Chicago Blackhawks: 2017 Season Preview, Predictions

Defensemen

For the past few years, the Chicago Blackhawks defense has relied heavily on three defensemen. Keith, Brent Seabrook and Hjalmarsson. With the third now gone, the onus falls on the first two to continue to play at a high level. It’s worth noting Seabrook is already starting a visible decline. Murphy is an important piece moving forward.

Projected Defensive Pairings

Keith – Seabrook
Michal Kempny – Murphy
Gustav Forsling – Michal Rozsival
Extra defenseman candidates: Ville Pokka, Viktor Svedberg

The top pairing will have to handle a ton of minutes. This is nothing new for the duo, but considering Keith is 33 and Seabrook is 31, it’s not ideal. One has to wonder how many more minutes they have left in them. But until Keith and Seabrook prove otherwise, it’s reasonable to expect them to be minutes eating defensemen.

Kempny will likely be the guy who steps up in the top four to replace Hjalmarsson. He played just under 15 minutes per game last season, so this is a pretty significant increase in minutes for him. However, Kempny has been very impressive as far as possession in his limited sample size, so perhaps the promotion is warranted.

Forsling finally seems to have an unobstructed path to a regular spot in the Chicago Blackhawks lineup. He’s a talented puck mover and the 2017-18 season could be a breakout season for him. Rozsival, due to Quenneville’s familiarity with him, likely gets the nod for sixth defensemen spot. Pokka should push him, though.