3 Blackhawks free agents make their way to new NHL homesVincent Pariseon July 14, 2022 at 12:00 pm

The biggest one is Dominik Kubalik. He has been a good player that had some ups and downs with the Blackhawks. Early on, he certainly scored a lot of goals. He will be looking to get back to that goal-scoring level with the Detroit Red Wings next season.

Detroit and Chicago are not hockey rivals as much as they once were because of reallignment of the league. However, this is still going to look strange for a few years. Few teams are as prepared for the future as Detroit right now and it won’t be long before they are really good.

The Chicago Blackhawks said goodbye to more than one player on Wednesday.

Collin Delia is what you would define as a third-string goalie. If he is the guy you use for a few games when your starter or backup goes out, that is not bad at all. There are plenty of teams with worse backups than him as a third string.

Delia is going to play next season with the Vancouver Canucks. It is an interesting decision made by them as nobody really knows what they are as a team. For now, it is fair to just wish Delia good luck as he never really had a good team skating in front of him in Chicago.

The third player saying goodbye from last year’s roster is Erik Gustafsson. He signed a one-year deal with the Washington Capitals. There have been moments where he was a solid offensive contributor but his defense left a lot to be desired. With Washington, things might be easier.

These guys all played very hard for a Blackhawks team that didn’t realize it needed a transition yet. It wasn’t the easiest situation of all time to play in but they played hard and gave it everything they had. They deserve well wishes with their new NHL homes.