Season Predictions for Recently-Acquired Blackhawks
By Mike Bober
Welcome to part two of my former and newly-acquired Chicago Blackhawks 2022-23 season predictions. This part will cover the more important newly-acquired Blackhawks from this past offseason (sorry to Buddy Robinson and his die-hard fans).
As mentioned before, the Chicago Blackhawks were very busy this past offseason, dealing players like DeBrincat and Dach and letting players walk like Strome and Kubalik.
Although this season will be hard to watch, we can at least have fun with it and be hopeful for the coming years.
Season Predictions for Recently-Acquired Blackhawks
Coming to the Blackhawks from the Carolina Hurricanes via free agency, Max Domi hopes to make a mark in Chicago this season. Domi is a shorter forward, standing at only 5 foot 10 inches, but he loves to be a physical presence on the ice.
As of day one of training camp, Domi has been skating on a line with Patrick Kane and Taylor Raddysh. As anyone will tell you, playing on a line with Kane will generously increase any player’s numbers. I will give Domi 18 goals, 25 assists, 43 points, and 89 penalty minutes, giving him a career-high in PIMs.
Andreas Athanasiou signed with the Blackhawks in the offseason, and I could see him getting primarily third-line time, a splash of second-line time, and a whole lot of penalty-kill time. I can’t see AA breaking the 20-goal mark, so I will say he’ll tally 15 goals, 10 assists, and 25 points.
Colin Blackwell has never played a full 82-game season in his NHL career. He is a player that does not produce very often either. So far in training camp, Blackwell has been on a line with Jonathan Toews and Tyler Johnson, which appears to be a fairly solid line. Playing with Toews may help Blackwell a bit, but don’t expect much from the 29-year-old forward. I’ll give Blackwell 11 goals, 9 assists, and 20 points.
Jack Johnson came to Chicago from Colorado through free agency. Poor Jack, going from a Stanley Cup season to a bottom-of-the-league season. Chicago brought Johnson in to be a veteran presence and a mentor for the younger defensemen in the organization. I will give Johnson 3 goals, 15 assists, and 18 total points for the season.
I might be underestimating Jack because he may get a whole lot of ice time, especially with the injuries on the defensive end for the Hawks. I hope I’m wrong, but I do not see any Hawks player doing anything spectacular this season except for Patrick Kane.
This brings us to the goaltender section of my predictions. This will be rough, so my apologies to Petr Mrazek, Alex Stalock, and their families.
Petr Mrazek will most likely be the Blackhawks’ starter going forward. This is a tough role for a struggling goalie to be thrown into. Being the starter, I see Mrazek starting no less than 62 games. This leaves 20 games to be split between Alex Stalock and Arvid Soderblom.
In these 62 games, I see Mrazek getting 16 wins, 39 losses, and 7 overtime losses.
Alex Stalock will be backing up Mrazek, along with Arvid Soderblom at times. With the remaining 20 games, I say Stalock will play 16 of them. This will leave his record to be 5 wins, 9 losses, and 2 overtime losses. This will leave Soderblom with a record of 2 wins, no losses, and 2 overtime losses. This will give the Blackhawks an overall record of 23-48-11 on the season.
When a rebuilding team brings in players at the beginning of a rebuild, everyone assumes those players will be trade bait at the deadline. The players in this instance are Domi, Athanasiou, and Blackwell. These three could potentially be flipped at the deadline, but there is always the possibility that they hang around for a while. Only time will tell who will be here at the end of this season. All we know is that the Blackhawks will be bad and this season will be hard to watch.