The Athletic Hockey Show - How To Fix: Chicago Blackhawks

Episode Date: August 10, 2026

The Chicago Blackhawks are entering year four of the Connor Bedard era with the star player beginning the season on injured reserve, rehabbing offseason shoulder surgery. Mark Lazerus and Scott Powers break down the young talent in Chicago and ask if Sam Rinzel, Artyom Levshunov, Anton Frondell, Frank Nazar and Roman Kantserov can take the next step in Bedard’s absence, and if franchise icon Patrick Kane can help guide this young team to where they want to go.Host: Mark LazerusWith: Scott PowersExecutive Producer: Chris FlanneryProducer: Jeff DometWatch full episodes on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@theathletichockeyshowJoin our Discord Server: https://discord.gg/VTm9VjkFSubscribe to The Athletic: https://theathletic.com/hockeyshow Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the Athletic Hockey Show. Hello and welcome to the Athletic Hockey Show. I am Mark Lazarus with another edition of How to Fix. This is our summer series. We're checking in on 10 underachieving teams. We're desperately trying to get their way back into playoff conversation. And today we're going to take a closer look at the Chicago Blackhawks. To do that, who better than my beat partner of a long time here?

My Powers and Laz co-host, Scott Powers, the OG, the original hockey writer of the Athletic. Scott, how you doing? Good. How you doing? Good, we're doing better than the Blackhawks are as they have not made the playoffs since I think the prehistoric era. They had 72 points last season, finished last in the Central. That's becoming common.

In the last four drafts, they've had the first, the second, the third, and the fourth round pick, or fourth overall pick. Obviously, they traded the fourth overall pick to Buffalo in the Bowen-Buyam trade. The last time they finished a season in playoff position was 2017, nearly a decade ago. They did make the expanded bubble playoffs in Edmonton, but even though. the Blackhawks themselves don't really count that as the playoffs. So it's been a long time. It's been a long rebuild. Technically, the rebuild started in 2022, but it's been a while now.

Kyle Davidson just signed an extension. So apparently the Blackhawks think things are going great. But the city of Chicago is still waiting for an extension of a Blackhawks season. How far away do you feel this team is from really getting back into the conversation? I don't know if it's fair to say, one, that Blackhawks feel like it's going great. I think Danny Words knows what he, the owner, signed up for, right? And this is for as soon as the Blackhawks committed to Kyle Davidson's plan, that this is the way that it was going to go.

It was going to take a long, long, long time. I don't think anyone understands how long. I don't know if Cal Davidson knew he's been very careful not to put a time frame on this. And the one time he did, he regretted that completely and it went against him. So he's been very careful since then not to put a time frame on it. So I think that Stanley Words understanding that he doubled down on Stan Bowman at one point and actually promoted him and gave him another title and was really thinking that Stan Bowman's way was the right way.

And obviously he was fired and left the Blackhawk for another reason. But it was headed in the wrong direction. Like it was the Seth Jones trade on top of everything else and trading way prospects. And Kyle Davidson came in with this completely different plan, which was carrying it all down and really going through a full rebuild. And it's arguable that no team has ever done it to this extent where they traded every single piece off. And we've been talking about this for the last five years,

just nonstop about where the pieces are and who's coming and who's going. And obviously there are more pieces in Chicago, you know, from Connor Bardard on. So the fact that we're, you know, here in July and kind of Bradard's injured and there's already already that he's going to miss 10, 15 games. whatever, it puts the Blackhawks in a spot where next season isn't, I think it's fair to say, isn't going to be anywhere near probably what we even thought was possible. So, yeah, I honestly don't know.

We'll get into a lot of details of what they've added and the players that are there. But I don't, you know, I think every year there's been a lot of ifs and the potential has grown slightly. like if Frank Nazar works out and Roman Kanshroff is what they think he is and and Bowen Byrum and we'll get in the Byram stuff but then maybe the Blackhawks are better and certainly they were better in a lot of ways last year you know if they win some of those overtime and shootout games they're probably closer to an Anaheim and San Jose than their record indicates so you know there are certainly positives that were their head under Jeff

Blaschell it's just whether yeah whether they take that next step because they're They remove some veterans. They've obviously added some risks. They've also added some unknown. So it's, yeah, I'm sure Blackhawks fans want to hear that it's all going to be better and it's improving. But it doesn't feel like this is a, yeah, it's one step after another. It's going to be a mixed bag here for a bit. And yeah, it's, yeah, I feel like we've talked around circles for this for five years and it's pretty much the same thing over and over again.

