Why the Blackhawks’ Future Needs to Include Dylan Strome

Dylan Strome‘s resurgence has made the Chicago Blackhawks‘ decision as to what to do with him that much harder. His play offensively has improved (as anyone would playing with Patrick Kane) and his faceoffs have finally reached a dependable rate.

But, let’s be honest: Dylan Strome will never be the defensive juggernaut that Jonathan Toews was in his prime. Strome’s skills lie in his offense: awareness, shot, vision, and puck control. Puck control can also include receiving and passing the puck.

These skills never left, but his play away from the puck was always concerning with his lack of focus and motivation. This has also, thankfully, changed positively.

Dylan Strome has made a resurgence, showing why he was drafted 3rd overall in the loaded 2015 draft class.

As the Blackhawks undergo a rebuild (more like another retool in all honesty), their next generation of players are all offensively minded with the intent to wear down the opposition with a smart forecheck and constant pressure.

They also seem to be more open to physicality, which has been a refreshing sight to see in the current NHL. While they need to add more size to their lineup, they are still on the right track and their top-six looks to be quite solid for the time being.

The Blackhawks need to field two skill lines and two grinding lines, and they have done so decently, but they still need to add the size and strength to the lineup to the bottom six.

However, as the Blackhawks have shown recently, this team can score goals in bunches. It would be stupid to let Dylan Strome carry on his success elsewhere as a young center other teams can build around. Why should the Blackhawks trade him when they could build around Strome instead?

The concerns I had with him were lack of intensity and motivation, giving up on the play far too early, and horrible faceoffs. He has fixed all of those issues (as of now) and looks to be a viable option for the Blackhawks moving forward.