Blackhawks preview: This season, losing is winning
How does one preview a season for a team whose ending has already been written?
A flop, a bummer, a failure, a bust. The word "bust" might not even be appropriate given the need for initially high expectations in order for a team to fall to such a label. And just about the only sure expectation for the Blackhawks is to finish one place above the Arizona Coyotes (maybe).
The NHL season begins Wednesday for the Blackhawks, and rebuilding started in July. Alex DeBrincat is an Ottawa Senator, Dylan Strome is a Washington Capital, and Kirby Dach a Canadien. Luke Richardson is the Hawks' head coach, and Kyle Davidson is at the helm of the front office.
The ending has already been written. This team is going to be abysmal. But the chapters in this season's book contain the details of one of the more important questions: How abysmal?
And that's why we continue to read.
Goal of few goals
This campaign doesn't mark a new page, nor does it mark a new chapter in Blackhawks history. It features a brand new book. And it begins with losing.
In their joint news conference to open training camp on Sept. 21, Richardson addressed the possible cognitive dissonance between wanting to win as a coach and getting in the way of Davidson's plan to lose as much as possible.
"I told Kyle right off the hop," Richardson said, "that we're going to make his job the toughest job possible and try to win as much as possible."
Davidson chimed in with a begrudging smile and replied, "I want to win. I want to win." Maybe not immediately, though.
No athletic team's goal is to lose, but this hockey team's goal should be to lose. They should want to stockpile draft picks, and they should want to acquire young talent. Good young talent.
Davidson's making his steps toward that goal already. Just this past week, he dealt Riley Stillman to the Vancouver Canucks for Jason Dickinson and a 2024 second-round pick. Dickinson, a 27-year-old forward, may not be around for long, but that second-round pick might.
Still, for a team whose head coach said a successful season would be "to build a team," losing shouldn't be too difficult.
What's stopping them?
Another key question of this reconstruction revolves around the Hawks' core. Every successful rebuild contains a nucleus, and a larger cast is assembled around it. Right now, that core contains American legend Patrick Kane, Chicago legend Jonathan Toews, Andreas Athanasiou, Tyler Johnson, Seth Jones, Connor Murphy and Petr Mrazek, all of whom are 28 or older.
Kane is in the last year of his contract and must waive his no movement clause (NMC) in order to be traded. He likely won't be giving up this year. Toews, longtime captain of the team, probably won't either. Seth Jones, whose eight-year contract kicks in this season, is a competitor. "I want to win," he said a couple weeks ago. New addition Max Domi can be a top-six forward.
Now here's what Davidson must figure out: Can any of these guys help the team two, three or four years from now?
Best/worst case scenarios
All any Blackhawks fan should want is for this team to be as bad as possible so they can be the odds-on favorite to win the draft lottery. If the Hawks can add another top-tier prospect beside Kevin Korchinski, Nolan Allan and Lukas Reichel, fans should be able to start feeling something again. Richardson knows what he is doing, and with whatever core they end up keeping, the Hawks could be on track faster than anticipated.
On the other hand, if the Hawks put together an 85-point season and a fifth-place finish in the Central Division, that will decelerate this process to a near crawl. In the end, really, in this contorted season, losing is winning - and the Blackhawks will be aiming to be the best at it.