Yeah, I know the Blackhawks fans don't want. want to hear this, but how to fix the Blackhawks might just be patient for a couple of more years. There's a lot of talent. They were number one in Scott Wheeler's prospect pool rankings. There's a lot of good young talent on there that hasn't reached its potentially yet. But they're just not there. I do think, and we've talked a little bit about this, there's finally at least a little bit

of urgency. You know, like Kyle Davidson's been slow playing this for so long saying just wait, just wait, just wait. And this past season at the trade deadline when they, you know, sold off Connor Murphy and Jason Dickinson and all these guys. Jeff Blaschell was not, he was clearly not happy about it. Blaschell, in his mind, he's not another placeholder coach. He's not another Luke Richardson or an Andrew Sorenson. He's the guy that's going to take them to the next level.

And his stated goal, and this was the player's stated goal too, was to not be in that same position at next year's trade line, to not be selling, to not be watching all your good players leave just because they're on expiring contracts next season. And Kyle Davidson finally felt a little bit of urgency where he was willing to trade a very valuable asset. We could talk about the cost management here, but the number four overall pick and Louis Carrivié and a second round pick to get Bo Byram,

who he sees as a number one defenseman. So clearly there's a little bit of fire under them now to start pushing this in the right direction, but Bo Byram alone is not going to make this team a playoff team. It's going to take the evolution of Frondell, of Kanserup, of Nazar, of Lev Shinoff, of Kornski, of all these young guys, Renzel, to really get this team into a next, you know, phase of the rebuild. What's interesting about the

buyer acquisition is that he, they're picturing him to be the type of player who sort of repels. And, you know, we talked early on when they drafted Bred to have that there may be their misstep was not having enough players

to support Bred and as they've gone on here, you know, have enough players to support a lot of these young players and they, you know, the early additions were Nick Folino And then they brought in table with Tara Vinen and Tyler Bertuzi, and certainly Bertuzi's been a better player, but he's also kind of a complimentary piece who, you know, has others helped him. And Tara Vinen's been sort of on the decline of his career. And Fulino had his place, but it wasn't necessarily on the ice where he was helping him out, where all of a sudden, Byram is the type of player where they feel like it's going to unlock a lot of things that they have been missing so far.

And part of it is that it's it's the lack of not development, but just the length of time it's taking Artem Lefshinoff and Kevin Fortunski and Sam Rundzel, defensemen that they think had Bowen Byram upside guys who can be number one defenses, especially offensively. And now for them to have some urgency and to get a player like Byron, who they think one could be a piece of this for so long, but also sort of supplement and eventually maybe bring along some those other defenseman. It's interesting where they, they've, they've obviously put it, it's a lot on Byron,

but when you look at this roster, it's certainly badarded in his fourth year and he takes his, you know, like he's expected to take this massive step and he's going to carry a long cancer off in Frontel, a lot of these players that, you know, that he just, he didn't have that sort of, you know, teammates himself when he was coming up, but it feels like Byron, especially where they just haven't, they've lacked that offensive defensemen since they've, they've started this, you know, Connor Murphy was, it was very solid. Matt Rizick was very solid. But Seth Jones didn't really work out in Chicago was never, you know,

who they wanted him to be. And certainly Byron probably is a little bit more offensive upside than Jones in some ways, at least a little bit more dynamic. So it'll be interesting because I think so much is on Byron to unlock sort of how the Blackhawks play and maybe how dictates somehow those younger other, younger their defensemen, they want them to play in the future. Yeah, let's stay with the defense. We'll get to the forwards in a moment.

But right now you're looking at you got Bobo. Byram, Alex Vlasic, Wyatt Kaiser, Arden Leveshanov, Sam Renzell, Ian Cole has been brought in as a veteran presence. And that's your top six probably. Kevin Kornchinsky, the number seven pick in the 2022 draft, it's probably your number seven. He's no longer waiver exempt. So they're certainly not going to put him on waivers. But they're probably not going to give up on me either. To sell on them now would be selling really low on a high upside asset. Ethan Del Mastrow could be in that mix, too, but he's more of like an injury replacement guy at this point. So I guess the question is, you know, Byram, let's forget the contract. The contract doesn't really matter in Blackhawks world.

