Blackhawks Send Anton Forsberg To Rockford, Recall Luke Johnson
On Tuesday morning the Blackhawks made a couple roster moves.
Forward Luke Johnson is coming back to Chicago. He appeared in three games for the Blackhawks earlier this season, and has one goal and one assist in two games with Rockford.
Goaltender Anton Forsberg is headed to Rockford, an indication that Corey Crawford is good to go.
Chicago also assigned defenseman Gustav Forsling to Rockford on Monday.
Nice to see Johnson back up, wonder if they send another forward down to get back to 13 as Q said he preferred.
Don’t understand the Johnson move with Hayden already on the bench. Both need to play and there’s a chance neither will
Same thought Ernie, wonder if somebody getting traded,
so Anton wasn’t claimed. Interesting. Lots of teams are always looking for more quality goaltending……oh….
As the bottom of the roster turns.
To many bodies in Rockford now on defense and in goal.
I hope they send a few dmen and Lankinen to the Indy fuel to get them the proper playing time. While not ideal but to me necessary.
As much as I wanted Forsberg to get claimed and open another contract slot, it might be easier now to facilitate a trade to another team with him in the minors.
Hopefully tonight Johnson is in the lineup with Hayden for Kunitz and Martinsen.
Still have to expect some type of trade involving dmen at some point.
Forsberg is in the minors because no one wanted him for free. He has zero trade value. He is also not very good at stopping the puck.
I think he’s easier to trade now because he doesn’t have a pass waivers again to be assigned to the AHL team of the acquiring NHL team and in the AHL is where any NHL team would want him
IMO the Hawks might as well let him play under Colliton in RKF now that he’s cleared and maybe he develops positively
Now Q has two young guys to play headgames with?
Bob wait until Forsling and Murphy come back and Q will have at least four to play head games with.
Yes. The second winningest coach and the coach the players themselves most want to play for plays head games with younger players.
Q has a good track record dealing with young players
Toews, Kane, Bolland, Buff, Ladd, Brouwer, Shaw, Frolik, Hammer, Kruger, Teuvo, Hinostroza, Hartman, DCat, Saad
They’ve all benefited career wise from having Q as their NHL coach – for most of them Q was their first NHL coach
Coaches are like goalies they both can get a shit load of wins when they have a bunch of great players playing in front of them.
Last year when the Hawks were average at best the second winningest coach could not coach the Hawks into the playoffs. Why not?
Hinostroza said earlier this year that he will be glad to have a defined role.
Hartman defenatly couldn’t play his agitating game without fear of taking a penalty
and getting press boxed.
Hayden works hard all the time. Why does he get healthy scratched?
Your young players need to play, yes they will make mistakes Keith and Seabrook have a huge advantage. If they screw up they are still dressing the next game regardless.
Why is Kunitz dressing every game?
What’s not to like about coach Q?
“Like that’s just your opinion man”
Hino and Hartman are better players for playing under Q and Hayden will be too
The NHL is not a development league where ice time is simply granted to you because you’re young and haven’t figured out how to play yet
Totally agree just my opinion.
NHL isn’t an old timers league either, Hayden should be playing ahead of
Kunitz.
Q should Ice his best lineup period.
Hayden played last night with Kunitz on 4th line which is where Kunitz belongs at the moment or maybe even the press box eventually
But Q having a veteran like Kunitz in the line up just means he thinks Kunitz brings things (defensive play) to the table that the young at the moment aren’t as good at
Eventually through practice and game action the young guys will get it and Kunitz will likely be sitting in the press box
None of this means Q is playing head games with young players – he’s trying to make them accountable and IMO his track record with young players is in fact very good
Wrap
While Q has a shit load of wins and Stanley cups to boot in my opinion he makes some head scratching moves.
I was in agreement with Bob that Q plays head games with young players.
If he likes you, you are in. If he doesn’t lookout. Regardless of age.
Kunitz brings nothing to the team this year, same with Patrik Sharp last year.
Remember Q’s love for Michal Rosival? How about Brandon Bollig a few tears ago?
Did you read the article on Michal Kempny last year talking about having lost his confidence. He mentioned never playing against the other teams top forwards while in Chicago. He must have found his game in Washington.
Same goes for Trevor Daley not good enough to play for Q. In Pittsburgh he must have found his game or at least he found two Stanley cups.
My point is while Q has won many games and Stanley cups as well he does make some very questionable moves.
Yes this is only one Blackhawk fans opinion.
Stape, Q has good record with young players who play the way he wants them to. He won’t change his system to suit a player, he has earned that. He doesn’t have confidence in players who won’t or can’t. Some players find success elsewhere most don’t, it’s nothing personal to him just business.
IMO Schmaltz deserved bottom six assignment. I’ve watched him defer shots, bail out on loose pucks, slow down & coast instead of digging in, accelerating and keep legs moving on back checking. Noteably his elite takeaway skill & overall defensive play have been inconsistent & often subpar. Saad deserved the promotion and Q was correct to drop Schmaltz down to third line.
Stape – obviously there was some disconnect between Q and both Daley and Kempney but it’s notable that neither were what I would call young players at the time
Kempny although new to NA was already 26 and 27 when he played in CHI and Daley older than that I think and neither has a huge upside but lucky for them found a role on successful teams
I’m not going to argue that Q might have used them better but as Ian said they didn’t really fit Q’s system so he couldn’t trust them
Regardless your original point was that Q plays head games with young players and my point is that there’s no evidence for that and in fact the evidence is strong that young players do well with Q
I believe for instance that Qs approach has paid off most recently with Saad based on Saad’s last 2 games
Wrap I agree that Daley and Kempny were not young players with huge upsides.
They were depth defencemen that would have helped us unfortunately they didn’t work out in Chicago.
You are right I cannot prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Q plays mind games with the young players.
When Gustafsson first played with the Hawks to me he looked good then later in the season he looked like he totally lost his confidence. Was he afraid to make a mistake
for fear of sitting or being healthy scratched?
Forsling looked similar last season good start then afraid to make mistakes?
You must admit it’s hard to prove one way or the other.
As fans we are not going to agree on everything and that’s ok.
Have a great day!
Good comments Stape and good discussion
I guess I look at young players who lose confidence as getting overwhelmed by the league not by Q’s opinion of them and I think that was true in Gus’s case
If he’s doing better now it’s because he’s not as consistently overwhelmed and IMO that’s because the Hawks didn’t rush him and overplay him when he was fragile
A younger D man than Gus has been doing quite well with Q – Jokiharju
We’ll have to agree to disagree – cheers!
This shows the desperation and the lack of direction of the Hawks. Columbus gave him away as a throw in to get Panarin. The Hawks put him on waivers praying no one would pick him up – and no one did – da! Forsberg has amounted to an inadequate NHL back up at best until now and shows no real path toward improvement. The Hawks are hoping, and still praying, for some miracle turn around because everything else in the pipeline looks to be about the same. Terrible looking future between the pipes. A lot of holes to be addressed. Meanwhile keep throwing $ against the wall, and keep praying.
STAPE – I do kind of sort of agree with you. Q seems to be an immovable object. It’s his my way or the highway type attitude. That has worked in the past, and we are all super grateful for 3 glorious cups, but we’ve seen a lot of ‘Q’uality leave the team as a result of his unidirectional approach. For one considering our poor defensive zone outlets, to add to your list, we could sure use a Nick Leddy right now.
At this point Q and the team are in a position where they are forced to hold onto players they simply discarded before. The pickings are slimmer now more than ever. We can only hope some 9th rounder ends up being a Luc Robitaille, or something like that.