Blackhawks Release Prospect Camp Roster
Tab Bamford
39 Comments
Adam Boqvist, Alexis Gravel, Beau Starrett, Blake Hillman, Chad Krys, Chicago Blackhawks, Dennis Gilbert, Evan Barratt, Fredrik Olofsson, Ian Mitchell, Jack Ramsey, Jacob Nilsson, Jake Massie, Jake Ryczek, Jake Wise, Jakub Galvas, Jenri Jokiharju, John Dahlstrom, Joni Tuulola, Joshua Ess, Josiah Slavin, Liam Coughlin, Lucas Carlsson, Mathias From, Mikael Hakkarainen, Nathan Noel, NHL, Nicolas Beaudin, Niklas Nordgren, Philipp Kurashev, Radovan Bondra, Roope Laavainen, Ryan Shea, Tim Soderlund, Wouter Peeters
There you go Wall, keep us updated.
will do
Wall the Traverse City is Sept. 7-11th this year.
Looks like all the guys I’m excited to “see” are there except for the Russians. Very cool.
Sweet!!!
Where’s Morin?
Yea Wall, your one of the best at this.
I want to be excited for whos coming in ours tsunami.
I’m rooting for Alexandre Fortin. He still has 2 years on his contract so I don’t think this is his “last chance” with the Hawks, but as a 21 year old it’s probably his last prospect camp and opportunity to be seen as a top prospect. With his decent size, plus skating and offensive skills I still hold out hope that he is just a late bloomer and he will still be a Mike Hoffman clone (without the personality issue). I said a couple summers ago that Fortin reminded me of Hoffman with his skating and offensive game and now it’s starting to look like he may be like Hoffman in terms of taking a few years to hit his stride.
Has Fortin been injured last season ,seems to be having tough luck .
I do like his size , and skill set . Best of luck .
Will be coming over from Muskegon for a Saturday wedding so I get to come early and see Friday’s AM session…really looking forward to seeing the best logo in sports on the ice!
Too bad the Russians are not taking this chance to meet the other future Hawks stars.
Söderlund has the speed and aggressiveness to really pressure defenders. It will be interesting not just to see him do this, but to see which of the defensive prospects can handle it. Nothing like competition.
Fortin has had injuries slow him down but I got the sense that it was more a matter of him not playing aggressively enough to stay in the lineup.
Nordgren and Soderlund sound like basically the same player with Nordgren having a little more offensive production. It will be interesting to compare the two in camp.
Hard to believe that Radovan Bondra is only 21. It seems like he’s been in the organization for 10 years now. I remember watching him about 3 years ago at the UC scrimmage. Big body and really active. Kind of stood out at the time. Has he had injury problems in the last year? Only 11 games listed with Indy.
@ Makita 21. I guess you & I are the only guys that think SB needs map quest to put a team that can contend with the kings & knights ! He sucks period ! Can’t manage cap and gives away the talent needed to keep this team where they should be ! Thinks he could catch lightning in a bottle bringing washed up guys in for last 3 years when he should of used young guys to mature. And never replaced darling. He’s so lost that he continues to put faith in guys that he over paid or gave such long contracts too that he can’t get out of the hole he dug ! Shameful to watch Your so dead on I don’t no why the rest of the them continue to think this team is going to be any different! This is a avg at best team. And I’m being polite! It’s a one man shit show. And BS is the reason !
A Nordgren-Wise-Soderlund line would be fun – lots of energy.
SB’s standing as a GM is damaged, hell his time may be done. BUT Under the salary cap era (05-06), 6 or 7 Conf finals and 3 Cups in 12 years. Ok Slammer, not great, but what team has played as much hockey as the Hawks since 06. SB helped build what is now a damaged dynasty. Give him a couple years to right the ship.
“SB’s standing as a GM is damaged.”
The Blackhawks have continued to grade out very well in drafts over the last few years, and we’re starting to see those selections begin matriculating to the NHL level. Where Bowman has not overwhelmed is NHL free agency, but he’s been hamstrung (partly by his own doing, partly by having elite players) by the salary cap. Bowman has done a good job of uncovering European prospects as well.