The way the contracts are lining up, even when Conor Bernard gets his big extension, which might be like $15, $16, $17 million for all we know. It's not really going to be an issue that Bo Byram is being paid $12.5 million. So let's move on past that. Who do you think is the best fit to be on that top pair? Because for a long time, it was supposed to be Levchenoff and Renzel fighting for that number one power play spot. Now it's who's the complimentary piece on the number one pairing.

and there's only two right-handed defensemen on the team right now. Yeah, let's remind listeners, too, that we recorded this in July, so Conrad's contract may have already been finished here. And there's another, obviously, there's a Patrick Kane of it all, too, and we'll get to that. But these things may be done by the time we record, and there's only so much off, so much of a hockey offseason for us writers to actually believe in silver recordings early.

But, yeah, it's interesting. Ian Cole talked about, he talked with the media after signing. He talked about how he's comfortable on his rights. side. And it might make sense. I have a veteran who's played a lot of games and, and probably is not feeling the, you know, the pressure and all that goes with, you know, having four checks and all that on you and, you know, and trying to do with something different where you may want to allow Kaiser and Vlasic and Byron the plan on the left side just to allow them any sort of more comfortability. And so I guess when I look at it on paper, Cole just might make sense just because

he is the veteran this group. He's the only player that's over 25 years old. He's had experience on the right side. You know, Kaiser's played some right side. Byron said he's comfortable there. Vlasic is mainly played on that left side. So I think that's, yeah, I think it's less about that. I'm more curious about who, who actually fits with whom, right? Like it's, you know, we did an exercise after they sort of got it done with most of their free agent signings and acquisitions about just trying to place it together. And we had to really kind of talk out who Byron fits with, who does Velasic make sense with where when you had Connor Murphy and you had some

of these other pieces, when you had more veteran pieces, it made more sense. Bowen Byram's his upside is his offensive game. You know, him naturally, yeah, there's probably not a natural fit. Like if Levchenoff is better and he's more consistent, then yeah, he can make sense. but, you know, he was so up and down last year, and he's still, he's not going to be 21 until, you know, near the start of this season. Renzel's really young, and he's very offensive. You know, him and Byram, yeah, that might not work either, too. And then you start talking about the left and right, too, so there is some of that. But I don't know. I'm really, I think that's one of the interesting things

that are coming out of training camp. And maybe it's just mixing, matching, and trying to figure out what, what works, but there aren't a lot of logical combination. Maybe if elastic and cold, maybe if That's kind of your shutdown pair. But yeah, I'm curious how they sort of mix and match with Byron and some of these younger defensemen. Yeah, you know, you and I are in our Chicago bubble and we're talking about these guys and seeing them all the time. And Chicago fans know about Lev Shnoff and Renzel, but to a wider audience, I think Levshanov is the interesting one because he was a number two overall pick. There are insanely high expectations that come with being a number two overall pick. And if we're going to quote unquote fix the Blackhawks, it's going to involve Ardennevanov reaching his potential.

Now, he's very young. I think he's 20 years old still. He's only had one full season in the NHL. He got benched a couple times last year for resets because, you know, he's this incredibly strong, gifted skater. He's got this great offensive mind. He's very creative. He's daring, but he does it at the risk.

Kind of like Bo Byram as early in his career where he's a little too risky for his own good sometimes. Leveshanov is really the key to this whole thing. Sam Renzel could be a good power play quarterback. And Kevin Kornschinsky could, I think at this point, be like a complimentary piece. He could be a real guy. but Levchanov's the one who still has that really, really high ceiling. Jeff Blaschel seems to be a believer in Levsha. He loves the physicality, how strong up big and just how just tough he is.

