Articles in Chicago Blackhawks

from Tracey Myers of the NHL's website,

Corey Perry said he has a few more years of hockey left in him, and he's ready for a chance to work with Connor Bedard and the Chicago Blackhawks.

Perry, a 38-year-old forward, has played 18 seasons in the NHL and made his NHL debut Oct. 5, 2005, less than three months after Bedard, the No. 1 pick in the 2023 NHL Draft, was born.

"I'm excited for this opportunity, and obviously with Connor coming in and being the player that he is," Perry said Friday. "I've watched many games of his, especially in the World Juniors, so it's an exciting time for the Blackhawks."

The Blackhawks acquired Perry from the Tampa Bay Lightning for a seventh-round pick in the 2024 NHL Draft on June 29. He signed a one-year, $4 million contract with Chicago the next day.

He had 25 points (12 goals, 13 assists) in 81 regular-season games for the Lightning last season and five points (two goals, three assists) in six Stanley Cup Playoff games.

Perry said he fully intended to play this season and that "there was no thought of retirement and there still isn't. I feel I could have a few more years left in me."

Much like forwards Nick Foligno and Taylor Hall, whom the Blackhawks acquired from the Boston Bruins on June 26, Perry said he can still make an impact.

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via the Chicago Blackhawks,

The Chicago Blackhawks today announced that the team has agreed to terms with forward Nick Foligno (foe-LEE-no) on a one-year contract that runs through the 2023-24 season ($4,000,000 salary cap hit).

added 3:01pm,

from Adam Proteau of The Hockey News,

For as bad as the Hawks were in 2022-23, there aren’t very many NHL GMs who wouldn’t trade places with Chicago, simply because Bedard looks to be an all-time-great potential force for the Hawks. The Blackhawks’ marketing now can move toward the days and years ahead, as opposed to looking back on the recent glory days of the franchise.

But Chicago GM Kyle Davidson has mapped out where his team will have to be in the coming years, and our guess is that his team will have to be at or near the basement of the league yet again in 2023-24. Bedard can only do so much, and it would be unfair to expect him to singlehandedly lead the Hawks to the post-season for the first time in the past four years.

No, the rebuild in Chicago will take much more time than that. Let’s remember the Blackhawks finished 36 points out of the final wild-card playoff berth in the Western Conference last season. That’s 18 wins they’d need to make up to become a post-season team this coming year. Not happening. And if it isn’t happening, it makes sense for the Blackhawks to remain at or near the bottom of the West.

They might not get another first overall pick, but they’re more likely to land another terrific young player to use alongside Bedard for the next dozen years or more

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via the Chicago Blackhawks,

The Chicago Blackhawks, along with television broadcast partner NBC Sports Chicago, have announced that Darren Pang will join play-by-play announcer Chris Vosters in the Blackhawks broadcast booth as the color analyst for the 2023-24 season. Pang returns to the Blackhawks where he started his long broadcast career over 30 years ago after playing two seasons as goaltender with the club.

from Scott Powers and Jeremy Rutherford of The Athletic,

Darren Pang is returning to where it all began for him in the NHL.

Pang is finalizing a contract to join the Chicago Blackhawks TV broadcast after 14 seasons with the St. Louis Blues, confirmed sources involved in the negotiations, who spoke under the condition of anonymity because the contract hadn’t been signed yet. Pang played his entire NHL career with the Blackhawks.

Pang’s contract with Bally Sports Midwest was expiring this offseason, and the Blackhawks were granted permission last month to speak with him. Terms of Pang’s new deal with Chicago were not immediately known. He will also continue his work as a national analyst with TNT.

Pang, 59, had planned to remain with the Blues and Bally’s next season, but contract talks had been slow. The parent company of Bally’s, Diamond Sports Group, is a division of Sinclair Broadcasting and is currently in bankruptcy.

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added 11:22pm, Video- One last salute is below. added 11:58pm, A longer video is below.

from Mark Lazerus of The Athletic,

No, for the record, Jonathan Toews doesn’t plan to retreat into a completely dark room for four days to make a decision on his future in the NHL.

“No, no, I don’t think I’ll have to get that extreme,” he said with a smirk.

