5 Things The Chicago Blackhawks Need To Do This Offseason

It’s no secret that the 2019-20 Season was a roller coaster ride for the Chicago Blackhawks. Contrary to showing many promising moments for the future, the team also showed some potential question marks moving ahead.

All in all, the Blackhawks performed at the level that many people expected heading into the year. They finished the regular season with a record of 32-30-8 in 70-games played before the season was cut short due to the ongoing pandemic. Many people had the Hawks labeled as a “tweener” team, and they proved to be just that.

While the stoppage of play allowed the Hawks the opportunity to participate in the Stanley Cup Qualifiers, it was a fortunate break for Chicago. Had the pandemic not hit, the Blackhawks had only a measly 33% chance of making the postseason according to HockeyReference.com

After upsetting a high-powered Edmonton Oilers squad in the qualifying round, the Blackhawks qualified for the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the first time since that dismal exit in 2017. While the series against the Vegas Golden Knights was brief, it proved to be a showcase of what is to come in the future for the Blackhawks.

Even though Chicago lost the series 4-1, they put up a much better fight than the scoreline shows. Vegas looks to be a perennial Cup contender, with a ton of depth at each position. Other than being dominated in Game 1, the Hawks were able to keep pace with the Knights. They managed to take Game 2 into overtime, and only lost by a 2-1 score in Game 3. After emerging victorious in Game 4, they closed out the series with another narrow 4-3 loss to the #1 seed in the Western Conference.

They played much better than expected, and many fans were satisfied with the effort that was displayed by the Windy City, aside from some of the questionable coaching/management decisions down the stretch, such as John Quenneville playing in Game 5.

Now with a young roster that has a playoff run under their belt, the Blackhawks need to find out what they are going to do for next season and beyond. The league salary cap did not go up as many had expected, so this leaves the Blackhawks with many difficult decisions in the next few months. Here’s my look at the 5 things that the Blackhawks should prioritize this offseason:

#1: Resolve the Goaltender Situation

For the first time since he arrived in Chicago, Corey Crawford is set to become an unrestricted free agent this offseason. He had some very impressive performances during this postseason, but also some moments that raised quite a bit of criticism.

His current contract has a cap hit of $6,000,000 per season, however, Crawford is now 35-years-old and has had many injury issues in the past. While Crawford stated that he wants to stay in Chicago, it might be very difficult for him to do so.

If Crawford decides against taking a discount, then chances are that he will not be a Blackhawk next season. The Blackhawks already have $74,146,795 tied up in 19 roster players for next year, and they still need to resign rookie goal-scoring leader Dominik Kubalik, Dylan Strome, and depth forward Drake Caggiula.

Some good news for Chicago is that this free agency class features a lot of goaltenders who are UFAs. While the chances of bringing back Robin Lehner seem even more unlikely than resigning Crawford, there are still many reliable options such as Thomas Greiss, Jakob Markstrom, Braden Holtby, Cam Talbot, and Anton Khudobin.

Another option for Chicago could be to go after Linus Ullmark of the Buffalo Sabres. Ullmark is only 26 years old, and played pretty well in the 34 games he started this past season. While his record was subpar (17-14-3), he had an SV% of .915 and a GAA of 2.69. These are pretty good numbers for a Sabres squad that was inconsistent. His current cap hit is only $1.325 mil, so that would make him an affordable option for the Blackhawks.

He is a restricted free agent, so the Blackhawks would have to give the Sabres some sort of compensation in the form of draft picks. They do have Calgary’s 3rd round pick in this year’s draft that they acquired in the Erik Gustafsson deal, as well as Montreal’s 7th rounder next year.

The Sabres already have Carter Hutton and top goaltender prospect Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen in the system coming up, so this means that Ullmark is more than expendable. Buffalo also could certainly use the draft picks to help fix the rest of their lineup.

Of course, Crawford always could come back on a cheaper deal and have Colin Delia or Malcolm Subban as the backup. Delia did look decent in his limited action in the NHL a few seasons ago, and some time to grow in the AHL could have helped his development.