He's a big, strong kid, which you don't see. But I feel like people expect everyone to be Matthew Schaefer now. Arden Leveshanov is younger now than Kail McCar was when Kail McCar entered the league. So we can't overstate how young the Blackhawks defensive corps is. Bowen Byram at 25 years old, It is like four or five years older than almost all these guys. So there's still a lot of room to grow. Where do you see the biggest, you know, for a guy like Lev Shinoff or even Renzel,

where can the biggest growth in their game happen that could make the Blackhawks a better team this year? It's interesting because in a lot of ways if Lev Shnoff had stayed in college or Renzel was just the pairing. I think there'd be less of the Blackhawks fan's concerns. Like if Lev Shinoff had stayed at Michigan State or if they spent more time in Rockford, but these guys have been accelerated in a lot of ways where, and it's debatable whether it's or not. Certainly in Kevin Critchinsey's case where he's brought up so quickly, you know,

from the WHL and he's taken some steps back. And they've been really careful with Lepshnov, not sending him back to a rocker where they think he can grow in in Chicago. And last season, it really tested that. Certainly the Olympic break sort of came into play where they gave him her reset. And even Sam Renzel, I mean, Renzel, I'll get your question. But Renzel had spent those first nine games of his NHL career after when he turned pro. after, you know, sophomore in Minnesota, and he was dynamite, right? Like, he was dynamic, and we were talking about this guy's that may be number one defenseman and certainly, you know, back to reality last season.

But for Renzella, you know, I think left shot off and Brunzel, to me, are sort of in the same, yeah, sort of same category. And they're both sort of in their same places in their career, both have similar upsides, some in different ways. I think Renzel needs to be more offensive. I think they sent him to Rockford last year because he was so inconsistent defense. But Renzel's bread and butter is that he needs to be pushing Byram even for the top power play with time. I think he's the most parade of defense when they've drafted.

I think his offensive and his size are just are just, yeah, the potential is huge. I think, I think Leveshanov is offensive in a different way where he's, he just thinks outside the box and he does a lot of interesting things with the puck and he often ends up in interesting places of the ice. So it's not, it's not coaching that out of him. because I think that's what makes him really unique is that he is so aggressive. But it's countering it with his size and his strength, and he needs to find a way to utilize that in the defense of Zell. He needs to be more of a two-way defense, and then probably Sam Renzel needs to be probably more of a one way

because I think you can hide Renzel a little bit where Lefshnov, I think on his size and his strength and all those different other attributes that I think that his potential to be someone who can be on the PK and, you know, good in five and five and at the end of the game, like I look at the Blackhawks defense and they don't have a lot of, a lot, you got Velasic, but he who has some offensive limitations. You know, I think, I think Lefshinoff is the one who can grow into his game than more than everyone else because of his, you know, yeah, because of those things we talk about, those characteristics where I think he can be the total package. So I think it's rounding out his game that

He just, he needs to be more consistent. He needs to be able to, you know, there were games last year where he was just on the ice for three or four goals against. And, you know, a number of them were his fault. And it's just often being at the wrong place, the wrong time. And it just, it's, it's often to his own, yeah, his, his, it's freedom on the ice sometimes just works against them. So I think it's him having to find the boundaries of when I can be aggressive and when I need to pull back a little bit.

And because, yeah, I think, certainly they've put down a huge ship here where Bowen Byram has to work out for them to succeed. But I think in the long haul, the way that they've drafted and certainly the resources they've put into a second overall, we're all picking Lefshnov that he's got to be a big piece of this rebuild as well. I think we've set a record for the least amount of Connor Bedard talk in the first 15 minutes of a podcast. So let's get into the forwards.

Obviously, the black guy's got a devastating blow. Connor Bardard's going to miss. the next four months, or I guess it's three months around the time this podcast is going up, likely to miss the first, about month and a half of the regular season. That's like 15, 20 games, depending on when he's able to come back. We're thinking like mid-November. And remember the season starts in September 29th this year. It starts earlier.

It's like all a confluence of bad things for the Blackhawks. So, you know, it all started. This was the second lowest scoring team in the league last year and taking Connor Bedard out for a quarter of the season. Not going to fix the Blackhawks. So, you know, we did a roster projection. back in July. And this is what the forwards look like without Connor Bardard, we think. You got Frank Nazar at the number one center with Tyler Bertuzi and Roman Cancer Off. We're going to talk about Roman Canceroff. He's a big thing here. Anton Frandell, the number three pick a

couple of years ago with Donato and Lardis. Oliver Moore is the third line center with Tevo Terra Vinen and Andrew Mangiapani, who was a throw-in in one of the Edmonton trades last year. And Ryan Green, who was Bedard's wing for most of last year, will be the fourth line center with new acquisitions, Cole Smith and Jordan Greenway. Landon slaggart an extra guy. And when Baddard comes back in. Maybe Andrew Mangapani falls out of the lineup. He's not really a big piece for this team in the future. But without Bada... Like, with Badaard in there, that top six is kind of exciting in a lot of ways, a lot of good young talent. But man, you take him out and there's just a

