The Chicago Blackhawks Have Extended Goalie Spencer Knight as They Look to Return to Respectability
The Chicago Blackhawks made a statement about their goalending future. Jack Bushman of Locked on Blackhawks is here to talk about that and the team’s prospects going forward. All that and more on today’s Locked On NHL podcast. You’re Locked on NHL, your daily podcast on the National Hockey League. Part of the Locked On Network. Your team every day. Gil Martin here. Welcome everybody to the Monday edition of the Lockdown NHL podcast. We are part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. I want to thank everyone who makes Locked on NHL your first listen every day. Don’t forget to subscribe on YouTube or wherever you listen to podcasts so you never miss an episode. It is great to welcome back to the show the host of Locked On Blackhawks, Jack Bushman. and Jack, the the Blackhawks busy over this weekend uh taking care of their goalending situation. Why don’t you fill everybody in? Yeah, Spencer Knight, three-year deal, breaking news here this morning. $5.83 million cap hit. I was a little bit surprised though, Gil, that uh the two sides reached an agreement so soon just because Knight still has one more year left on his current deal that’s got a $4.5 million AAV. But the reason I was surprised is because while Knight is obviously one of the most promising goalie prospects, young goalenders in all of the NHL, he’s been around for five years, 95 games, you got a good confidence and a good feeling about where he’s heading towards, but he’s still a little bit unproven as like a true number one goalender, right? because during most of his tenure with the Florida Panthers, he was serving as Sergey Babsk’s backup and also, you know, playing behind one of the best, if not the best teams, you know, over the last half decade decade as well. Uh, so really this opportunity for him this season as the number one goalie in Chicago is his first chance to be handed the keys and see what he’s able to do with it. Now again, we have confidence of what kind of goalie Spencer Knight’s going to become, and he already had some really sound performances down the stretch last year when he joined on with the Blackhawks, but I just kind of figured that with him still having this next season under contract, right, they were going to kind of see what he looked like in that starters role first. But like I mentioned, they have a good feeling about where he’s headed. So, they felt comfortable giving him this three-year bridge deal as opposed to like, you know, we saw Dustin Wolf sign a seven-year deal earlier on in the week. Uh, Lucas Dol for the Anaheim Ducks signed a six-year deal earlier on in the summer. I thought that possibly could have been what Knight was trending towards uh potentially getting had the Blackhawks waited till the middle of the season or possibly next summer. But, it’s a very comfortable teamfriendly deal for Knight right here, right now. and he’s going to be given all the chances to be their number one goalie and I believe he’s going to be that guy for them moving forward. So to have him signed now uh until the summer of 2030 at $5.83 million with the way the salary cap is rising, it’s another good piece of um good good money spent by Kyle Davidson for sure. And and how confident are you that he is going to be the guy for the next few years? Yeah, and that’s what he was brought in to do, right? I feel very comfortable that Spencer Knight is going to kind of ascend along with this Blackhawks group as a team. They’re going to kind of get that opportunity to start taking steps together and like I mentioned at the end of last year, you know, with the Blackhawks having so many young defenseman in the lineup and being a bad team once again. Spencer Knight was kind of hung out to dry and definitely was facing a lot more rubber than he was used to seeing with his time with the Panthers, right? But I thought he handled that really well and had a couple of super impressive performances, including uh stopping 41 of 42 shots in his team debut against the Los Angeles Kings. So, I’m very confident that he’s going to be their guy long term. It’s just about him again showing that a little bit more because he really just hasn’t been given that opportunity up to this point in time. But definitely excited to see how he and this, you know, Blackhawks young core are going to start growing together these next few years. Talk to me about the off season. I mean, Andre uh Burkovski, Sam Laferdy, two of the bigger additions, but how do you feel about how the front office handled this off season? Yeah, not a ton of noteworthy moves made by GM Kyle Davidson and the Hawks front office, but that was done with intention just because so many of the high draft selections that this team has made in recent years. finally these guys are starting to step on the scene and you want to give those guys the opportunities. You don’t want to clog up too many spots. And then there’s also just a lot of guys returning who are on expiring contracts at the end of this season. So there really wasn’t like a ton of room or a ton of moves to be made in general with this Blackhawks roster. Uh and even on the defensive side of things too, so many guys are probably ready to establish themselves as full-time NHLers. you just didn’t want to muddy up that waters and in case those guys, you know, really do prove that they’re ready for it, you didn’t want to block those opportunities. So, Burikovsky, I do think was a good move by Kyle Davidson, getting him uh in exchange for Joe Valeno, who was a