Instead, when the Blackhawks’ season ends next week and he’s done cleaning out his locker and going through his exit interviews and bro-hugging his teammates, Toews will go about things the traditional way. He’ll talk to his girlfriend. To his family. To his closest friends. To the people “who know me better than anybody.”

But mostly, he’ll talk to himself. He’ll look within — to see how badly he wants to continue his career, how important hockey still is to him, how willing he is to continue fighting through the fatigue and pain and emotional struggle that come with his dual diagnoses of Long COVID and Chronic Immune Response Syndrome. Because if the answer to any of those questions is anything less than 100 percent, then the answer is obvious.

Because the NHL is all or nothing. You can’t play in this league half-hearted.

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via Sportsnet,

Jonathan Toews admitted Tuesday this might be his last season as a member of the Chicago Blackhawks.

Toews, 34, missed two months with chronic immune response syndrome and long COVID. On Tuesday, while talking to reporters for the first time since returning from the injury list, he expressed his frustration at the circumstances to led to his being sidelined.

“You can’t really explain because people won’t understand,” he told reporters after his team's morning skate. “It’s not like a knee injury or shoulder injury where you lay under an MRI and your proof is right there. It has been one of those complicated things. Even for me, it’s been really challenging at times to figure out what’s going on.”

After watching his long-time teammate Patrick Kane get traded to the New York Rangers ahead of the deadline, Toews said his future with the Blackhawks is up in the air as well.

“Regardless of what happens in the future this summer, it’s definitely on my mind that this could be my last few weeks here in Chicago as a Blackhawk,” he told reporters.

“So, that’s definitely very important for me to just go out there, enjoy the game, soak it in and just really appreciate everything I’ve been able to be a part of here in Chicago — and show my appreciation to the fans, as well.”

from Mark Lazerus of The Athletic,

The Blackhawks will become the third NHL team to decline to wear Pride jerseys during Pride Night, citing security concerns for their three players of Russian heritage, team sources confirmed to The Athletic.

Two Blackhawks sources stressed that the decision was made by team management and security officials, not by the players, but it’s another body blow to the Hockey is For Everyone movement that the NHL proudly touts, but all too frequently fails to back up.

A Russian law passed in December criminalized so-called LGBTQ+ “propaganda.” Since then, the Minnesota Wild and the New York Rangers opted out of wearing Pride-themed jerseys during warmups — typically, the jerseys have rainbow coloring and are auctioned off for charity.

Now the Blackhawks will join them, contradicting earlier statements from alternate captain Connor Murphy and team CEO Danny Wirtz.

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FRISCO, Texas -- Dallas Stars General Manager Jim Nill announced today that the club has acquired forward Max Domi and goaltender Dylan Wells from the Chicago Blackhawks in exchange for goaltender Anton Khudobin and a 2025 second-round draft pick. In a related move, the Stars have assigned Wells and loaned forwards Fredrik Karlstrom, Fredrik Olofsson and netminder Matt Murray to the Texas Stars, Dallas' development affiliate in the American Hockey League (AHL).

"We're excited to add a player of Max's caliber to our lineup," said Nill. "His offense this season speaks for itself, but he'll also provide energy, grit and a veteran presence as we continue our push to the postseason."

from Emily Kaplan of ESPN,

The Chicago Blackhawks have agreed to send star winger Patrick Kane to the New York Rangers, sources told ESPN on Tuesday.

In return, the Rangers are sending two draft picks to Chicago -- a 2023 second round pick, which carries conditions to improve to a first-round pick, as well as a 2023 fourth round pick.

The deal is expected to become official after 5 p.m. ET on Tuesday when New York has accrued the appropriate amount of cap space to fit in Kane's contract. Chicago will retain 50% of Kane's $10.5 million contract, and a third team signed on to take on 50% of that, meaning Kane will only count for $2.625 million against the Rangers cap.

The trade call is scheduled for later Tuesday, sources told ESPN.

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from Ken Wiebe of Sportsnet,

Luke Richardson knew this wasn’t going to be a quick fix, yet that didn’t deter him from attacking his first NHL head coaching job with vigour.

When you’ve been behind a bench as an assistant coach at the NHL level for nearly a decade and sprinkled in four seasons as the head coach in the American Hockey League, it’s safe to say that going into a rebuild isn’t going to be viewed as an optimal situation for everyone.