gaping hole of offense in that top six. It's really interesting to have this conversation, knowing that it's more of a national audience than our local, kind of our local niche. Because it's, when you talk about Roman Kansrov and Anton Frundel, they're names that if you're familiar with the draft or even prospect development or, you know, other leagues that you have some idea. They're big deals, yeah. And yeah, big deals to an extent. But when you, when you look at this line up on paper based on proven players and players

that the casual NFL fan would know, it's a blackhawks are, yeah, there were a lot of questions. The analytics guys' projections of this team are going to be horrendous because they don't count, they don't account for development, really. Yeah, no, for sure. So it's bank, and so it's one of it's, it's certainly, if Kane comes to this, I mean, it sounds like Kane is determining deciding between Buffalo and Chicago. So if Kane comes to the Blackhawks again, it certainly changes what that, what that lineup looks

like. But without Kane, it's banking on Roman Canstrov, one who led the KHL in scoring last year, which he was the first, first under 21-year-old player or under 23 player to lead the KHL in scoring since Caprizov. So the company there is pretty good. And, you know, he set records for, I think, under 23 points and goals. So it's certainly what he did in the KHL was impressive. You know, it was a second round pick.

So there wasn't as much of a hype around him coming out of it. Certainly, you know, he had played with Dimadoff and the MHL and some of that. But other guys were obviously more highly regarded. And then downtown Frandell, who, you know, he had scored the most goals in the SHL this past season as a under 19 players since I think the Siddines. So what they've done in other leagues is impressive. And the question is just how much that translates. And the Blackhawks, again, going back to our initial, you know,

point was Kyle Davidson's plan. And part of it was drafting these, you know, these players, the Nick Lard is who led the OHL and with goals with, what was it, 70, I don't even know what the number was. I think it was 71? Yeah. So like these are the guys who obviously haven't done it in the NHL, but the Blackhawks have drafted a ton of them,

and a lot of them have done well in their leagues, in their junior leagues, in their pro leagues. It's a question of it translating and how quickly it's translating. And for the Blackhawks not to go out and acquire really any, yeah, any top six wingers the last few years, certainly they added a few kind of complimentary pieces and they filled up some PK areas and some areas where they need a little bit more physicality.

But largely didn't address, the need for a Conradard wing didn't address probably some proven offense. They're banking on these young players to take that step. And certainly it's possible. It's just,

it's also, it's rolling the dice a little bit. Yeah, maybe just a little bit, probably a lot. Like you're banking on Roman Canstrop probably to play a top, you know,

top line role coming. He's going to be Connor Bardard's wing. They've basically all but etched him and stuff. Yeah. And even now, and he's going to start off the first month plus of the season

without Conor Bardard. So it's him transitioning to the end of the NHEL without Conraddard who yeah I mean he can bring players along now like you even saw last year toward the end of the season where he's carrying um you know sort of nicolartis's development and you know he's just so much further along in his own um his own pet that he is able to do that you know at his age where he put his four year seasons in and he certainly elevated his game it's just um whether um yeah one not having those players around certainly it not not ideal for for cancer off and frondell's

you know, Frondell's, this will be his first full NHL season, too, where you got, you know, I think 12 games last season after you finished in Sweden. So there is, he got some experience. But first full NHL season and Kansas' first season, and even Nicolarta spent time in Rockford last year, Oliver Moore spent time in Rockford. A lot of guys who the Blackhawks have projected in top nine roles this year that don't have a ton of experience and are still trying to figure out.

I think a lot of it does, you know, fall on Frank Nazar early on who we've seen and Stretch's late, you know, late two years ago, he was as good as anyone. The Blackhawks, the start of last season, we thought maybe Nazar, not Badar, was going to be the one who was going to really take off for Nazar's production was higher than Bred's early on. And then he had some injuries and he just kind of fell apart. So we've seen Nazar has that capability, whether he can put it up, you know, put it up for an entire season as yet to be seen. But I think so much falls on him now without Bard and just the unknown and, and, and, and, and,

And just those players trying to having to figure out the NHL early into next season. Yeah, I mean, how to fix the blackhaws? Keep kind of Bernard healthy. I mean, this is the third major injuries had. You know, he broke his jaw in his rookie year. He played all 82 games in the second year. Suffered a shoulder injury last year. That cost him about a month.

