Wings Tonight….Could Hawks Already be Planning for Next Year?

Everyone is focusing on tonight’s contest in Detroit as a statement game. This battle has significance, but let’s not got carried away. What is very important is for the Blackhawks  to accumulate a lot of points this month with a home game friendly schedule. So a win tonight would be great, but no game can be overlooked.

Bigger picture is to realize for improvement over last year the Hawks will have to be better against teams in their own division. The Red Wings are very much a part of that group as are the Predators. As the schedule makers have it, Nashville will face Chicago three times this month. 

There are 11 games left for the Hawks in October, with two more back-to-back encounters. Every game except one is against a Western Conference foe and eight of the eleven battles will be played at the United Center.  

It was common for teams to wait until  US  Thanksgiving, or about 20 games into the season before trying  to fix their shortcomings by making changes. That was in the old days. Now the evaluation process is sped up to about the 10 or 12 game mark. This  will be especially true  considering the Olympic break is coming and the schedule is compressed in the first few months. 

Chris Osgood has a lofty 8-0-1 record against the Hawks in his last nine games. The Wings haven’t started the season with three straight losses in 20 years. Maybe this isn’t the best set-up for the Blackhawks especially considering they are going into tonight’s encounter banged up.  Dave Bolland, Ben Eager and Troy Brouwer have injuries which may keep all of them out of action. 

Hopefully the Brouwer injury is not long lasting. Eager had a problem with his wrist and with concussions before he came to the Hawks. After arriving here he had shoulder surgery and also had is wrist fixed. If there are no lingering consequences from any of those past injuries he could be back sooner than later. 

*The Hawks have  just recalled left wing  Bryan Bickell from Rockford.

I am starting to worry about Bolland’s injury situation. 

If it is his back…..that can be a lingering problem. Bolland doesn’t strike me as a player who is overly cautious when hurt as some say would be the case with Nikolai Khabibulin. It has been reported Bolland will be back for Saturday’s home opener….we will see. 

On Wednesday the Hawks traded Aaron Johnson to Calgary for Kyle Greentree. The newly acquired left wing was assigned to the Rockford Ice Hogs. 

Greentree will earn $110,000 more than Johnson for this season. No real issue is there but he is on a two-way contract and Johnson was not. 

Greentree will be a restricted free agent this summer while Jonhson will become an unrestricted free agent on July 1. For the extra money the Hawks will control Greentree’s rights if they choose to qualify him. 

Greentree has had scoring success in the AHL but could not crack the Flames roster for this season. 

So why would the Hawks make this trade? 

I was looking for a trade, but this doesn’t fill the void the departure of Matt Walker created. Calgary would not go out of their way to help the Hawks, and every GM in the NHL knew Johnson was available. It is somewhat curious the Hawks would give up on Johnson, he was affordable insurance. There seems to be more of a reason to protect the defense with an extra body than to add an AHL winger. But most likely there is another plan. 

Greentree is a big guy, 6ft. 3 inches tall and weighs about 215 pounds. He followed the same path to professional hockey as the Hawks Jordan Hendry. Greentree signed with the Flyers as a free agent after playing at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Maybe someone in the Hawks organization has been keeping tabs on him and thinks he can be a NHL player someday. He appears to have more of a scoring touch than many of the boys in Rockford.

It is possible the Hawks will want to give Jack Skille another chance in Chicago and moving Johnson helps in that way. It is also possible the Hawks could be looking to package Skille in a trade and now they have a forward to replace him in Rockford. Skille’s future as a Hawk is open for debate, eventually we will find out. 

Recent acquisitions of forwards Radek Smolenak and Greentree may have more to do with next year than this season. Now management can evaluate and compare both  with many others in Rockford.

Hockey logic would indicate because Greentree couldn’t fit into the Flames offense he won’t be able to play in Chicago. It might be wise to not etch that opinion in stone.   

If the aim of Blackhawk management is to re-sign Pat Kane, Duncan Keith and Jonathan Toews, which it is ……Then, get ready for a very interesting training camp next summer.  Hawk fans will have to get familiar with many young and inexpensive forwards. 

Add Greentree and Smolenak to the list with Akim Aliu, Dan Bertram, Bryan Bickell, Evan Brophy, Nathan Davis, Jake Dowell, and Rob Klinkhammer. The Blackhawks have some good young talent which will report for duty for under $1,000,000 per season, plus Kyle Beach who will be a bit more expensive. 

I would not rule out a more significant trade coming, but for now there are a few injuries to assess. Stan Bowman is known as a calculating person and he could be actively planning for next season right now. 

Al’s Shots

Johnson never really did anything wrong while here and played well in most appearances. Depending on the injury situation in Calgary he could get more of  a chance to play with the Flames.  Johnson was the last Hawk client of  agent Allan Walsh who also represents Marty Havlat.

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