This will be a very telling season in Chicago, and, unfortunately, a lot of its success depends on 50 being healthy.
Also, the fact that someone actually put together the two words “damaged dynasty” is hilarious. Damaged? GTFO.
Curious that Kuhun will not be there. Then again he does play in a pro league and is 23 but was hoping to see him.
Outside of Boqvist I am anxious to see Fortin and Peter Wooters. Wooters has been playing for the Phantoms he is still a young kid. Certainly he has potential. Let’s hope Fortin comes in ready to win a job. This is a last place team with winnable jobs. Plenty of chances for these kids to earn some playing time. Outside side of the core guys not a lot of players with more then 150 NHL games under their belt even guys like Cat and Schmaltz still need seasoning.
Obviously no Nalimnov. Last camp I attended 2 yrs ago Nalimnov looked awful but who knows the situation.
Human nature – some people are predisposed to see negatives and complain. All part of the family.
SSHM be good if Nalimov situation can’t be worked out if maybe his rights could be used in making the Hossa deal work. Be unfortunate to have to give up on him as he just seems to be coming into his own.
I’m hopeful the younger guys development could be a major surprise this season and Crawford/Ward can be a solid combo. Obviously Ward/Forsberg would mean a very long year.
“Damaged Dynasty” lol a bit too much.
Ryan Shea is an under the radar prospect. He played with Sikura last year, is a strong skater and has a bit more size than many of the “puck movers”.
Interesting that Luc Snuggerud is not attending. He’s similar to Fortin in that he had an injury plagued first season in Rockford. Snuggerud will seemingly be battling Gilbert, Tuulola, Carlsson and Hillman for playing time and they all are coming.
Come on guys. That was sarcasm aimed at Slammer
I gotta agree with Slammers little rant ,the wheels are turning ,the core ain`t getting younger ,and Stan has well , really made some bad trades and throw in`s or throw away`s to help move contracts .
As far as the word damaged goes ,.,.Crow hurt ,Toews ???has not been himself for last few years ,.,.Big Hoss ???,.,. i hear some truth to Mike R`s rant .
We are still not in a great position come Oct . If Cam Ward is our #1 and any one of the piss poor back up goalies we saw last year are on the bench we are screwed .
Best of luck to our youngsters in the up coming event .Keep us posted Wall .
On the flip side if Crawford is healthy and in form, the young guys show they are for real and the core starts having fun playing hockey again. Things may be not all that bad.
That’s what is going to happen in these 2/3 yrs coming up, starting this yr, at some point.
Its just a matter of time.
sarcasm- use italicize font
C’mon everyone … altogether now … lose for Hughes … OK, one more time and this time with spirit … LOSE FOR HUGHES!!!!
OK, I’m kidding, kinda. The point is a losing season may not be the worse thing for the state the Hawks are in right now. If they play above expectations – great. If not, we’ll get another high draft pick that will help us come back stronger the next season or the one after that.
If Crawford is healthy and a partner for Keith that is capable of being a top.pair guy is found, then things can snowball in a good way. There is enough defencemen on the available to have a decent blueline if the top pair can be settled. Ward will be an upgrade at backup and Forsberg a year in AHL as 3rd string may belp him.
Toews and Saad will be together as will Schmaltz and Kane. Debrincat will be in top 6 somewhere and Hino, Sikura, Kahun and Ejdsell will get there auditions and until Q finds his combo he wants he can default to Kunitz, put him out with Kane and Schmaltz and play his solid 2way game, win some board battles and be a net front presence for them. If AA still there 2 of Sikura, Hino and Kahun give him a couple of speedy skilled puck handling wingers with a bit of scrappy as well especially if Kunitz blendered in to add a spark from time to time. Kampf as other center and Haydon,Ejdsell, along with Kahun, Hino or Kunitz or whoever isn’t playing up the lineup as wingers. But a healthy Crawford and a partner for Keith even if no other trade made, is needed to get it going in a really positive direction this season.
If Bowman sticks to his guns in acquiring top defenceman to pair with Keith and won’t give up any important pieces of his roster or future as it seems he did with Canes wanting Saad. Do you give it to Jokiharju and let him grow into the role, learning on the job or put existing roster players in a spot that seemed beyond their abilities last season.