And now this is his other shoulder suffered during a – he took a weird, awkward fall and just training in Burnaby, British Columbia. He's had some bad luck. But he's also – I find myself almost like – becoming a big homer on this show sometimes, like having to defend Connor Bernard because so many people want the kid to fail just because he would shove down their face for so long. I get it.

I understand how that that happens. His rookie year, his top winger was Philip Kirschiff. His second year, his top winger was Ryan Donato. Last year, his top winger was Ryan Green. And then Andre Burekowski, who just fell off a cliff at the end of the second half of the year. And he still, I mean, until he got hurt last year for two solid months of the season into mid-December, he wasn't just step for step with Macklin Celebrini. He was ahead of Celebrini, production-wise.

He was third in the league in scoring. I mean, he had taken that superstar leap. And when he came back, he couldn't take face loss because of the shoulder. There was a little bit of a problem. And then he had Burakowski just dead weight. He was dragging around for the last 37 games of the season. We know that Connor Bedard can be a superstar. And that's the quickest way for the Blackhawks to get relevant.

But you're right, he needs help. And, you know, Kyle Davidson's not giving him any help. Bo Byram does play like a fourth winger. I get that. fourth forward. So that'll help. It'll certainly help on the power play. But it really is. Nick Lardis needs to be that guy who was a 70 goal score again. Roman Cancerob needs to be everything the Blackhawks are desperately counting on him to be. Anton Frundel does not have the publicity of Porter Martone because Martone did it in the playoffs, but they basically were putting up the same

point per game numbers. But Frondell was very impressive when he came over from Sweden last year. If Oliver Moore can kind of be that depth score that we, with his speed, that kind of do it all thing. There's a lot to like in this forward group. If they all take a big step forward this year, you can see this team becoming an 80, 85 point team, which is a huge leap forward from 72 points and then 56 points, whatever it was a couple years ago. So there is a path, but we all know that, you know, progress isn't linear and not all these guys are going to take that leap at the same time. So it's interesting because they've also, they've, they've, if you put Frondell, and when Frondell came over from Sweden, we're like, well, there's Bader's Winger.

And then within a few weeks, they decided for them at center. And it's been interesting how the Blackhawks haven't necessarily put in their most skilled players on the wing. They've wanted to go, you know, like their dream is they have Badard, Frondell, and Nazar down the middle. And even now, like there's a lot. Which makes sense. You look at the best teams in the league, Dallas and Vegas and Colorado. That's what they look like. They have centers like that.

I understand the desire. No, but they really are putting a huge burden on the dardsards. They don't have the wings that are proven to do that. Like it feels like three, three of your best players in islands in a lot of ways, right? Like it's just, they don't have this. Where Ryan Green,

Ryan Green's fine and he may become a decent, a good NHELor, but it felt like they, they forced some pieces to play with Bidar last year because they don't have, they don't have the players around him. And Verakoski had this, this sweet role where he was coming off of, you know,

coming off his struggles in Seattle. And he jumps in and he had a resurgence and then he fell off. And, but it's been a lot of players, from Folino to Kirschap to Donato to, I mean, Donato's been a solid player, but whether he's a top line players. Jeff Blaschell clearly does not see him as a guy. There's a lot of players that Badard has played with that have been not necessarily of his caliber or guys like that.

So I think, I think Lardis and Kansarov had the potential, least their ceilings seem larger than a lot of players. It's just how quickly they can get there or if they can get there. They're so young and inexperienced at this point. Yeah, and the rest of the lineup, I mean, Kyle Davidson did not really improve the forward group this offseason. He, you know, Cole Smith is going to basically replace Ilya who was kind of a Jack of All Trade's really important piece for them.

What's his name? Jordan Greenway is going to replace Nick Folino as kind of your tough guy in the bottom six. And they still haven't figured out who's going to be the new Jason Dickinson, who might have been the second most important player on the team after Connor Bedard. Who's going to be your shutdown guy? Can Oliver Moore be that? Can Anton Frandell kind of take on a role like that as a two-way center? There's still a lot of question marks.

