record and that’s also based on how they deliver a message, so we’ll learn that based on what they’ve done in the past but also through the interview process.”
One might think, given Derek King’s 27-33-10 finish as interim coach and Davidson’s firing of assistant coaches Marc Crawford and Rob Cookson, that King might be at a disadvantage to get the permanent gig, but Davidson dismissed that notion.
“It doesn’t impact Derek at all,” he said. “He’s going to be a candidate in the coaching search.
“With respect to Marc and Rob, we want to have a bit of a clean slate as we go into the next ... coaching regime.”
Outside of King, it’s an interesting landscape.
Could the Hawks take a hard look at Barry Trotz, recently fired by the New York Islanders, or longtime understudy Lane Lambert? Rick Tocchet could be another to watch if the Philadelphia Flyers don’t get to him first. John Tortorella comes with a wealth of experience (and baggage) and was Jones’ coach in Columbus.
In his first season as an NHL assistant coach, 40-year-old Spencer Carbery guided the Toronto Maple Leafs power play to a No. 1 regular-season finish (27.3%). As coach of the Hershey Bears, he was named the AHL’s Most Outstanding Coach in 2020-21 after finishing with the league’s best record.
Rocky Thompson, a former Wolves head coach, had to step away from his position as San Jose Sharks associate coach in September because he couldn’t take the COVID-19 vaccine for an undisclosed medical reason. Is that issue resolved?
Derek Lalonde helped collect back-to-back Stanley Cups as an assistant coach for the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Marco Sturm, 43, aided the Los Angeles Kings turnaround as an assistant. His deep ties to German hockey could help him make an instant connection with Lukas Reichel.
World championship
Defensemen Seth and Caleb Jones and forward Sam Lafferty are playing for the U.S. team in the IIHF Men’s World Championship, which started Friday and runs through May 29. Patrick Kane and Alex DeBrincat declined to participate.
Caleb Jones hopes to make a case to be re-signed by the Hawks.
“Obviously playing with Seth is a bonus, but what they’re trying to do here, they’re trying to rebuild a little bit and maybe look for a little bit younger guys coming up that can contribute for the future, and I think I fit that mold,” he said in late April.
Lafferty felt “a lot of satisfaction” after being rewarded with a two-year extension ($1.15 million cap hit) on April 29.
“It’s nice to have that (security), but at the end of the day, you’ve got to improve and get better,” Lafferty said. “When you stop doing that, you’re in trouble. The process doesn’t change.”
Free agency
Davidson hasn’t outright said the Hawks are out of the unrestricted free-agent market, but it’s a safe bet given the plans for an overhaul.
“I would say it’s unlikely we’re going to sign some long-term deals. Very unlikely,” he said. “But that’s not to say we won’t fill some spots in the UFA market if the right opportunity presents itself.”
Just don’t expect anything splashy.
Davidson has made it clear he probably will be stingy with cap space — which he might need down the line when the team becomes competitive again.
“We’ve been in a situation for so long that we’ve had none,” he said. “It would be nice to have some and really be able to dictate how we use our budget and use our salary-cap dollars from a strategic standpoint rather than just being reactive to it.”
With the Hawks trying to preserve cap space, will it affect their willingness to spend on Dylan Strome and Dominik Kubalík, two restricted free agents with arbitration rights?
“It definitely goes into the conversation,” Davidson said. “Any time a player is due for a raise or a new contract, you have to be looking not just for the next season but for the seasons moving forward.
“That definitely goes into the decision-making process when it comes to any RFA or UFA or player you’re going to bring in or contract you’re going to sign.”
Contract tracker
Free agents: Forwards Kirby Dach (restricted), Philipp Kurashev (restricted), Dylan Strome (restricted, arbitration eligible) and Dominik Kubalík (restricted, arbitration eligible); defensemen Erik Gustafsson (unrestricted), Calvin de Haan (unrestricted), Caleb Jones (restricted, arbitration eligible) and Wyatt Kalynuk (restricted, arbitration eligible, currently in AHL); goalies Kevin Lankinen (unrestricted) and Collin Delia (unrestricted).
Under contract: Forwards Patrick Kane, Jonathan Toews, Alex DeBrincat, Tyler Johnson, Sam Lafferty, Taylor Raddysh, Henrik Borgström, Reese Johnson, MacKenzie Entwistle, Boris Katchouk, Jujhar Khaira (long-term injured reserve), Lukas Reichel (currently in AHL) and Brett Connolly (currently in AHL); defensemen Seth Jones, Jake McCabe, Riley Stillman and Alex Vlasic; goalie Arvid Söderblom (currently in AHL).
Eligible for extension: Kane, Toews, DeBrincat, Borgström, Khaira and Connolly.
