Blackhawks Mailbag: When will the 2020 playoffs start?

Over the weekend, I asked the readers to send in Chicago Blackhawks questions on Twitter. Here are the answers to those questions.

Question 1: Does Dominik Kubalik get a bridge deal with the Blackhawks?

For starters, that is a very good question. The Chicago Blackhawks need to re-sign Dominik Kubalik for the long term, but as we’ve seen in the past, some young players have solid seasons and never progress to the next level.

It’s a big risk to sign Kubalik for a long term contract, but if they give him a bridge deal and he progresses even more than last season, the Blackhawks might be coughing up a lot of money to keep Kubalik around.

The best option for them is to offer him a three-to-four year deal, worth around $4M per season. It’s a good deal for him while saving cap for Chicago. If he gets better during those next few years, there’s a chance for him to get paid big time.

Question 2: Will Collin Delia be backing up Corey Crawford next season?

Right now, Corey Crawford isn’t signed with the team, along with Malcolm Subban also being a Restricted Free Agent. Keeping Subban is the cheap option, but obviously there’s little to no trust with him in net, as he hasn’t seen any action since being traded to Chicago.

Collin Delia could see some NHL time next year, but I would keep him away for another season. The best idea is to re-sign Crawford and either trust in Kevin Lankinen or sign a cheap fringe starter to back up Crawford.

As Crawford gets older, he needs someone like Robin Lehner to split time with him. Trading Lehner wasn’t the best idea, now, Chicago has to find a way to fix that situation after the playoffs.

Question 3: When is the expected date of the first playoff game?

The earliest news of training camp starting for the 24 playoff teams is July 10th, 2020. Training camps will be three weeks, so the first playoff games will start early August. I don’t have an exact date. If I were to put a date on it, I would say around August 5th, 2020.

Thanks for all the fans that sent in questions. We’ll be doing this again shortly, make sure to send in your questions on Twitter for the next Blackhawks mailbag.