The last scenario that could happen is that the Blackhawks could select top goaltending prospect Yaroslav Askarov in the upcoming NHL Draft. Askarov has outstanding numbers, but chances are that he will be selected before the Hawks pick at #17. If he somehow does slide down in the draft, expect the Windy City to select the youngster.

No matter who ends up playing goalie for the Blackhawks in the upcoming season, it sure will be interesting to see what will happen between the pipes.

#2: Re-sign Dominik Kubalik

Before the season was underway, Dominik Kubalik looked to be a promising prospect for the future. Acquired via trade with the Los Angeles Kings in January of 2019, Kubalik did not have the hype that other Blackhawks prospects had. The 2013 7th-Round Selection only cost the Hawks a fifth-round draft pick in the deal, which turned out to be a steal for Chicago.

Even though he flew under the radar at the start of the season, his lethal one-timer and his brilliant shot could not go unnoticed. In December, Kubalik started to light it up for the Blackhawks. He continued this play throughout the rest of the season, as he hit the 30 goal mark in his rookie season while also being nominated for the Calder Trophy.

Dominik was the first Blackhawk rookie to hit the 30-goal plateau since Artemi Panarin in the 2015-16 season. This is a feat that many established players have not hit, as stars Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews both failed to light the lamp that many times in their rookie campaigns.

We all saw what happened to Panarin after his first two impressive seasons, and the Hawks need to prevent this from happening with Kubalik. They need to lock him up on a long term deal, and they might have to let Dylan Strome head to free agency to make this happen. Expect Kubalik to be asking around the $3-4 million range in terms of contract negotiations.  He states that he wants to stay in Chicago, and looks to get even better next season.

I’d love it if Kubalik stays in Chicago as well. His knack for generating scoring opportunities and his chemistry with Toews is one of a kind. We all can only hope that Stan Bowman will not let another young stud go by the wayside.

#3: Re-sign Slater Koekkoek

One nice surprise that the Blackhawks had throughout the season was the performance of Slater Koekkoek. Originally acquired via the Jan Rutta trade with the Tampa Bay Lightning, Koekkoek was a promising young defenseman who was excluded from Tampa’s loaded blue line. In his first year with the Blackhawks last season, Slater tallied 1-goal and 4-assists in 22-games played. He also had a +/- of +4.

This year he continued to play fairly well for the Hawks. He scored one goal and added nine helpers in 42 games played. For a team that has many defensive question marks, Slater was third on the team with a +/- ratio of +3. That number was better than every Hawks defenseman other than Calvin De Haan, who only played 29 games.

Koekkoek looked solid throughout the Stanley Cup Qualifiers and the first round of playoffs too. He tallied 3 points in the 9 games that Chicago played in the postseason. He’s also only 26 years old, so he still could develop even more. His current cap hit is only $925,000 so I would project him to want to receive anywhere in the $1-1.5 million range, therefore making him a very affordable 3rd pairing defenseman for the Blackhawks.

Even though the Blackhawks have a lot of defensive help on the way, Slater looks to be a solid depth defenseman for the Hawks to have in their arsenal moving forward.

#4: Buyout Olli Maatta

Despite being the defenseman with the highest point total in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, Olli Maatta has become a defensive liability for Chicago. His skating ability is very poor, and this leads to opposing teams getting very high quality scoring chances. See this example of the opening goal in Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Qualifiers, when Connor McDavid calmly skated around Maatta and calmly lifted a backhand into the top shelf:

Maatta currently has a cap hit of $4,083,333 for the next three seasons. As I mentioned earlier, the Blackhawks already have a ton of defensive prospects in the system. Ian Mitchell has signed his entry deal, and Nicolas Beaudin also has looked to be pretty good in the few games he has played with the Blackhawks.

Chicago is already at the Salary Cap ceiling once again, and if they want to be able to resign Kubalik and potentially Strome as well, the cap space has to come from somewhere. If the Blackhawks did choose to buyout Maatta’s contract, it would save roughly $3,402,733 in cap space for the next two seasons for the Blackhawks.

The Hawks would have to pay right around $680,000 for the next 4 seasons to make it happen. Over the remaining course of his contract, choosing to buy out Maatta would save the Blackhawks a total of $5,444,533 against the cap, which would help Chicago out a ton.