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Another good read from Coach Frenchy here. Can’t keep up with all this Blackhawk content.
Coach Frenchy — 3 Observations Why Blackhawks Are Off to a Great Start
First of several Youtube videos to be produced by the Blackhawks to commemorate their centennial year.
Here’s a link to a Tab Bamford article. Included are a lot of good video clips from the TNT crew – comments from Biz during intermission, post game interview interview with Nazar and Bedard to name a couple.
Thanks Coach for the recap. Yes, an ugly win, but I’ll take it. It makes up for the lost points from the BOS and MTL games. SOG 14 to 23 against, the top forward threats shut down, but the depth pieces come through.
I read elsewhere about Blashill’s thought about the 11F and 7D lineup. He could use 2RD, Rinzel and Lev, on the PP and have 2 separate RD, Murphy and Crevier, on the PK. He could also spread the minutes among 7D, give all the young players some experience and lessen the war and tear as the season goes on. Also, it looks like Lafferty is in the dog house already (or maybe he is injured?). He and Reichel are sitting due to the 7D lineup.
Some updated prospect reports and news here:
After 2 games in Rockford…
Moore 2G and 1A
Savoie 1 and 1
Thompson 2A
Del Mastro 2A
Lardis 1A
Korchinski 1AElsewhere…
Kantserov 14 games – 9G and 5A
Frondell 10 games – 6G and 2A
Vanacker 6 games – 8G and 3A
Behm – 6 fames – 5G and 3A
Pridhan 6 games – 3G and 2AOctober 11, 2025 – Spokane 2, Seattle 0 (WHL)
Thanks Totem. Keep up the good work.
KD needs to restock Rockford with some dmen in the ‘26 draft, because fairly soon Allan, EDM, and KK will no longer be waiver exempt.
Play them, trade them or lose them beginning with the 26-27 season. I think they’ll be 5,6,7D after Vlasic, Rinzel, Kaiser and Lev. I can see KFC packaging 2 2nds for a 1st resulting in 4 picks in the top 40 or so in a deep draft. I agree with the D pipeline so maybe he selects at least 2D with those picks.
I started a new forum dedicated to the Hawks prospects. Perhaps we can include news of what the kids are doing in the AHL, NCAA, Juniors and in Europe. Maybe this also would be a good place for Totem to contribute his WHL scouting reports and for Wiz to include his insights on the 2026 draft. You can find it here.
Here’s a good summary of the current Hawks prospects, where they are playing, and scoring statistics. This information is updated daily. If you click on a column header you can sort the data accordingly.
https://www.eliteprospects.com/team/56/chicago-blackhawks/in-the-system
Also the idea of “using the 3 2026 seconds (Hawks, Isles, Toronto), and the 3rd and 4th as trade bait to acquire veterans is never going to land you any really good veteran, unless it ends up the hawks are giving a current rostered player, a pick, and a veteran that isn’t already penciled in as a keeper.
Agree Wiz, Like I wrote on our main thread, we’ll have to trade picks and prospects down the road to get something of value back. List of quality free agents will be drying up in coming years due to the cap rising, IMO. Next summer, I can see another accumulation of young talent using the 2-1st and 3-2nd round picks. Maybe even packaging a couple of 2nds for an end of the round 1st if KFC targets a player that is available.
Frondell should help next year. They are likely to still have Donato, Burakovsky, Bertuzzi and Teuvo next season too. Maybe one goes at the 2027 TDL. If Kantserov comes over I think they are likely to extend Mikheyev for a year or two. Foligno probably retires and with Lafferty and Dickinson leaving one way or the other, at least two or three forward spots open up. Maybe a high 2026 pick will be one of them with Moore, Greene, Lardis and possibly Kantserov competing for full time spots.
Eventually there probably be a big trade. It depends what the Hawks need, who is available and what the other team wants. Hard to predict.
<p style=”line-height: 27px !important; transition: all;” data-userway-s17-styled=”true” data-line-height-feature-value=”1″>So that huge 2026 UFA forward class is now down to Kempe, Panarin and Necas. Unless you want to include Nick Schmautz as a difference maker.
<That’s why drafting is king, especially as the cap rises, teams will be signing their guys.
Yeah, the thoughts most of us had the past few years about signing that “Hossa like player” or a scoring forward through free agency likely won’t be happening due to the cap increase.
Now, I think the way to get other players to fill gaps in the lineup will be via trade. And the trade bait will be the accumulated draft picks and/or the stable of prospects.With Moore, Greene, Lardis, Kantserov, Boisvert, Vanacker, Frondell, Nestrasil, West coming up the next few years there will be more forwards than spots on the team.
Can say the same with goalies within a couple of years. A couple among Knight, Soderblom, Commesso, Gajan and the 2 young Russians (assuming the last three develop into something) will be available.
I could argue that the defense has the least assets to trade. Vlasic, Kaiser, Lev and Rinzel will probably be 1-4. EDM, Allan and KK are 5th and 6th types. And depth is still needed justifying keeping the last guy around.
BM and MH you gonna make a GDT for each game?
I’m not. Happy to stay here.
