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I’d have to agree that the Hawks might have someone who can measure to be like Bourque. I wasn’t necessarily thinking that KD would make the offer sheet, but that some other GM, seeing the promise of Bourque and Dallas’ problem of trying to sign their leading scorer, would make this attempt to steal Bourque from the Stars. Low risk offer sheet attempts like this, and St. Louis’ takes from Edmonton and let’s not forget Doug Wilson’s attempt after the 2010 cup. This was more of a possible scenario that allows for KD to make that big splash in the off-season. Anyways I’m still enjoying what’s happening with Hawks.
Interesting if a team out there offer sheets Maverik Bourque. If Dallas matches, then it makes it that more difficult for then to sign Robertson. That would help the Hawks a lot in there efforts to make a trade with Dallas. If they don’t match, that other GM gets a quality player in Bourque, and Dallas still has to make maneuvers just to sign Robertson. Interesting summer ahead.
So far, I think the Hawks have made a fine choice with their head coach in Jeff Blashill. Some questioned his desire to keep Burakovski on the top line, and rightfully so, and leave an offensively talented Nick Lardis on the 4th line with Slaggert and Lafferty, who are not so offensively gifted.
With Burakovski, I think he was just a player that had speed, size and skill that could blend with Bedard to keep offensive zone possession. Both he and Greene seemed to be Blashill’s best options, though neither have been shown to have great finishing capabilities. Enter Frondell. Here he comes off the plane from Sweden and he’s put on the top line with Bedard, replacing Burakovsky. Blashill sees the above listed skills in Frondell, and can immediately try him on the first line. Here’s a quote from Blashill regarding Frondell:
“Sometimes when guys come from junior or college, they never have to defend because they have the puck the whole night. . . . For him, he’s had to defend. He’s had to be a fourth-liner. He’s had to do those kind of things. That helps him grow.”
Blashill recognizes that Frondell has developed some of the aspecs of the pro game in Sweden, and has no qualms about putting him with Bedard, which leads us to the Lardis discussion.
A few days ago Blashill was quote regarding Lardis as needing to play “10 minutes a game” style or something like that. I didn’t quite understand the meaning of it, but now that Lardis has been promoted to the second line, and reading into that above quote, it makes more sense to me.
Lardis, like prospects, Marek Vanacker and Jack Pridham seem to have had their way in junior. So the skill is there, but in the NHL they won’t have their way quite so easily, and therefore they need to defend and play the right way to further their developement towards being good NHL players. By putting Lardis with Lafferty and Slaggert, defensive structure was going to be in the forefront. Lardis’ efforts did not go unnoticed, and he’s looked good with Nazar and Bertuzzi.
The head coaching job has evolved from the hardnosed play my vets kinda bench boss, to the I have to get to know my players individually and manage from there kinda coach. So far, I’m happy with Blahill. He’s doing things right for his young players, and he’ll have even more next year, so hopefully the developemnt of youth continue.
Like you stated Coach, this is the exciting part of the rebuild. Now we’re getting to see the young draft picks that KD and company have selected, and so far, with Bedard(no brainer), Nazar, Moore, Rinzel, Greene and Levshunov, it seems that the scouting and developement of these young players have been very positive. Now adding Frondell and Boivert to the mix, interesting times ahead for the Hawks.
All three prospects have been great for their squads. Each having multi point games. 2 more today with Frondell adding 2 more powerplay snipes and Spellacy with a goal and an assist so far. Great stuff for us Hawks fans.
Frondell looking good firing the puck on the powerplay. 1G/1A through 2. The Hawks should have some good shooters on the powerplay next year with Frondell Kantserov and Lardis along with Bedard and Nazar. That’s a lot of skill right there!
Thanks Coach for the write-up. Hope you had a wonderful Christmas. I’ll be tuning in on the NHL Network this morning(westcoaster) to watch Frondell and Team Sweden. These 3 players if they can reach their potential are exactly what the Hawks will need. Lot of jam especially along the boards.
I think Knight is a very good technically sound goalie, but when he makes a miscue, which he rarely does, suddenly his concentration level drops momentarily and his play wavers. After the faceoff following Matthews’ goal the Leafs dumped the puck towards the net, from I believe beyond the blue line, and Knight inexplicably misplayed it by letting it rebound from his pads straight up the center of the ice. Normally I think he would have snared it or at least steered it towards the corner. Not to absolve anything from Crevier, but he probably thought that too. Crevier has to play Joshua hard, as anything can happen. Joshua’s shot was of the nothing to look at variety, but Knight failed to make the save.
I watched the Flames-Sharks game afterward, and a similar thing happened to the Flames’ D. Sharks dumped the puck from beyond the redline, and 2 Flames D-men are closer to the goal line than the oncoming Barclay Goodrow. Both D skated nonchalantly towards the goal line expecting to hear a whistle for icing, but icing was waived off because both defensemen were wide in their lanes and Goodrow raced down the middle, collected the puck first and scored on Wolf, who also looked stunned.
Hopefully the Hawks’young players can learn from these types of moments and not take anything for granted. Just play 60 minutes of good hockey.
Thanks for the thoughts regarding this. Perhaps the Hawks already have the intel you mentioned. I like the Geekie option that you mentioned.
Coach what do you think of the chances of the Hawks sending Broissoit back to Winnipeg along with maybe a defenseman or a pick for Brad Lambert. Assuming Broissoit is later healthy enough, they woud know what they’re getting in him, and the Hawks should know quite a bit about Lambert when they were monitoring Dach, Allen and Korchinski in Seattle. Not sure of the feasibility or even the interest by the teams, just that the familiarity of both teams make this an interesting fit.
