Blackhawks Post-Draft Roundup

Blackhawks General Manager Stan Bowman will certainly have his hands full this off-season as he and the rest of the front office work to re-tool the team to get under the salary cap. The names mentioned as the most likely to be moved have been Patrick Sharp, who has a cap hit of $5.9 million, Bryan Bickell, with a cap hit of $4 million, and Kris Versteeg, with a cap hit of $2.2 million. However, all three still remain with the team as of now, having not been traded at the draft.

At the draft, the Hawks made the following selections:

#54 overall – LW Graham Knott, Niagara (OHL)

#91 overall – D Dennis Gilbert, Chicago (USHL), will attend Notre Dame

#121 overall – D Ryan Shea, Boston College HS / Youngstown (USHL), will attend Northeastern University

#151 overall – RW Radovan Bondra, HC Kosice (Slovak Extraliga)

#164 overall – RW Roy Radke, Barrie (OHL)

#181 overall – D Joni Tuulola, HPK (Liiga)

#211 overall – RW John Dahlstrom, Frölunda U-18 / Frölunda Jr. / Frölunda (SHL)

I’m not going to pretend know a ton about these guys other than that Knott had a nice year with Niagara and was looked at as a potential first-round pick. Also, Dahlstrom has a great stat line (34 G, 20 A in 44 games), but only 2 of those games were with the SHL club and he didn’t register a point in either game.

The Hawks did trade third goalie Antti Raanta to the New York Rangers in exchange for forward Ryan Haggerty. Last year was the 22-year-old’s first as a professional, and he had 15 goals and 18 assists with Hartford (AHL). Haggerty was an okay pickup for the Hawks, but I really don’t think I would have traded Raanta. The Hawks have needed his services in each of the last two seasons while Corey Crawford dealt with injuries, and when he played, he was quite good. Anders Nilsson, who the Hawks acquired from the Islanders in the Nick Leddy trade may be looking to come back over to America next season after spending this past season with Ak Bars Kazan (KHL). Nilsson had a very good season in Russia, but there’s no guarantee that he’ll play as well in America. In his previous stint in America, playing with the Islanders and Bridgeport (AHL), he was very mediocre. Also, I’m not totally sure he’ll come back to America without a guarantee of a spot in the NHL.

The goalie I would have at least shopped is Crawford. I’m well aware that he was great in the Stanley Cup Final. In fact, I called him the best player in the series. And that’s why I would shop him around. He carries a cap hit of $6 million and I feel like the Hawks could get a lot for him. As I said earlier, Raanta was good when he was needed in Chicago, and even though this was Scott Darling’s first year in the NHL, he showed a lot of promise. The Hawks probably don’t beat Tampa Bay without Crawford, but they definitely don’t beat Nashville without Darling. I’m not saying I definitely would trade Crawford (I certainly wouldn’t trade him just to trade him), but I would have at least taken a look at what offers would be out there before I moved Raanta.

The Hawks will almost definitely re-sign restricted free agents Brandon Saad and Marcus Kruger. Beyond that is where things get tough. Antoine Vermette is almosty certainly gone, as the Hawks would not have even had the cap space to bring him in were it not for Patrick Kane getting injured and going on long term injured reserve. The team has said they would like to bring back Oduya, although I’m not sure they will be able to. Michal Rozsival has indicated a desire to return to the team next year. If he can be brought back at a low price, I would like him back, as a veteran presence couldn’t hurt. Bowman has talked about possibly bringing back David Rundblad. I’m not totally against this, but I would rather see Ville Pokka, Stephen Johns, and Michael Paliotta on the ice before Rundblad. (Between writing and posting this, the Hawks re-signed Rundblad to a 2-year, $2 million deal. I don’t love the deal, but I don’t totally hate it, either.) On offense, my guess is Andrew Desjardins and Joakim Nordstrom both get re-signed. I feel like Brad Richards does, too, unless someone makes him a huge offer.

Twitter: @KSchroeder2325

E-mail: schroeder.giig@gmail.com