There's are a lot of off the ice controversy surrounding the Chicago Blackhawks, but I wanted to focus on the team on the ice. The 2021-22 Chicago Blackhawks have gotten off to a terrible Start to the season, with a 3-9-2 record; only Arizona has a worse record. This bad start has caused the Blackhawks to fire head coach Jeremy Colliton, and Derek King was named the Interim coach. In this blog, I discuss what is wrong with Chicago Blackhawks and how to fix them.
Major Issues w/ Chicago Blackhawks:
1. Offseason acquisitions haven't panned out
2. Defense is flat out bad
3. Dylan Strome's poor play
4. Lack of Depth Scoring
The Chicago Blackhawks make a few major offseason moves to improve the team, including acquiring Seth Jones, Marc-Andre Fleury, and Tyler Johnson. They also went out and signed Jake McCabe, Jujhar Khaira, Erik Gustafsson in Free Agency.
The only move that is looking good so far is the Seth Jones move, he has 12 points in his first 14 games, while logging over 26 minutes a game. Marc-Andre Fleury has not had the start he would have liked in Chicago; he has a 2-7 record with a 3.81 GAA and .892 SV%. Tyler Johnson scored 3 points in 8 games and now is out with an injury. The free-agent signings haven't panned out either, none of the players have made any significant impact.
Chicago's defense is flat-out bad this season, outside of Seth Jones, the rest of the defense has be downright atrocious this year. Connor Murphy has the worst +/- on the team with a -13 through the first 14 games and Jake McCabe has the 2nd worth +/- with a -12. Calvin DeHaan is -7 through 14 games, Erik Gustafsson has 4 points in 13 games and is a -3. On Paper, the defense isn't that bad, but when you watch them actually play, you realize that this defensive core is absolutely terrible in their own zone.
Dylan Strome has not been used correctly by Jeremy Colliton, and he found himself playing on the fourth line at times this year. Strome is not useful playing in a 4th line role because he is not an energy guy and if he isn't putting up points, he is basically useless.
The Blackhawks have a great top 6, and the top 6 has no issues scoring, but the scoring drops off a cliff after the top 6. Patrick Kane, Jonathan Toews, Alex DeBrincat, Dominik Kubalik, Bradon Hagel, and Kirby Dach make up the top 6 for Chicago 48 of the Blackhawks 86 total points are scored by the top 6 of Chicago and 22 of the Blackhawks 30 goals came from their top 6. So, by those two statistics, it is clear that the Blackhawks lack depth scoring.
Chicago Blackhawks make two trades:
Chicago Blackhawks trade Dylan Strome, Riley Stillman to the Seattle Kraken for Colin Blackwell, Jeremy Lauzon, 2023 2nd round pick.
The Blackhawks kill two birds with one stone; they address the scoring depth issues and at the same time trade away a disgruntled Dylan Strome.
The Blackhawks also acquire Brett Howden, William Carrier from Vegas Golden Knights for Henrik Borgstrom, Jujhar Khaira, 2022 4th round pick.
The Blackhawks acquire two important role players in Brett Howden and Will Carrier to fill out the lineup.
This is how the Chicago Blackhawks lineup looks like after the trade:
A.DeBrincat-K.Dach-P.Kane
D.Kubalik-J.Toews-B.Hagel
M.Hardman-B.Howden-A.Gaudette
W.Carrier-R.Carpenter-P.Kurashev
J.Lauzon-S.Jones
J.McCabe-C.Murphy
C.DeHaan-E.Gustafsson
M-A.Fleury
K.Lankanen
(IR) T.Johnson, Co.Blackwell
The Chicago Blackhawks have made moves to improve their depth and defense, and when they get healthy they could make a push for a playoff birth.
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