The Chicago Blackhawks decided to not offer Dylan Strome a contract letting him hit free agency on Wednesday and I have to say, that is a mistake for a team looking to acquire assets.
The Chicago Blackhawks are trying to be bad next season, and letting Dylan Strome walk helps secure that goal.
The Blackhawks under Kyle Davidson have traded away Alex DeBrincat, Brandon Hagel, Kirby Dach and Marc-Andre Fleury. They are looking to buy out Henrik Borgstrom and Brett Connolly, and they did not re-sign Strome and Dominik Kubalik. This team has done everything in their power to tear down the roster in order to be bad next season, and they are going to succeed at that.
The Hawks could not keep Strome around because keeping Strome gives Patrick Kane a center that he likes to play with. Someone who can help the team score goals and maybe even steal a game or two during the regular season. Stealing a game or two is something the Hawks management just cannot get behind while they try to tank for the top draft pick.
The margin for error at the bottom of the standings is not that far, so the Hawks need to work at making their roster bad to compete with the Canadiens and Coyotes for that bottom spot.
Even with that in mind, not re-signing Strome was a mistake. Signing Strome to a two-year two million dollar deal or something along those lines would have given the team a good piece to trade away at the deadline after he had a strong season alongside a player like Patrick Kane.
Letting players walk away in free agency is always a weird sight to see for me, especially amongst teams that are rebuilding. It is horrible asset management to not get anything in return for a player when you are rebuilding. Some team would have given the Hawks even a fifth or sixth-round pick for Strome at the deadline, and that would have been better than nothing.
The Chicago Blackhawks are going to be remarkably bad in 2022, and it could get worse depending on what the top players on this team decide to do in Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane. This is the last year of their contracts, and one would expect they do not want to be involved in this.