You know, they have too many forwards and not enough forwards. You and I were talking about this last week. They have a lot of guys, but they don't necessarily have the right pieces to create a full, a fully realized, fully fleshed out lineup. So what if Patrick Kane signs, what do you, what does that change? What do you think about this lineup? Well, then you put, you have, you have, uh, Kane with Kanzerov in Bedard. And you can use Lardis on that second pairing. You can bump everyone down a little bit.

And, you know, then all of a sudden, Ryan Donato is in. in a bottom six role. He can play a little more defensively. Andrew Mangiopani doesn't have to be on this roster. And, you know, guys like Sasha Boy Ver can get more time marinating in Rockford. I think Kane stretches the lineup significantly because this is what we're talking about with. You know, they're forcing Badaard to play with lesser wings so that they can artificially

stretch out the line. They're stepping on the product, you know, they're trying to dilute it. And if you give Bader a real wing to play with, and that's what Cain would play. And that would be the appeal for Cain. It was, you know, if he goes to Buffalo. And again, we're recording this in July. I understand. So this might be old news.

But in Buffalo, he's going to have a better chance to win. In Chicago, he's going to have a much bigger role. So if that's what he wants, he would be a top six guy without any question in Chicago. And it would really allow the rest of the lineup to kind of lock into place. Because we've been talking for three years, where is Connor Bedard's winger? Kanzarov and Badard and Kane come in, all of a sudden you have a top line. And I think that's the key here is you need another score. You need Ryan Green to become the defensive player.

The defensive forward, he needs to be in the bottom six. all of more to be that kind of Jack of All-of-All-Trey Swiss Army Knife guy. And I think you stretch out the lineup, you get rid of a guy like Andromangi Apani. Landon Slaggart, nice player, doesn't finish, probably doesn't belong in the NHL right now. He's kind of a tweener. You had one more really good forward to this group,

and I think things start to click into place. Yeah, it'll be interesting because I think Cana have five and five, you've seen more of a decline in his game than you have on the power play where he's still really good. I certainly think Kane adds to this group. and I do think there'll be some questions of whether Cancer Off Bred Cain, whether that's small. Yeah, like if that's what they want. But there's some other pieces they can play around with too.

I think Bertuzi, there's a little bit more, you know, if you have creators around Bertuzi, maybe Bertuzzi all of a sudden starts to fit somewhere else. And yeah, certainly you can mix and match a little bit. But having, I think Kane would get it changes what that group looks like and some more of the possibility. a goalie there pretty much set. Spencer Knight's your number one goalie. He's a true number one goal. He was six in the league last year and goal saved above expected. He played a lot of games. He's going to play even more this year without the compressed schedule. Arvid Soderbloom is in the last year of his contract. He is kind of a perfectly cromulent backup. He's not very good, but he's not very bad, though he's had some stretches. Drew Commesso, a second round pick a few years back, is kind of knocking on the door. He made a couple of spot starts last year in emergency situation. due to illness and perform pretty well. It's not inconceivable that Commesso can win a backup job in training camp, but it seems like it's more likely that that comes next season, not this coming season.

Yeah, I don't think it happens in camp, they're going to, especially with only four preseason games. And I mean, Commesel has been been good in Rockford. He's had good stretches. He's also had rough stretches. Soder Bloom actually has had better seasons in Rockford than Commesso has. I think Commessel is really interesting. Because of where they drafted him, he is entering fourth, fourth pro season. He's also had those games in the NHL, and we've seen goalies who come up who've looked really good and aren't necessarily good goalies.

And then other goleys who have struggled in a few games. And commasal, one, he's come up. He's played really well. And I think that's added a little bit to his resume and people's intrigue about him. I don't know if he's that goalie. I think he's just really interesting in that, yeah. It's sort of his pedigree and where they drafted him and have high hopes for him. He spent a lot of time in Rockford.

I would guess that he gets more time in Rockford. And then ultimately, Soder Booms play and health and all that stuff kind of comes into play. But it'll be one of the more than intriguing things, too, to watch the season as whether someone unseats him. But Spencer United is such a different as number one at this one point, too. So where do we think the Blackhawks stack up in the Central Division here? I mean, they were 10 points behind Winnipeg for in last place last year, essentially, 72 points. The Central's loaded. Colorado's not going anywhere. Dallas is not going anywhere.

