Hawks could grab goalie in first round

Last year during the first round of the draft, Blackhawks general manager Stan Bowman was busy clearing cap space by trading defenseman Brian Campbell to Florida and winger Troy Brouwer to Washington.

There are no indications Bowman will be as active tonight during the first round, although there is talk of defenseman Niklas Hjalmarsson being in play.

With Bowman re-signing Johnny Oduya for three years at $3.38 million per season, it would appear to leave Hjalmarsson available.

“It’s possible we’ll make moves, but we don’t have to,” Bowman said.

The Hawks have the 18th pick in the first round and expect to get what Bowman considers a very good player.

“It happens every year, guys slide down maybe you didn’t expect to,” Bowman said. “I’m optimistic we’re going to get a good player.”

The Hawks haven’t taken a goaltender in the first round since Jimmy Waite in 1988. There figures to be two of the top goalies available sitting there for the Hawks in Russian Andrei Vasilevski and Belleville’s Malcolm Subban, brother of Montreal Canadiens defenseman P.K. Subban.

The Red Line Report call Vasilevski a game changer who is stunningly calm under pressure. He has long legs that stretch from post to post.

We should find out what Bowman and the Hawks really think of Corey Crawford if Vasilevski is there when they pick and the Russian still is available.

As for Subban, the Hawks recently talked to him at the prospects combine in Toronto.

“We met with close to 80 kids that week and he was one of them,” Bowman said. “I was just impressed with the maturity of the kids.”

The Hawks will have seven picks in all. Last year they found Andrew Shaw in the fifth round with the 159th selection.