SUNRISE, Fla. –The Blackhawks’ trade deadline departures have experienced mixed success in their first couple weeks with their new teams.
Brandon Hagel, whom the Hawks will meet Friday when they face the Lightning, has settled into a bottom-six role in Tampa and has tallied one point in six games so far. Ryan Carpenter was a healthy scratch in three of the Flames’ first four games after the trade, playing just 8:55 in his one appearance entering Thursday.
But Marc-Andre Fleury has already made his mark on the Wild, starting his tenure in Minnesota with two wins in his first two starts –stopping 23 of 25 shots against the Blue Jackets and 32 of 33 against the Flyers for a .948 save percentage so far.
Wild fans have even started a rather obvious new tradition that Penguins, Golden Knights and Hawks fans somehow overlooked: throwing flower bouquets on the ice during Fleury’s “star of the game” laps. A single bouquet for the first win evolved into multiple bouquets –and a rose — for the second win.
Vlasic in limbo
Young Hawks defenseman Alex Vlasic played two games after signing his entry-level contract, then started sitting out. He has now been a healthy scratch five consecutive games.
He is eligible to be sent to the AHL, CapFriendly confirmed Thursday. And though interim coach Derek King correctly noted that decision rests on general manager Kyle Davidson, it sounds like King would be in favor of it.
“It’d be nice to see him play lots of minutes — more minutes than he’d get here — especially at that level,” King said.
Friendly group
One reservation the Hawks might have about sending Vlasic down is that Rockford’s six-man defensive corps are so well-established.
Despite all the competition between those six guys –Ian Mitchell, Nicolas Beaudin, Alec Regula, Jakub Galvas, Isaak Phillips and Wyatt Kalynuk — for the less-than-six NHL opportunities that lie ahead next season, Mitchell and Beaudin both raved Wednesday about what a tight-knit group they’ve become.
“You see a lot of really good defensemen, a lot of really good players,” Mitchell said. “It definitely pushes us all to be better. But at the same time, a lot of us have grown a really good friendship. We’re actually pretty tight even though we are all competing for a limited number of spots.”
Honest King
Asked Thursday what he believes separates the Hawks from the NHL’s upper-tier teams, King gave a truly honest assessment of his roster’s flaws.
“Our guys, they work hard,” he said. “We compete. We are trying. [We have a lack of older players… We have young guys that are immature, stilllearning the game at this level, and it shows on the ice at times. It’s frustrating for some older guys.
“As a group, we make mistakes. Whereasthe top teams, when you watch them play, they don’t make too many mistakes. And if they do make a mistake, it’s ended then. It doesn’t snowball into two or three more mistakes. And that’s where we’re at. We can compete with these teams, and then we start making those mistakes later on in the game or in the second period, and that’s when we get beat up. It’s learning something we’re going to have to be better at obviously as we go on here, the final 15 games. And then whatever happens for next year, [hopefully] they continue to build on that.”