Crucial time for Blackhawks as trade season opens

The hockey season is over, but the trade season is about to begin.

And thus starts what will be a crucial few weeks for Blackhawks GM Stan Bowman.

The Hawks are where they are, and you already know the reasons why.

What's up for debate now is what the Hawks can do about it and how much patience they can afford after two straight first-round exits.

They lack the skill they had in 2010 that allowed them to play a puck-possession game, and they lack the size to survive a long playoff run in the very big and physical Western Conference.

They are stuck in the middle.

Just as critical, they lack the character on the roster that is necessary both to survive a long season and go deep in the playoffs.

It is a locker room split between those who would sacrifice life and limb to win a game and those who are committed to enjoying their money and youth with the night life available to famous athletes in a big city.

Draft week is usually the week when teams make big changes and shape their rosters for the upcoming season. After that is free agency and then there won't be much of an opportunity to significantly alter the lineup until the trade deadline next February.

So if Bowman wants to transform the makeup of the room or the style of play, this is his best opportunity as the draft begins Friday.

The signing of Johnny Oduya, however, suggests the Hawks will stick with their puck-possession style. Oduya was tremendous in the regular season after he came to the Hawks, and probably was their best defenseman, but he disappeared in the series with Phoenix when the hitting became ferocious.

Same for Viktor Stalberg, who was brilliant the last six weeks and invisible when the going got tough.

The Hawks have been hit very hard by Phoenix and Vancouver in two consecutive first-round exits while trying to move laterally through the roster in the wake of the salary-cap nightmare generated by the run-up to the Cup.

The spare parts haven't helped the Hawks become skilled enough to win with their style, or physical enough to handle the postseason.

They're caught in between at a time when the conference is becoming more physical and the coaches have caught up to — and in most cases — defeated many of the rule changes.

Since the lockout, only the Hawks and Wings have won Cups with their freewheeling style, and five of the seven winners have played a more traditional, defensive style.

The last two champs, Boston and Los Angeles, have easily had the biggest, toughest, hardest-hitting teams in their respective conferences.

The Flyers hit the Hawks hard, and had they possessed a goalie who could stand up and chew gum at the same time, the Hawks today might not have their rings from 2010.

Of the 16 teams in the postseason this year, Detroit was dead last in combined hits and blocked shots per game, and the Hawks were 15th, and both exited in the first round.

Of the final eight teams, only two weren't in the top eight in combined hits and blocked shots per game.

The Coyotes were second among all teams in hits/blocked shots per game in the postseason, which should come as no surprise to Hawks fans, and it took them all the way to conference finals. Phoenix wound up third overall in hits per game, and L.A. was fourth.

Aside from the numbers, it was painfully obvious the Hawks were in trouble as Shane Doan hit defenseman after defenseman, taking players off the puck and creating scoring chances aplenty.

It took the Hawks five games to adjust and do the same to the Coyotes behind the Phoenix wall.

None of this means you can't win anymore playing the way Bowman and Joel Quenneville want to play — or the way Detroit wants to play.

But it remains to be seen whether the Hawks' young skill players can take a step forward, or whether some of their young size can bring them the postseason grit they've been missing since the departures of Andrew Ladd, Dustin Byfuglien and Kris Versteeg.

The Hawks do have a boatload of young talent on the verge of breaking through, some of those kids with good size. But until they get here it's going to be tough for the Hawks to go far in the playoffs, unless Bowman swings some big deals to take the Hawks in one direction or the other.

That makes the upcoming week intriguing — and it makes this a crucial time for Bowman.

brozner@dailyherrald.com

ŸListen to Barry Rozner from 9 a.m. to noon Sundays on the Score's “Hit and Run” show at WSCR 670-AM, and follow him @BarryRozner on Twitter.