Grezlcyk Signs With The Hawks, Middle-Aged Man Yells At Sky But No Clouds
My thoughts on the recent Blackhawks signing of Matt Grezlyck.
The Chicago Blackhawks signed veteran defenseman Matt Grzelcyk on a one year deal for $1 million. This is hardly a deal worth getting upset over. The Blackhawks made it clear from day one of free agency that a veteran defenseman signing was likely. So, the signing itself doesn’t come as a surprise.
Grezlcyk scored 40 points last season (39 of them assists) on a tanking Pittsburgh Penguins team. His point total is a career anomaly; the 31-year-old defenseman had a career high of 26 points with the 2022 Boston Bruins. Yet 31 other teams decided to pass up on him over the summer until the Blackhawks signed him off of a professional tryout (PTO).
What gets me, however, is how the Blackhawks’ propaganda machine spews out that this is a team getting taken over by a plethora of youth. It just isn’t true. On the forwards, Connor Bedard and Frank Nazar are the obvious locks. Colton Dach made the bottom six. And that’s it. A whopping three forwards are considered young.
The blueline is where things look different. Alex Vlasic, Artyom Leshunov, Wyatt Kaiser, and Sam Rinzel make a young top-four. Louis Crevier will slot in as the seventh defenseman. Connor Murphy was the only veteran player the Hawks had. Of note, Vlasic will hit 200 games played this season.
I certainly see that if they wanted a veteran defenseman (which they stated they did), they would go out and get one. So, my frustration isn’t really towards the Grezlyck signing. It’s toward how it seems like they are really trying to sell the prospects to a fanbase that doesn’t know any better. Like it’s this project that’s never been done before in the NHL. Dangling exciting prospects in front of the fans eyes only to send them to Rockford and grab veterans instead.
And again, I’m not frustrated that a player needs to go to Rockford. I think Oliver Moore will benefit from it. But if I’m being sold that this team is incredibly young, but those same young players aren’t ready for the NHL yet, well, what are we even doing?