Hawks Weekly Update 5/28
Seney signs an extension, Davidson makes a trade, and Kane rumors begin to ramp up.
Back for more?
Well, there’s nothing groundbreaking this week. We have a signing of an AHLer to talk about and a tiny tid-bit on Kane that sent Hawks fans (myself included) foaming at the mouth. A trade happened too, so that’s cool, I guess.
Some quick housekeeping.
I have a Connor Bedard season breakdown coming out sometime in the near future. I plan on breaking down other players throughout the summer. I’ll take a look at stats and some aspects of their game using clips to analyze how they did over the past season.
Draft Preview Part 2 is still waiting for Elite Prospects to drop their guide. Hawks History is coming together. Like I said, I’m adding a personal touch to this first iteration of Hawks History. It’s either going to be an interesting read or not. But I mean, you can say that about anything.
Also, spent some time kayaking on the Colorado River with my wife for Memorial Day Weekend. Hope everyone had a great weekend and to those who have someone to remember, I hope you took the time to remember them and spent the holiday how they would have wanted you to.
Weekly Updates
The Hawks traded the following picks in this year’s draft: 20 (1st Round), 54 (2nd Round), and 61 (3rd Round) for the Islander’s 18th pick and 50th. I would’ve expected something like this to happen on draft day… interesting to see it this far out. Either Kyle Davidson has his eye on someone who might not be there at 20, or Davidson is going to use pick 18 as a part of a bigger trade.
Brett Seney signed a 1-year extension with a salary cap hit of $775k. It’s a decent signing as this keeps a decent AHL player in Rockford. He’ll help out with the next wave of prospects making their way to Rockford. Don’t expect to see him in the Blackhawks lineup unless there is a serious injury problem.
Nikita Zaitsev signed with KHL team SKA for 3 years. Looks like he’s done in North America.
Scott Powers wrote a couple of interesting “mailbag” articles. In his second iteration, he raised speculation that the Blackhawks are at least now considering Patrick Kane returning. And by considering, I mean that the Hawks might hold internal talks to see if Kane’s a good fit in their plan. It’s not a sure thing by any means and Powers reiterates that Kyle Davidson will most likely stick to his plan. But boy would I be a happy Hawks fan if Kane came back.
Men’s World Championship
Lukas Reichel had a nice game on the 21st against France, finishing with 1 goal and an assist. Germany would get knocked out of the tournament in a 3-1 loss to Switzerland. Reichel finished the tourney with 3 goals and 4 assists in 6 games.
Reichel’s goal in his 2 point game vs France For our boys playing for Uncle Sam, Alex Vlasic and Seth Jones were knocked out of the tournament after a 0-1 loss to Czechia in the quarterfinals. Vlasic had 2 assists in 8 games and finished with a +1 rating. Jones finished with 5 assists in 8 games with a +6 rating.
Connor Bedard and Team Canada ended up losing to Sweden who got bronze. No medal for Bedard who finished with 5 goals and 3 assists in 10 games. There were a couple of interesting coaching choices with Bedard (he was slotted as the 13th forward for one of the games) but this really doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things.
Petr Mrazek ended up getting gold with Czechia after a 2-0 win over Switzerland. Mrazek only played in 2 games while Lukas Dostal got the majority of the games. Mrazek had a .906 SV% and made 29 saves on 32 shots.
Philipp Kurachev played in the final for his 8th appearance. He logged 2 assists total while he spent time on the fourth line. Switzerland would place second in the tournament.
The tournament host would win gold, which I’m happy for Mrazek. Bedard had some cool moments, particularly earlier in the tournament with multi-goal games. Reichel looked like he played solid on a bad team playing at a point-per-game. Kurachev played bottom-6 minutes. Vlasic and Jones had solid games on the World Stage.
Album of the Week
Common, Be
This album came out in 2004 and I remember renting this from the library and making copies of it to my iPod. I first heard of Common after his performance of “The Food” on The Chappelle Show. As far as Chicago hip-hop artists go, he’s one of the best, in my opinion. Although Chicago is known for drill, which I can’t get an ear for, Common has chill East Coast-style beats that put you in a relaxed mood.
Let’s Go Hawks.