Toews says it was 'disheartening' to see Blackhawks deal Hagel, Fleury

Give Jonathan Toews props for some blunt honesty before the Blackhawks beat host Anaheim 4-2 on Wednesday.

With a towel draped over his shoulder, Toews stood outside the visitors' locker room at the Honda Center and spoke about the state of the team and his future with it.

"For the longest time, the thought never entered my mind to leave Chicago," said Toews, who admitted it was difficult to see Brandon Hagel, Marc-Andre Fleury and Ryan Carpenter sent to other teams. "And in this case, you can't help but picture yourself and what it'd be like to play for another team and just what that experience would bring. The thought pops in your mind, obviously.

"But Chicago is my home. Love the Blackhawks. Love the organization. It's been my family for a long time and I'm not putting the cart before the horse or getting ahead of myself in any way."

Look, the last few years have been tough on Toews, as well as Patrick Kane - and understandably so. We have to remember that, from the moment they walked into the league in 2007, they were part of a winning culture. After just missing the playoffs as rookies while going 40-34-8 under Denis Savard, the Hawks advanced to the conference finals the next season and then won it all in 2010.

The next seven campaigns included two more Stanley Cup runs, as well as a heart-wrenching Game 7 OT loss to Los Angeles in the 2014 Western Conference finals.

But ever since the Hawks were swept by the Predators in 2017, it's been nothing short of a disaster.

Almost all of the blame falls on Stan Bowman's shoulders for a long list of disastrous moves. At the top of the list is the eight-year extension he handed Brent Seabrook at the start of the 2015-16 season. The reverberations of that deal have been felt for a long time, but the first tremors came when Bowman traded Artemi Panarin to Columbus.

Sign Seabrook to a four-year extension instead of eight, and who knows? Maybe Bowman could have found a way to retain Panarin.

OK, enough with the revisionist history - although a brief look back is needed to understand the hand GM Kyle Davidson has been dealt.

Toews knows all of this, and he has to realize how much works lies ahead before the Hawks can become a contender again.

Still, it still hurts when you see a player with Hagel's work ethic and motor walk out the door. Watching Fleury leave certainly wasn't easy either.

"I'm not going to lie - it was disheartening to see a couple really good friends go, regardless of what's to come in the future," Toews said. "This group has been through quite a bit this year, on and off the ice. ... There's been a lot of challenges that these guys have grown through as a group.

"When you cultivate that chemistry and that friendship and that connection with your teammates, you want to keep building off of it. So it's definitely a little disheartening to see some key parts of our group and our lineup get traded away."

Now we have to wonder if Toews might leave as well. Even if he isn't traded at some point, there's a distinct possibility that Toews could simply go elsewhere. If the motivation is another Stanley Cup or two, then that's exactly what he'll do.

Only time will tell. In the meantime, the Hawks' captain said he believes Davidson "is sincere" about keeping him and Kane in the loop going forward.

"Obviously he's had some tough decisions to make already," Toews said. "Looking forward to just being in touch with him on his thought process and what the near future looks like, at least this summer. ... (And also see) what he thinks about my game. It's always good to hear some honest points from his vantage point and go from there."

Strome scores the winner:

Dylan Strome scored the game-winning goal against Anaheim on Wednesday by deflecting a shot-pass from Riley Stillman into the net with 3:50 remaining. The Ducks had tied it at 2-2 when Sam Carrick scored his second goal of the night with 6:32 remaining.

Taylor Raddysh, Patrick Kane and Alex DeBrincat also scored for the Hawks (23-32-9). Kane and Raddysh scored on the power play, while DeBrincat iced the game with an empty netter with 1:03 remaining. Kane now has 20 goals on the season, while DeBrincat has 35. Strome has 9 goals in the last nine games and 18 overall.

Kevin Lankinen started in net and made 27 saves.

Goalie gets entry-level deal:

The Hawks signed goaltender Jaxson Stauber on Wednesday to a two-year entry-level contract that runs through the 2023-24 season ($883,750 salary cap hit). Stauber went 21-14-2 record with a 2.10 goals against average and .921 save percentage in 37 games for Providence this season.