Letting Adam Gaudette go was a mistake by the Blackhawks

The Chicago Blackhawks let Adam Gaudette reach waivers a few days ago when they decided to send him down to the Rockford IceHogs after only playing in eight of the team’s first 20 games.

Gaudette was claimed by the Ottawa Senators in a move that keeps him in the league and gives a new team a solid addition to their depth. The Blackhawks probably made a mistake letting Gaudette go that easy.

The Blackhawks are struggling to score goals.

Through the first 21 games of the season, they have just 45 goals during that time, which is 30th in the league out of 32 teams. Last year the Hawks were competitive because they managed to outscore their problems, this season their problem has been their scoring oddly enough.

While the defense still is not perfect, it definitely looks more stable, and it looks that stability has coincided with the offense falling apart. While the team has been missing Tyler Johnson with an injury they should have enough talent to compete offensively still. Yet, no one is scoring goals.

Which makes the decision to waive Gaudette even more confusing. The team decided to let Gaudette go and keep guys like Mike Hardman, Reese Johnson, and Ryan Carpenter in the lineup. While all of those guys play a role, Gaudette had more ability to score goals.

Now the team is missing another piece and has one less option to fix their mistakes because that should be clear, these mistakes are not going to be solved through a trade. What the Hawks have is what the team has.

I am happy to see that Adam Gaudette is remaining in the NHL, we all here at Blackhawk Up wish him nothing but the best in Ottawa. This might be a move that new general manager Kyle Davidson regrets down the line this season. This brings me to my main point:

The Blackhawks are starting to see a new era begin.

Kyle Davidson did not add Adam Gaudette to the Hawks, Stan Bowman did. While Davidson has been with the organization for a long time, Stan Bowman was the one calling the shots on all the contracts within the organization. Now we are starting to see Davidson make his own mark on the franchise, and the first of those moves begins with placing Adam Gaudette on waivers.

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The second move occurred Monday evening when the Hawks sent down Philipp Kurashev and recalled Josiah Slavin. Hopefully, Kurashev gets a spark playing in Rockford and Slavin shows something during this call-up. Slavin is a former seventh-round pick of the 2018 NHL draft and is definitely someone fans can cheer for during the next few games.