The Blackhawks' real problem is not Connor Bedard's linemates

Ladies and gentlemen, we are now entering year four of the Connor Bedard era. What do we have to show for it? Three head coaching changes, underwhelming development with the prospects, Bedard continues in his attempt to carry the team by himself, and no sure direction forward. The Blackhawks may have looked at this past season with a "development" mindset, but even in that they failed horribly.

The coaching staff did not have a specific system that the prospects could get used to, shifting it seemingly every other week. On the forecheck, one week is an aggressive 2-1-2 forecheck, the next is a 1-2-2 zone trap. The team doesn't have an identity, and it stood out like a sore thumb. Far too often, the team looked tense and tight, not what you want to see in the youngest team in the league post-trade deadline.

With that said, I am willing to have one more development season that should yield better results.

Establishing identity and retooling depth

No team wins anything without depth. Even the Edmonton Oilers, in recent memory, had moments where they had more than just Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl. The Florida Panthers had a juggernaut of a fourth line last year, the Pittsburgh Penguins had the HBK "third" line, and the 2015 Chicago Blackhawks had PATRICK SHARP on the third line with Antoine Vermette and Teuvo Teravainen. Clearly, you need all four lines to be serviceable if you want to win the Stanley Cup in this era of the NHL.

Connor Bedard will be targeted in the playoffs once the Blackhawks make it there; the best matchups will be against him. The team will be battered fast and early physically, being one of the lightest and youngest teams in the league. The playoffs are where veteran teams generally intimidate the young contending teams with physicality and experience. The only line I could see doing damage in the playoffs last season was Anton Frondell's line with Ilya Mikeyhev and Tyler Bertuzzi.

This team is clearly built for the transition game; however, that will be easily stifled in the playoffs as well. Establishing not only the transition but also the offensive zone play will be key moving forward. Artyom Levshunov should, hopefully, stop his episodes of looking like a newborn giraffe with the puck and show more of his dominant spurts as well, and Louis Crevier should start using his size physically like Zdeno Chara, same with Alex Vlasic.

So, the coaching staff has to establish who is who in the team; not everyone can be "the guy," especially with Bedard in the lineup. I can see Oliver Moore as a Zach Benson-esque guy: fast, skilled, but also plays with a ton of grit. I can also see Frank Nazar growing into a player like Logan Stankoven: using speed and playing above his size. I, and I'm sure many others, see A.J. Spellacy and Sasha Boisvert as bottom-six grinders, using their speed to get in on the forecheck while having sneaky skill to contribute offensively here and there. Roman Kansterov may be a year away from being that Russian dynamo we are expecting. It takes time to adjust to the NHL, and Kansterov will likely be no different.

Lastly, I really hope this team focuses on gaining muscle this offseason. They can't just do workouts for speed anymore, especially with how that worked down the stretch, where the smaller guys fell like flies. They need to gain more mass so they can withstand not only the grueling season but also playoff runs in the future. Connor Bedard's line will solve itself as long as the coaching staff can solve their identity crisis.

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