The Blackhawks’ eventful offseason will give way Thursday to what seems likely to be an equally interesting training camp.
A crowded roster of 63 players — up significantly from the 41 who attended camp last year and 55 who were invited in 2019 — will take the ice at Fifth Third Arena for the first on-ice sessions.
Among them will be just six players — the rapidly dwindling crew of Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane, Alex DeBrincat, Dylan Strome, Connor Murphy and Collin Delia — who have been on the Hawks more than two years.
The list of offseason additions joining the team for the first time — Marc-Andre Fleury, Seth and Caleb Jones, Jake McCabe, Tyler Johnson and Jujhar Khaira — alone equals that group in size, and exceeds it if recently signed first-rounders Lukas Reichel and Nolan Allan are included.
With so much turnover comes higher excitement, higher expectations and, of course, higher scrutiny. Indeed, the remade Hawks haven’t in years had this much talent — nor have they had so many questions to answer.
Even sticking strictly to hockey-related happenings, the list is long. Who will the new alternate captain be? How will Patrick Kane’s undisclosed nagging injury — leftover from late last season — affect him? Will any of the three guys coming off season-ending injuries — Kirby Dach with his wrist; Alex Nylander and McCabe with their knees — be affected?
How much will Jones and McCabe improve the defense? How will the new goalie tandem of Fleury and Kevin Lankinen operate? What will happen to seemingly cast-aside backups Malcolm Subban and Delia?
Can coach Jeremy Colliton lead a contender, not only a rebuilder? Can Colliton revive, and where will he put, Dylan Strome after last season’s disaster? What will general manager Stan Bowman do with Brett Connolly’s overpriced contract and Andrew Shaw’s injured reserve-bound contract?
Who among the arguably 18 viable forwards and nine viable defensemen will win NHL jobs? Can top prospects Reichel and Henrik Borgstrom force their way into the mix immediately? Will “sophomores” like Philipp Kurashev, Ian Mitchell and Wyatt Kalynuk be able to keep their spots?
Jonathan Toews’ status produces enough questions to necessitate its own section entirely. Will the captain be a full participant in camp? Will he be ready for the regular season opener? And if yes to both, will he immediately look like the familiar top-six center stalwart or need a lighter workload, at least at first?
Bowman offered little clarity on those Toews questions in a Tuesday zoom with season-ticket holders.
“You want to make sure...he’s feeling more like himself, and that certainly seems to be the case,” Bowman said. “But he went through a lot and he missed a lot of time. He’s been training very hard, hoping to be ready for the season. Let’s just see how it plays out. None of us know — Jonny doesn’t even know — how he’s going to feel come three weeks from now.
“If he’s just like he was three years ago, that’s awesome. If he’s not at that level, if he’s at a different level, then that’s OK, too. The best thing would be to try to not have expectations.”
Off the ice, as well, more questions continue to hang over the franchise. Are any Hawks among the estimated 10-15 NHL players not yet vaccinated? If so, how will the team handle that player’s inability to travel into Canada?
And when will the results of the investigation into the allegations of a 2010 sexual assault cover-up be released? Will Bowman, frequently named in the allegations, keep his job? What other institutional changes will the Hawks implement? What will come of the two still-pending lawsuits?
Training camp, hopefully, will provide a decent number of answers. But the Hawks will need to sort things out quickly: the Oct. 13 season opener in Colorado is less than three weeks away.
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September 23, 2021 at 03:20AM
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Blackhawks enter training camp with many questions to answer - Chicago Sun-Times
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