Chicago Blackhawks players are “frustrated” with direction of franchise
After some questionable moves from the front office, the Chicago Blackhawks core players are getting fed up.
Just a few months ago, the Chicago Blackhawks were back in a familiar place – the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane, and Duncan Keith are in their element in the postseason. They’re fierce competitors who want to win. Which is why the Blackhawks “Big 3” are frustrated after some recent moves.
This offseason, the Blackhawks have made it obvious they’re rebuilding. They traded Olli Maatta, one of their better defensemen last season, to the Los Angeles Kings for a very small return.
Also, they didn’t qualify some interesting RFAs, the two most notable being Drake Caggiula and Slater Koekkoek. Finally, over the weekend, the Blackhawks basically kicked long-time goaltender Corey Crawford out of town, and traded Brandon Saad and Dennis Gilbert for Nikita Zadorov and Anton Lindholm.
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For Toews, this came as a huge surprise. He was expecting the Blackhawks to try and build a Stanley cup contender, especially after a return to the playoffs, according to Mark Lazerus of The Athletic.
"“I’ve never been told that we were going through a rebuild. That has never been communicated to me, for that matter. A lot of this comes as a shock because it’s a completely different direction than we expected.”"
According to Lazerus, the failure to bring back Crawford is the straw that broke the camel’s back. Instead of bringing back Crawford, who has won two Stanley Cups with the Blackhawks, they’ll be going young in goal. Malcolm Subban, Kevin Lankinen, and Collin Delia will compete for starts despite not having much NHL success between them.
Saad is someone Toews and Kane reportedly wanted back after he was traded in 2015. Getting him back cost general manager Stan Bowman Artemi Panarin, which was an awful trade for Chicago. To make matters worse, on Saturday’s trade of Saad, the Blackhawks had to retain $1 million.
The Blackhawks haven’t won a series in the Stanley Cup Playoffs since the 2014-15 season, when they won their third Stanley Cup of the 21st century (no, this year’s qualifying round doesn’t count). That has to be frustrating for Toews, Kane, and Keith.
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It sounds like they’re going to try to execute a rebuild, which is something their three core players might not have any interest in being a part of. Toews, Kane, and Keith all have no-movement clauses, but they might be willing to waive them eventually if they don’t like the state of the franchise. It’ll be very hard for the Blackhawks to fully rebuild with their current core of players.