The Plan: What is Stan Bowman Doing on Defense?
It has been an interesting year for the Blackhawks. After a dominating 10–2 win over the defending back to back Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins, it looked like the team was finally back after two disappointing seasons in a row.
While the team wasn't dominant through the first three months of the season, they looked like a playoff team just trying to get everyone comfortable and on the same page.
Then Corey Crawford got hurt.
Nobody really knew what was going on with the 33 year old goalie, and not too many fans worried, thinking he would return sooner rather than later.
Well here we are with 15 games remaining in the season, and Crawford still has not played in a game.
While many will point to Crawford being out as a reason the team is going to miss the playoffs for the first time in 9 years, there are more issues than that. And yes, if Crawford was healthy this team is likely at worst still in the fight, but his injury exposed some major issues within this Blackhawks team.
Fans and hockey experts alike are pointing to the inconsistency on offense, and the lack of scoring from major pieces like Jonathan Toews and Brandon Saad. Even Patrick Kane has recived criticism as he has seen regression in his points, despite being on pace to score his third highest point total of his career.
And while the offense is one of the worst in the league this season, much of that has stemmed from the blue line. The Blackhawks do not have any reliable defenseman on their team who they can look to for offense.
Duncan Keith has struggled to do much of anything this season. With just 1 goal and 28 assists, he is on pace to put up his worst offensive season since the 2007–08 season.
His longtime partner Brent Seabrook, while never known for his offensive ability, has quiteyly been a major part of the Blackhawks offense, yet this season is set to post his worst offensive season of his career.
We could go through each of the teams defneseman if we watned to, but we’d get the same result every time. There is no offense coming from the backend.
Now on the defensive side, statistically things do not look as bad, but watch any game this season and you will see they are.
The Blackhawks have never been known for their physical play, but this season we have watch player skate right by the defense with ease. The team is playing a light, move the puck up the ice type of defense, with players who have not shown that ability.
Last season we saw the Blackhawks finish with four players having over 100 blocked shots, and this season they only have two. Losing Niklas Hjalmarsson was a huge loss, and everyone knew it at the time. The hope was that Connor Murphy, or anyone if we are being honest, could step in and at least come close to what Hjalmarsson brought. That has not happened.
The real issue? Stan Bowman seems perfectly okay with having the same defense next season.
This week, Bowman exteded Erik Gustafsson on a two year, $1.5 million extension, then followed it up by signing pending UFA Jan Rutta to a one year, $2.25 million extension. By doing this, he ensured that he has eight defenseman signed through next season.
On the left side there is Duncan Keith, Jordan Oesterle, Carl Dahlstrom, Gustav Forsling and Erik Gustafsson. On the right there is Brent Seabrook, Jan Rutta, and Connor Murphy. Not really an impressive group, especially if you have watched any games this season.
While having depth on defense is never a bad thing, there is not much room to maneuver for Bowman. The Blackhawks have nearly $22 million tied up among these 8 defenseman.
While guys like Forsling, Dahlstrom and even Gustafsson can have their salaries buried in Rockford, the team already has four defenseman making over $2 million next season.
With Keith and Seabrook most likely not moving anywhere, it leaves Murphy and Rutta as the only real trade candidates. But with Rutta’s new salary and his inability to stay healthy, the return would likely not be worth a deal. Murphy on the other hand would likely bring in some value, but its unlikely they could upgrade their defense in a deal around him without giving up more value than they should be comfortable with.
Free Agency is alwasy an option, but the team needs a legitimate top 4 defenseman, and the price of that would be hard to swallow for a team already paying three defenseman over $3 million.
The most likely plan? The team brings Crawford back and hope to see growth from Murphy, Forsling, and Gustafsson, as well as a healthy season for Rutta while the teams young prospects grow.
The Blackhawks are stocked with young defenseman right now in their pipeline, and the Gustafsson and Rutta extensions are likely to be used as placeholders while guys like Henri Jokiharju, Ian Mitchell, Chad Krys, and Luc Snuggurud continue their development. If the team can hold out for a year or two behind Crawford, we could see a very young and talented group of defenders on the Blackhawks blue line very soon.
Nobody knows Bowmans plan, and many will be critical of it until we see something start to work. Nobody was anticipating Hjalmarsson being moved last season, so anything can happen. The team might be working on some big moves, or may sit back and hope Crawford’s return is enough to bring the playoffs back to Chicago. Whatever that plan is, Bowman is running out of time to make this work.
What do you think the teams plan is? What would you like to see happen? Let us know in the comments below!
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