'We're on the right path.' Bowman optimistic about Blackhawks' future

There's a light at the end of the tunnel. And it's coming in 2019-20.

That's the message GM Stan Bowman and many Blackhawks sent Sunday as they met the media inside the United Center one day after their season ended with a 5-2 loss at Nashville.

"The feeling is much different now than it was a year ago," Bowman said after the Hawks finished 36-34-12 and missed the postseason for a second straight year. "We have a clear path of how we're going to be better next year."

Some may scoff at all of this optimism, but Bowman and Co. made plenty of salient points. Let's address the top four in a bit more detail:

• Perhaps the biggest reason Bowman sees a bright future is the fact that - warts and all - the Hawks earned 61 points in their last 50 games. That's a 100-point pace for an entire season.

"That's a pretty good chunk of the schedule," Bowman said. "The last 50 games we were playing like a team that could contend for the division title, but we had a lot of ground to make up. The goal now is to build on that."

• One of the ways the Hawks can build off their strong finish is to convince a difference-making free agent or two to come to Chicago. With much more cap space in which to maneuver than in years past, Bowman expects "to be more active" when free agency opens July 1.

The question is, whom should this team that allowed a Western Conference-worst 291 goals against this season pursue?

It's not a particularly strong unrestricted free-agent class in terms of defensemen, with the top targets likely to be San Jose's Erik Karlsson (29 years old), Toronto's Jake Gardiner (28), Vancouver's Alexander Edler (33), Winnipeg's Tyler Myers (28) and Tampa Bay's Anton Stralman (32).

None of these will come cheap, and Edler (814 games) and Stralman (749 plus 104 playoff games) have quite a bit of mileage on them already.

Another factor to consider: The Hawks will almost certainly bring back Duncan Keith, Brent Seabrook, Connor Murphy and Erik Gustafsson. The jury is still out on Henri Jokiharju, and younger D-men like Adam Boqvist, Nicolas Beaudin, Ian Mitchell and Chad Krys can't turn around a 'D' corps in one season.

So do the Hawks swing for the fences and try to bring back Artemi Panarin? He'll probably cost at least $9 million a year, but imagine him on a line with both Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews.

"Lot of confidence in the management (and) the coaches about bringing back a good, solid team next year," Kane said. "Disappointing finish for sure, but I definitely think there's a lot of hope and belief in the room that we can turn it around."

• A full training camp and preseason will benefit everyone.

Brent Seabrook and Jonathan Toews both admitted adjusting on the fly to a new coach in Jeremy Colliton and a completely new system took time getting used to.

"You want to argue or you maybe are resistant to a little bit of change here and there," said Toews, who finished with career bests in goals (35) and points (81). "That was definitely the case with myself, making simple mistakes that I didn't find myself making (before)."

Colliton expects to be better too. He went 30-28-9 in 67 games, which includes a brutal 3-12-2 start.

"I had confidence when I came in November that I had a plan and we as a staff could make some progress," Colliton said. "It took longer than we all would have liked. But I think I'm a better coach now than when I walked in, and I'm going to use that going forward. …

"The best coaches get better all the time. Every day they're bringing new ideas and new energy and looking outside for inspiration. That's what I expect to do."

• Another trade or two might be coming. While he said wholesale changes aren't likely, it wouldn't be surprising to see Bowman deal Artem Anisimov ($4.55 million cap hit), Brandon Saad ($6 million) or even Jokiharju. It doesn't look like Seabrook or Keith are going anywhere, however, as they'd have to waive their no-movement clauses.

In the end, everyone expressed nearly identical sentiments to last season: They're mad about missing the playoffs, they expect to grow their games in the off-season and, yes, they expect to return to the Stanley Cup playoffs.

"It's a lost season," Seabrook said. "We want to be competing for Stanley Cups every year and it's something we've done a lot in our career. I know it's not going to happen every year, but why can't it? We want to get back there."

So can they? Well, Bowman certainly believes he has the franchise pointed in the right direction.

"Last year was sort of the low point, we're building to where we are now and next year we expect to be even higher," Bowman said. "We're on the right path. There's a lot of things to be excited about and some other things we need to improve.

"And that's our job between now and training camp."