Toews shocked at direction Blackhawks are going

[Raskolnikov]

I don't subscribe...can anyone who does share the gist?

‘A recipe for disaster’: What league sources are saying about the Blackhawks

Some people around the NHL aren't too impressed with what the Blackhawks have done recently.

theathletic.com

I dont have subscription either but I would bet it says our top 6 fwds are potentially thin without Saad(Cat and Suter need to bring the heat to salvage this).

That our defense is still going to suck, and once again there will be deep gassed breaths and cheers all around when we can penetrate beyond our own blue line.

And most emphatically, it surely says our goalies are going to netmind us a high lottery pick. I'm most certain it says THAT!

Whether we improved or not we will likely never see results without an upgrade at goalie.

Sliver of hope in Lankinen(someone brought up Nalimov and that might be reakistic). We can go as far as Lankinem can carry us. LOL take a laugh about that and set your expectations for the season appropriately.

 

[gopher72]

What choice do they really have?

I'm as big a Seabrook fan out there. If he were to have a big game you would see me posting up complimentary things on this forum until I got banned.

But he's done. We really don't know the extent of his injuries we just know what they told the public. If Seabs can come back and play at 50% of what he was during his prime he would have value to this team. The truth is, he's washed up.

2015 and 16 ate him up. He's never going to be that player again. He goes out with 3 Cups and his head held high. That's more then alot of players can say

Agree. My heart feels for great players who can’t go anymore. My head reminds me they make more money in a month than I will in a lifetime.

 

[KBIB]

You are right, I totally forgot about Smith who was the real catalyst in getting things going for the Hawks, but he was not the only only one. Tallon played a huge part as well.

Not a Tallon fan at all, but I thought he was assistant GM during the Smith drafts and was a catalyst in the whole trading away talent for draft picks straight up NHL2K style where one year they had like four or five second rounders or something like that.

He was the first GM who recognized the value of mid round draft picks to a shitty team that the league caught onto it a few years later. I give him that much credit.

He compared Cam Barker to Denis Potvin.

He drafted Jack Skille in a deep draft.

He drafted Kyle Beach in a deep draft over Erik Karlsson and had the honor of kicking Beach's mom out the draft ceremony.

He hit on Kane with the first pick in the draft when Kane was head and shoulders that much better then everyone else no matter what anybody was saying leading up to the draft. It was a no brain needed pick.

He got lucky Pittsburgh was stupid in taking staal over Toews. Toews became the player they thought Staal would develop into.

If memory serves me, he did push for Keith and was team Keith when Smith wanted someone else and if it wasn't Tallon it was somebody else who went above Smith's head so they took Keith. I remember vividly there was alot of drama over the pick and think it was Tallon who demanded Keith be taken and went to Dollar Bill with it.

He drafted Hammer, he was a huge fan of Buff, he over scouted Kruger but Q turned him into a defensive machine for about five years.

Tallon was more lucky then some franchise altering GM.

 

[JimAKABlkhwks918]

If memory serves me, he did push for Keith and was team Keith when Smith wanted someone else and if it wasn't Tallon it was somebody else who went above Smith's head so they took Keith. I remember vividly there was alot of drama over the pick and think it was Tallon who demanded Keith be taken and went to Dollar Bill with it.

Mike Smith:

Two nights before the 2002 draft, Smith’s hand-picked director of amateur scouting, Bill Lesuk, said he wanted to draft a scrawny Michigan State freshman named Duncan Keith in the second round.

“What’s wrong with that?” Smith said. “Take him.”

“Well, he’s only 5-10, 165 pounds,” Lesuk said. “And you’re going to be really criticized for taking him.”

“Bill, we’re criticized no matter who we take,” Smith said. “I remember being cut to shreds when I took Teppo Numminen in Winnipeg.”

“Well, I think he’ll grow, but he has every aspect for the game needed for where this league is headed,” Lesuk said.

“Then take him,” Smith responded. “He’ll grow.”

 

[Granada]

Not a Tallon fan at all, but I thought he was assistant GM during the Smith drafts and was a catalyst in the whole trading away talent for draft picks straight up NHL2K style where one year they had like four or five second rounders or something like that.

He was the first GM who recognized the value of mid round draft picks to a shitty team that the league caught onto it a few years later. I give him that much credit.

He compared Cam Barker to Denis Potvin.

He drafted Jack Skille in a deep draft.

He drafted Kyle Beach in a deep draft over Erik Karlsson and had the honor of kicking Beach's mom out the draft ceremony.

He hit on Kane with the first pick in the draft when Kane was head and shoulders that much better then everyone else no matter what anybody was saying leading up to the draft. It was a no brain needed pick.

He got lucky Pittsburgh was stupid in taking staal over Toews. Toews became the player they thought Staal would develop into.

If memory serves me, he did push for Keith and was team Keith when Smith wanted someone else and if it wasn't Tallon it was somebody else who went above Smith's head so they took Keith. I remember vividly there was alot of drama over the pick and think it was Tallon who demanded Keith be taken and went to Dollar Bill with it.

He drafted Hammer, he was a huge fan of Buff, he over scouted Kruger but Q turned him into a defensive machine for about five years.

Tallon was more lucky then some franchise altering GM.

A lot of people like to claim it was a "no-brainer" to pick Kane but I disagree. Kane's size was always a huge issue, as it has been in every NHL draft. Turris was not only bigger than Kane, but was ranked higher than Kane by the NHL Central Scouting Bureau and played center. My point is, it's always a bit of a gamble in taking someone that size. That draft was no different and I don't think it was as easy a layup as people assume. It's obviously easy to say that now in hindsight.

Whether you want to call it luck or skill, or both, Tallon was responsible for the majority of the Cup era core, as I outlined on the previous page.