New Blackhawks Hall, Foligno ready to embrace leadership roles
When Taylor Hall realized he'd been traded from the 65-win Boston Bruins to the Chicago Blackhawks, the former league MVP had an understandable reaction.
"You're a little bit bummed," Hall said Saturday as the Hawks began development camp at Fifth Third Arena.
And who could blame him? One minute you're on a Stanley Cup-caliber roster; the next you're on a rebuilding squad that managed a mere 26 victories last season.
Casualties of the merciless NHL salary cap, Hall and Nick Foligno were sent to the Hawks last week in exchange for defensemen Ian Mitchell and Alec Regula. Hall's contract runs through 2024-25 and carries a $6 million cap hit, while Foligno inked a one-year, $4 million deal Tuesday.
GM Kyle Davidson acquired the well-respected veterans to provide leadership to a young roster that will include forwards like Lukas Reichel and Connor Bedard and defensemen like Alex Vlasic and possibly Kevin Korchinski.
Those leadership skills came through loud and clear Saturday, especially from Foligno, who is 35 and was captain of the Columbus Blue Jackets for six years.
Asked about the Hawks' low expectations, Foligno's eloquent response essentially boiled down to this: So what? We're going to instill a winning culture. We're going to be excited to come to the rink every day. We'll be hungry to learn. Quality people like Bedard have been added. That's how you grow as a team. Let's embrace the new adventure.
"This is one I feel really re-energized for as a player and excited about the opportunity to build this from the ground up," Foligno said. "(We want to) put a standard in place and be one of the guys that's looked to to help.
"It's pretty special. You don't take that for granted."
It didn't take long for Hall to feel the same way.
"I'm excited to play a bigger role," said Hall, who averaged a career-low 15 minutes, 56 seconds of ice time last season. "I'm excited to show that I've grown and that even at my age (31) I can still be a top-line guy. That's still exciting for me."
Like Bedard, Hall was a No. 1 overall pick, taken by the Oilers in 2010. He's averaged 26½ goals and 43 assists per 82 games during a career that's also taken him to New Jersey (2016-19), Arizona (2019-20), Buffalo (2021) and Boston (2021-23).
He'll likely skate on the same line as Bedard and impart plenty of advice along the way.
"Landing in Boston was probably a great spot for him to learn from guys like (Patrice) Bergeron, (David) Krejci and those guys," said coach Luke Richardson. "Coming from a place like that to here, his dynamic speed and offense is going to help our team and guys like Connor.
"He can really mentor him a little bit ... both on and off the ice. So it's a good mix there."
Hall, Bedard, Foligno and Corey Perry will bolster a forward group that includes Lukas Reichel (7G, 8A in 23 games), the speedy Andreas Athanasiou (20G, 20A), Taylor Raddysh (20G, 17A), Tyler Johnson and possibly Philipp Kurashev.
Down the road we'll probably see recent draft picks Oliver Moore, Frank Nazar and others as well.
"It's exciting because you have some real generational talents coming in, some young kids, a good mix of veteran guys and guys in the middle of their careers," Foligno said. "If you can find a way to get everyone to gel and bond and form that brotherhood, it's amazing what you can accomplish. ... That's a big reason why (the Bruins) were so successful."
So are the Hawks about to become the Bruins? Or the Lightning, Avalanche or Golden Knights?
Well, let's not get ahead of ourselves.
But things certainly seem to be trending in the right direction.
"We'll move up hopefully faster than people think," Richardson said. "We just have to make sure we're getting better every day and not (be) satisfied that we got better today and take the foot off. We've got to keep going.
"I didn't sign here to just get to the playoffs. We want to get to the ultimate goal and win a Stanley Cup. And then when you do that, you've got to enjoy it and celebrate, but then you don't take the foot off again.
"You're eager and you get a taste of it, and you want to do it again. That's the culture we want to build here."
Hawks add forward Donato:
As expected, the Hawks were quiet on the opening day of free agency, signing only forward Ryan Donato to a two-year, $4 million contract. The 27-year-old has 65 goals and 70 assists in 325 games since entering the league in 2017-18. He had 14 goals and 13 goals for the Seattle Kraken last season.