Hawks' Bowman: Not a lot of decisions left to make
When the Blackhawks open training camp on Sunday, the focus will be on getting ready to start the season strong rather than the competition for roster spots.
"We don't have a lot of decisions to make," general manager Stan Bowman admitted Thursday.
Other than Corey Crawford and Antti Niemi battling to be backup goalie, Brent Sopel, Aaron Johnson and Jordan Hendry fighting for the sixth and seventh jobs on defense and one or two spots down the depth chart at forward, the Hawks have a roster that's basically set.
In fact, Bowman said the roster would be finalized by Sept. 25, when the Hawks depart for Europe for two exhibition games and the regular-season openers against the Florida Panthers on Oct. 2-3 in Helsinki, Finland.
According to Bowman, next week's training camp scrimmages and the four North American exhibition games will be of vital importance for those players - such as forwards Jack Skille, Kyle Beach and Akim Aliu and defenseman Shawn Lalonde - trying to make an impression and possibly earn a job.
"We're going to make it known the evaluations start from the beginning of camp," Bowman said.
The Hawks have 11 forwards who are certain to start the season in Jonathan Toews, Patrick Sharp, Patrick Kane, Dave Bolland, Dustin Byfuglien, Kris Versteeg, Andrew Ladd, John Madden, Adam Burish, Ben Eager and Tomas Kopecky.
That would leave Troy Brouwer, Colin Fraser, Jake Dowell, Skille, Beach and Aliu competing for two or three spots.
"The point you talk to the kids about is we want to put the best team on the ice, and they can make the decisions for us," Bowman said. "If they come in and are better than someone that was on the team last year, then we're going to find a way to get them on the team.
"Maybe it's tough for them to crack the lineup, but if they play better than the guys here last year then they're going to be here. They should look at it like a challenge."
The 19-year-old Lalonde, a third-round draft pick (68th overall) in 2008, had a strong prospects camp and will get a long look in camp.
Bowman agreed the battle between Crawford and Niemi to back up Cristobal Huet would be one of the bigger stories in camp.
"It will be a big one, absolutely," Bowman said. "Last year they were pretty even, which is why there's really not a front-runner going into it. Antti started the year great, really strong, and then Corey came on in the second half and they both finished strong.
"I don't have one way I'm leaning right now. I want to see how they play. We don't have a ton of games to see them in so we're going to have to watch them in our scrimmages as well."
Bowman said it was unlikely the Hawks would keep three goalies "unless we really can't make a decision and need more time."
As for Marian Hossa, his rehab from shoulder surgery is on schedule, but there's no way he will play before mid- to late November.
"The process has gone the way we expected it to," Bowman said. "Right now he's doing everything he should be doing."