Minnesota's only getting better. Utah's only getting better. St. Louis and Nashville are kind of meh. Winnipeg could be on the decline, especially if they trade Connor Hellebuck. Maybe the Blackhawks can pass Winnipeg if they go into full tear-down mode here. But, I mean, there's zero. I mean, you know, we're supposed to be addressing their playoff chances here. There's virtually no chance this team makes the playoffs. It's hard to see them taking an Anaheim-type leap like this coming season,

especially with Bedard missing such a big chunk of the season. early on. What's a successful season in your mind for these Blackhawks? I think the ceiling is a wild card. Like you're in contention for a wild card, right? Like, I think that if you're playing meaningful games. You better win some overtime games. You better go San Jose. Oh, for sure. Like, they need to be bad. Like, they need that. I think there is an expectation within the team from Blaschell to, and I think once Badaar gets back, I think Badaar, especially whatever his contract number is going to be really large. And his commitment to the team,

we'll see if it's, again, the unknown of what he's going to sign for here. but he's in the win too. So I think his expectations are where this team is and it'll put a little bit more pressure on the Blackhawks. I do think what's really interesting about from the trade line even throughout the seasons, Blackhawks have three first round picks that they can move at some point. So, you know, I think they're not going to move it for rentals,

but maybe there's something that comes into play late in the season and some teams sort of figure out where they're actually headed, where everyone thinks they're, you know, contenders at this point. But maybe the Blackhawks improve as the season goes on. or late in the season they add someone that they see who's sticking around for longer. I think that could be really intriguing. But I think the hope for the Blackhawks and their fans has to be that they're playing meaningful games late in the season.

Like it's been so long since the games have really mattered from February on or even before that at times. I think that's if they're winning some overtime games and shootout games, I think the record improves gradually and it's not that far of a separation between them. them in sort of Anaheim and San Jose. You know, obviously, Anahe made the play of San Jose where it was on the cusp. But I think record-wise and regulation wins weren't that much of a difference.

So I think that has to be it. Like they need to see the growth from within. They need to see Canceroff and Frontel be sort of what they're hoping to be. They don't need to be, obviously, 40 goals scores this year. But they need to show the capability that eventually they can be the type of wingers. They can rely on to be Bedard's linemates or just somewhere in the top six. And then, yeah, Bob, I think there's so much on bowl environment and the Blackhawks where they've, yeah, his contract will get trumped here at some point soon with all the other defensemen who are up. But they're paying him like a number one defenseman.

He's never been a number one defenseman. I think, you know, a lot of it's going to come down to production. Like he has some defensive deficiencies and some of that's just the reality. But the Blackhawks brought him in the put up points, put up points with a dart, put up power play points. So I think a lot of that, they need Bowen Byram to look like what they traded for him for them and then what they paid them. So I think those are the main things. And then, yeah, just to be better. I think the Blackhawks fans could live with a little bit longer rebuild if all those things are starting to really show that they're moving in the right direction.

Otherwise, I do think if Byram's a disaster and it's not working out or if Kanserov and Fondell just aren't showing that capability, then I think there's some larger questions that will start being asked. Yeah, basically all the hope is in Kyle Davidson's player evaluation here, right? If Byron becomes the number one defense that Davidson expects him to be, and if Kansarov becomes the top-line winger that Davidson expects him to be, and if Frondell becomes a great two-way center that Davidson expects him to be, and if Nick Lardis becomes a goal score like Davidson expects him to be, then the Blackhawks are going to be pretty good for a pretty long time. So, I mean, you're really putting your faith,

Danny Wirtz has put his faith in Kyle Davidson, and Blackhawks fans have no choice but to also, because all these moves are made, and there's not much flexibility. there's no savior coming in through that door. So it should be an interesting season. They were pretty competitive early last year before Bredd's injury. So there is talent there.

There's an exciting young team in here waiting to happen. Can they be the next San Jose or Anaheim? That's the hope. So we'll see how that goes. In the meantime, thanks for doing this, Scott. We'll keep an eye on everything you're working on, obviously. And I talk to you more than I talk to my wife, I think. So we'll be in touch.

And thanks also to producer Jeff and to everyone who watched and listened to this episode at the Athletic Hockey Show. Sean McIndoo and Julian McKenzie are going to try to fix the Ottawa Senators on our next episode on Wednesday. Good luck with that. And we'll see you next time on The Athletic Hockey Show.