Ian, as usual my opinion is based more on gut feel than verifiable facts, but that rarely stops me from bloviating. :=)
Regarding “learning on the job” – I think it depends on the player. I think so much of what determines success over failure is the confidence of the player. One player may do fine playing in the NHL before he has much experience playing in other professional leagues whereas another will not and the difference is probably the first player has unshakable confidence where the second player’s confidence wanes.
Giving Jokiharju a “cup of coffee” may help to determine if it is or isn’t in his best long term development interests to keep him in the NHL. I think the default position should be to have him play in Rockford as the experience he gets playing AHL won’t hurt him. He would have to play so well in his debut in the NHL that he makes it impossible for the Hawks to send him down.
EB there is/was a debate on whether Jokiharjuwould be eligible to go to ahl next year. If Portland who claim his chl rights get their way he returns there rather than ahl under chl/ nhl agreement. The Blackhawks argued that he was loaned to Portland from his Finnish club and no ties to chl so he can go to ahl. Never heard what the final decision was yet. So that may or may not come into play.
I read on another blog the possibility of signing Rick Nash to a 1-year deal – IF he decides to play and not retire, and IF Stan is unsuccessful at offloading Hossa’s contract. Nash is big and still has decent wheels and scored 21 goals last season. A 1-year contract would effectively work well using the Hossa LTIR cap space.
It’s a thought.
Were not blocking anybody from playing by having another veteran player.
We do not want to have too many young guys/first yr league guys at once.
That was one of the things that hurt the record. MIN would not have snuck ahead of us, then us get back ahead of them for 1 seed, if we didn’t have so many first yr guys in 17 and got off to that start record wise, we would have stayed ahead the whole time, even when they went like 25-3 or something.
We can add any one player, if 1yr contract. Using Hoss ltir.
Only if we can pay off last yrs bonuses and this yrs bonuses, so were square going into 20 season. Then add whoever. It wont block anybody from playing, when not wanting too many at once.
I would like to see Stan Bowman trade one of their prospects on defence and maybe get another 1st round prospect winger from another team. We are week on the wing after Saad, Kane and Debrincat. And maybe too small?
Hull65, I agree the Hawks are a bit thin on forwards with top-6 potential, at least ones that are close to ready for NHL. But, I don’t think the Hawks are flush with defensive prospects with top-4 potential so I wouldn’t want to trade any of the 4 d-men drafted this year and last (Boqvist, Beaudin, Jokiharju, Mitchell). I don’t know the percentage of prospects who succeed, but we’ll probably be fortunate if 2 of the 4 result in long tern top-4 starters, extremely fortunate if 3 of the 4 make it.
Trading any of the thousands of other d-men prospects is OK by me – just not those 4.
I am with that.
We needed dmen in system, keep building pipeline not dismantle it.
Letting the young guys have a chance is good. Sikura, Hino, Kahun and Ejdsell getting an opportunity to show they can do it or make adds where needed by drafting or signing. Shalumov who says he still coming and Kayumov have top 6 ability. Others like Soderlund, Altybarmakyan and Barrett etc. have shown 2nd or 3rd line potential, plus some unknowns. May not win a cup this year but showing potential is main thing. Just saying everything about the team sucks all time doesn’t make much sense to me.
I think its frustration from being 1 seed and not showing up to play those games, other then winning game 3. Then 81/4, 72 talk about 19 core prime of prime yrs, people just lost faith and think the worst. They cannot believe anymore, unless we have a stacked dynasty quality roster. Who has that. The Chicago Blackhawks of 2009-2015 is who.
Other teams won Cup without that kind of roster. Which is every team other then those dynasty rosters.
Were retooling, really reloading up with draft. I like Shalunov still being loyal and wanting NHL. He could be good and in prime when he gets here. Timing could be sweet on that.
It really feels like transition, which Rufus and others were right on, and not anything else worse. I would rather have half of our core guys, then any other top 10 teams core guys who havnt won before, for when were deep again with the young wave of players we have coming.
Its going to be sweet when kaner is shouting, that’s hockey baby, again scoring big goals in playoffs to turn the corner and not look back winning a series for the Conference and Cup.