What can the Blackhawks do to replace Patrick Kane?
Instead of adding a forward that can not possibly replace Patrick Kane, maybe the Chicago Blackhawks should look to improve their struggling defense.
By
Adam Gretz
•
5 min read
The Chicago Blackhawks found out Wednesday that they are going to be without Patrick Kane for the next 12 weeks due to an injury suffered when he fell into the boards on Tuesday night against the Florida Panthers. It is a massive blow to both the Blackhawks and the entire NHL. Kane was not only tied for the NHL lead in scoring at the time of his injury, but is also one of the most exciting players in the league.
The Blackhawks and the NHL are better when he is on the ice.
Now that he is expected to be out until what could be the Western Conference finals, the Blackhawks have to figure out what their next move will be.
With Kane on the long-term injured list it clears up a significant amount of cap space that would not have otherwise been there for an acquisition before next Monday's trade deadline. The expected forward names are already being thrown into the mix: Arizona's Antoine Vermette, Calgary's Curtis Glencross, perhaps even Buffalo's Chris Stewart or New Jersey's Jaromir Jagr.
But is any of that worth it for the Blackhawks?
When it comes to the rental options, there is nobody that is going to replace Patrick Kane.
Stewart simply isn't very good. Jagr probably wouldn't be able to keep up with Chicago's style of play at this point in his career. And even though players like Vermette and Glencross are solid enough and could add some quality depth to the roster, there really is not anything terribly exciting there. Again: Nothing is going to replace Patrick Kane or be anything more than a marginal upgrade over whatever internal options the Blackhawks currently have.
Taking on a player signed beyond this season and better than the available rental options really is not much of an option either.
For one, with the new contract extensions for Kane and Jonathan Toews kicking in next season, cap space in 2015-16 and beyond is tight. Second, the Blackhawks can't really afford to trade any of their top young prospects because they are going to need those guys to give them value on entry-level contracts because of the cap situation. That is what has made the Chicago model so successful in recent years. They not only have the high-end, big-money players, but they have also had a pipeline of talent that has stepped into the NHL and given them quality play for an affordable price (such as Brandon Saad, Andrew Shaw and Nick Leddy -- before they had to trade him before this season).
The thing about the Blackhawks team as it is currently constructed and the way it's playing right now, and for as important as Kane is, they probably don't even have to do anything when it comes to adding a forward. This team still has a ton of talent and is going to be able to score more than enough goals to win, both over the remainder of the regular season and early in the playoffs. A team with Toews, Marian Hossa, Saad, Patrick Sharp and even some of their depth guys like Kris Versteeg (31 points in 41 games) and Brad Richards (32 in 58) is still going to be capable of scoring. And if they keep winning and go deep into the playoffs, they are eventually going to get Kane back.
So what if they decided to do nothing offensively?
What if they went in a completely different direction and used this not as a reason to add another forward in an effort to replace a guy they can not possibly replace, but to instead fix something that has suddenly become a weakness that they may not have otherwise been able to address?
Defense.
Even though the Blackhawks are the third-best team in the league overall this season in terms of goals against per game, defense is an area that has been trending in the wrong direction for more than two months. They are also giving up more shots than they have in recent years (something Blackhawks blogger Jen Lute Costella recently examined here), and since Dec. 15, a span of 30 games where Chicago has won just 15, they are allowing 2.7 goals per game, 15th in the NHL. That is more than half of the season to this point, and it is simply not good enough for the playoffs.
They are slightly worse when you look at just even-strength play.
That might turn out to be a bigger problem than losing a forward on a team that is already pretty stacked offensively.
With Andrej Sekera now on his way to Los Angeles, and Cody Franson and Tyler Myers already switching teams, the options are pretty limited. Especially when it comes to adding anybody that has term left on his contract beyond this season (the same issues mentioned above; cap space, giving up young, cheap assets).
It will surely have to be a rental. But making a rental on defense a higher priority than forward still seems like it would make the most sense, especially since there is a better chance a defender will do more to upgrade the roster. Arizona's Zbynek Michalek, even though he isn't 100 percent healthy at the moment, is a name that will certainly be on the move, and there is a chance the Flyers could deal Kimmo Timonen once he gets back on the ice (he is eyeing a return to game action Saturday) but that would be a total wild card. The most attractive name as far as the rental options go is still Edmonton's Jeff Petry, a very good, underrated player who has been hidden on some awful Oilers teams in recent seasons.
It seems likely that the Blackhawks are going to do something over the next few days.
They are suddenly swimming in additional salary cap space and still have a team that should be capable of going deep into the playoffs. They should be buying. It just might not be the obvoius move -- like adding a forward -- following the injury to their leading scorer.