But after a conversation with Richardson prior to Saturday’s game with the Winnipeg Jets, it’s easy to see why the Chicago Blackhawks entrusted the longtime NHL defenceman with the task of trying to move the rebuilding process forward....

Working to provide a foundation for a group with a strong prospect pool is right up Richardson’s alley and he’s encouraged by the steps that are being taken, even if he needs to look closer at incremental growth right now rather than just wins and losses in this results-oriented business.

“Just be very transparent,” Richardson began. “A positive attitude from the coaching staff to the players and having that communication with players and building a good relationship with each player, knowing that there are 20 different personalities in there and you can’t get everything across the same one to one person.

“So we’re creating a culture where we’re not afraid to ask (questions) and creating dialogue between players and coaches and that becomes dialogue between the player and the player, on the bench, in practice, we see that a lot. Instead of the D yelling at the forwards and the forwards yelling at the D, we’re creating more conversations than frustration. The communication level is No. 1 for me and then, the work ethic follows.”

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from Mark Lazerus and Scott Powers of The Athletic,

“It’s not like the happiest I’ve been to hear about a trade,” he said. “But I think the Rangers, I definitely pay attention to. Intrigued for obvious reasons. Obviously, they made a move to get him and another big defenseman. You’ve got to respect them going out and trying to make the team better. … If things were going to happen, that was a team I was definitely looking at. It seems like they kind of filled their void and went ahead and made a deal. So it is what it is.”

Kane has yet to inform Blackhawks general manager Kyle Davidson if he’ll waive his no-movement clause, but it certainly sounded like he’s leaning heavily in that direction. Asked if he should open himself up to more teams, like six, Kane bristled.

“I don’t think the number will be six,” he said. “But obviously you want to do right by the franchise, and the organization here has been amazing to me and given me so much. So you definitely want what’s best for both sides.

“In fairness to Kyle, I haven’t went to Kyle and said, ‘I wanted to go here (or) I want to stay.’ I haven’t gotten to any of that yet. I think we kind of said we’d take it up to the deadline and it’s February and there’s still a few weeks. So I think within the next 10 days or so, we’ll probably get a clearer picture of what’s going to happen.”

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from John Dietz of the Chicago Daily-Herald,

Bobby Hull, the Blackhawks' all-time leading goal scorer, died Monday morning, two people close to Hull told the Daily Herald.

No other immediate details were available. Hull just celebrated his 84th birthday on Jan. 3.

The controversial Hull, who possessed a howitzer of a shot that allowed him to score 610 NHL goals, broke into the league in the 1957-58 season. He scored 30 or more goals for 13 consecutive seasons then left for the World Hockey Association in 1972 when the league agreed to pay him $1 million.

Hull, Stan Mikita and others led the Hawks to a Stanley Cup title in 1961.

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Below watch a Legends of Hockey feature on Hull.

from Mark Lazerus of The Athletic,

The Blackhawks, you see, don’t care about your tank. They don’t care about the draft lottery. They don’t care about Connor Bedard. Not in the slightest. And they’re having quite a bit of fun messing with general manager Kyle Davidson’s (smart, if cynical) grand design.

“That’s why we play the game, right?” said defenseman Seth Jones, who’s been bristling at the very idea of losing to win since Day 1 of training camp. “We’re trying to win every game we play. We’ve got to control what we can control in here, and obviously the front office, they control that.”

That, of course, is a concerted effort by the franchise to finish in 32nd place this season, in order to ensure a top-three pick in a highly touted draft and secure the best odds of drafting Bedard, the kind of rare talent who could dramatically alter the Blackhawks’ future for the better.

That, is what commissioner Gary Bettman hilariously denied happens in the NHL. But Bettman, ever the lawyer, chose his words wisely, specifically saying that players don’t tank, that coaches don’t tank. And he’s absolutely right. Richardson said it himself, right after he was hired, that he was going to try to make things as difficult as possible for Davidson, and Davidson welcomed the defiance.

Does he still welcome it now that the Blackhawks are entering their bye week having won a modest-yet-sort-of-stunning seven of their last 11 games, bringing Columbus, Anaheim, Arizona and San Jose back into the race for the bottom?

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