Blackhawks Update Connor Murphy Timeline To 8-12 Weeks
The Blackhawks suddenly transparent medical media updates shared less-than-ideal news regarding defenseman Connor Murphy.
Medical update on Connor Murphy’s back injury, via #Blackhawks team physician Dr. Michael Terry. pic.twitter.com/SG3vyGU8R5
— Chicago Blackhawks (@NHLBlackhawks) September 19, 2018
This would mean Murphy is more likely back closer to the middle of December than November, and that’s assuming his back responds well to the treatment he’s receiving. It’s clear that Murphy won’t be a big part of the first half of the season in Chicago.
May be update on Crawford too, left ice earlier than he has last few days after talking to Waite.
A crappy injury situation continues to get worse for murph.
Hopefully no other setbacks.
I still think the decision to trade Hammer at the time it happened was a good one.
The fact that they thought this guy was a good enough return to actually trade for him is mind-boggling, and evidence that the pro player scouting department has had their collective heads up their arses for years now.
The hit or miss drafting has been light years ahead of the pro player moves this team has made for the last ten years.
Guess we will bank the Cap Space
While the Hawks have a few top prospects that are RD’s (Joki, Boqvist, Mitchell), at the NHL level there are only 3 (Seabrook, Murphy and Rutta). Now with Murphy injured that goes down to only 2 RD’s. There are some LD’s comfortable playing on the right side but in most cases it isn’t ideal.
Of the LD’s – Keith isn’t going to switch sides. Gustafsson is challenged enough in the d-zone without making him switch sides. Don’t know enough about Manning and Davidson to know if they can play the right side effectively. Dahlstrom was playing the right side in the preseason game last night but I don’t know if Q is comfortable with him playing there in a real NHL game.
The point is that if Joki can show he’s even close to ready I think he stays up with the Hawks to start the season.
EB, Bowman said the other day when asked if Jokiharju was eligible for AHL that it only mattered if he didn’t stay in Chicago and smiled. Saying cross that bridge when it happened, Q said he was excellent last night with high end skills, unheard of for him. Jokiharju is not going anywhere.
Good time wise to get experience playing. Buckeru.
I think Manning does good, wont really see what he means as a good 3rd pair guy until were deep on D though.
Mike R – “banking” the cap space (~ $5M) allows TDL acquisitions but even more importantly will be available to pay potential ELC performance bonuses so that Stan doesn’t have to steal from the 2019/20 cap to pay bonuses. The eligible players with a good chance to earn bonuses are Schmaltz, DeBrincat, Sikura, and Kahun. Depending on thresholds met it could add up to around $3M.
Are with Ian – the signs are there from Q and Stan – Jokiharju starts in CHI unless something completely unforeseen happens
Kahun is eligible for max bonuses which are 2.85 m alone, if you add the others mentioned to it, your are looking at about 4.75 m or basically cap room available. Likely wait to see how that looks to play out before/if Bowman makes any other moves.
But just to mention the extra 1.75m in B bonuses Kahun can get are like Panarins where he would have to finish in top in one of points, goals or assists or +/- maybe rookie of the etc. to get it. Which seems like a stretch at this point.
We absolutely must pay off last ysr left overs and have this yrs paid with this yrs extra space.
Ian, I just guestimated $3M bonuses just to drive home the point – it could be more or it could be less but the point is to have enough cap space to pay the bonuses out of the 2018/19 cap so we don’t have to start 2019/20 in the hole because we’re paying 2018/19 bonuses from the 2019/20 cap space. Having to pay bonuses is one of those good problems to have – it means the young player(s) had very good season.
Agree the more bonuses paid the better the season and i think the cap space now shows that they are serious about giving the youngsters every chance to earn what they can. I was just pointing out your number was ballpark on probable bonuses, the A ones, that Kahun has significant extra, on his B ones he could achieve also.
Justin Faulk, anyone?
I cast a “no” vote for Justin Faulk. He’s got 2 years left at $4.8M which isn’t terrible for a top-4 d-man with good offensive game – but he’s only considered top-4 because of his offense – his defense is not top-4 quality. Plus, it’s a timing thing because the Hawks aren’t a Justin Faulk away from the promised land and his contract expires about the time the Hawks could be in position to condent again (2020/21), So there’s no need to blow the cap space and have now and more importantly next season when that cap space could go toward paying Schmaltz’ new contract.
EB agree, don’t see the point in Faulk right now, let the young guys hsndle it.
Watched the game tonight and saw lots of good and lots of not so good.
First the good: Saad still has a bit of puck fumble-itis but I have no doubt the 20-8-88 is going to be very good. Toews looked pretty good and DeBrincat looked very good but I’m not feeling it with Kunitz on that line. Kampf played very well and if he can keep up that level of play he will be in the opening night roster. Boqvist is going to be a star but he’s not ready yet. Let’s see what he looks like after a year at London. Enwistle has potential but he’s not close to NHL ready.
Now the not so good: Manning was more bad than good. Tuololo and Raddysh are AHL players at best. Carlsson had a rough night taking two penalties and not doing anything positive. Beaudin was for the most part invisible. Johnson, Nilsson, T.Sikura, Schroeder were just meh. If Johnson is in a three player competition for a roster spot with Kampf and Highmore – I would put him in 3rd place at the moment.
Forsberg and Lankinen – not terrible … I guess.
It was only the first preseason game for most of these guys so hopefully a guy like Manning plays better moving forward. He certainly isn’t bashful about taking a shot. Hopefully Q never pairs Gustafsson and Manning together – the forwards would never get a shot on goal because the d-men would take them all.
Holy Moley – Q’s post game interview he was talking about Boqvist’s play and how he was really impressed. London’s season starts tomorrow and Q said he will not be sent to London because he wants him to get in some more preseason games next week. When asked if there’s a possibility of Boqvist making the team he answered “I’m not throwing that out of the realm of possibility”.
Now, Boqvist making the team out of camp is still probably a long shot but for Q to say it’s not out of the realm of possibility is quite a testament to how much Boqvist has impressed.
Well I guess the prospects stay for the 6 games, even 3 road/then 3 home.
Didn’t see these games. Guess I wait until we get to even.
CLB is good. DET sucks.
Not good without Crow.
Which could make us better in the long run.
It’s actually good for prospects to play an NHL preseason game. In fact, it used to be a sign that you are in good with the organization. I put no weight on guys like Carlsson and Tuulola struggling. They need to see and feel the pace of NHL hockey if they are ever going to swim in those waters.
Sadly, Toews and deBrincat need a legitimate winger to play with and Q has decided that Kunitz deserves a legacy award for accomplishments with other organizations much like when the Hawks signed Peter Bondra.
Craig, it’s quite possible that Q may have put Kunitz there until someone earns that spot and Kunitz is just the bar. I think when one of the younger guys show the can help the line more, Kunitz will be with Kruger and Hayden on 4th line and forming the top pk pair with Kruger if he can hold his spot.m