buyout candidate here. He’s probably going to jump up into that top six for the Hawks and maybe even on that top line with Conor Bard. We’re hoping he can have a bounceback season and provide some good goal scoring there. And then Sam Laughafery just another veteran presence down there in the bottom six that’ll make this team a little bit tougher to play against. So two moves that really did make sense, Gil, but altogether the Blackhawks remain pretty quiet this summer just because they want to give all the opportunities in the world to the young players this upcoming season. All right, so this is where this team is focused. Talk to me about some of those young players who could step into the lineup this season and what their impact could be. Yeah, the fun part, Gil, is we already saw some of them down the stretch last year, whether it was, you know, Sam Renzel or Oliver Moore, both former first round picks for Chicago. Uh, after their sophomore years with the Minnesota Golden Gophers in college hockey, they each played nine games with the Blackhawks at the end of last year. Uh, Renzel looked marvelous in his first nine NHL games, and there’s a lot of open spots on the right side defensively for the Blackhawks. And the expectation is for him to make the NHL roster out of camp. and could have himself one heck of an opportunity like I said on the top pairing and maybe even quarterbacking the Blackhawks power play unit. So those are definitely two prospects to look out for as well as 2024 second overall pick Ardum Levinov. He played in his first 18 NHL games at the end of last year as well. So those are probably three of the more notable ones, but guys like Ryan Green, Landon Slagger, Colton Doc, they’re going to be battling for NHL roster spots as well. And then there’s one other player in Nick Lardis who scored 71 goals in the Ontario Hockey League last year. First 70 goal scorer since John Tiveres in that league. He’s now making the jump to the professional level. I expect he’ll begin with the Rockford Iceogs, but another guy with an important couple of weeks ahead as training camp is right around the corner. What are you looking at most in training camp as far as like what what would be the positive sign you need to see for this team to take that next step forward? I think it is just really the young guys making the most of the opportunity that’s being presented in front of them and running with it and proving to this Hawks coaching staff that they’re ready to take that next step. They’re ready to, you know, be a focal point of this team. And from a front office perspective, Kyle Davidson has always wanted prospects to thrive in the NHL level as opposed to just surviving. So, let’s see let’s see some of that thriving going on these next couple of weeks in training camp from some of those young guys that I mentioned and also Connor Bdard as well. This is a very important season coming up for Connor Baddard. His third full NHL campaign. The Blackhawks, you know, they got a young group around them. There’s not a whole lot of expectations, but if some of these young pieces surprise people and Connor Badar takes that next step that there’s definitely to believe the Blackhawks will be uh much better than they’ve been these last couple of years as well. It’s shaping up to be a fun and intriguing year. What is a realistic expectation for the Dard in year three? Yeah, I think that’s a good question and I hate to put like a specific, you know, goal total or point total to get, but I think it’s altogether just take that next step in being a more dominant player. And I think also just making smarter decisions out there in general and it’s tough because there’s still not a ton of support around him. So, I think it’s tough to critique him, you know, too hard because he doesn’t, you know, have necessarily true top liners around him and he’s been a driving force for this team still and been the leading leading point getter his first two NHL seasons. I think it’s just taking more of a dominant step and really um controlling what happens out there on each and every shift and then also, you know, fine-tuning his game in the defensive areas at the faceoff dot. Those have been two areas in particular where he really hasn’t gotten off to the best start in his NHL career. So, just continuing to continuing to make improvements, continuing to take steps, and he’s put in a lot of work this off season. And from some of the clips that have been shown around on social media, I’m very excited to see how he’s going to look when training camp opens next week. All right, last question. This year will be a success for the Blackhawks if Oh, man. Put me on the spot here, Gil. this will be a successful season for the Blackhawks if gosh they just play more competitive hockey games I guess and especially against the premier teams in the NHL because they’re the Chicago Blackhawks because they have such a big fandom and original six franchise they get put on national television TNT ESPN a lot and they’ve kind of tended to allow those games to get too lopsided and not really make competitive battles out of it and I don’t think that has helped kind of the narrative around Connor Badard these last couple of years. So, it’s just about, I think, getting better day in and day out, having more consistency in the game as a team and then also kind of just proving to everyone that this team is starting to make those strides together. And there’s a lot of promising young pieces on on this forefront. All right, Jack, why don’t you tell our viewers and our listeners where they could find the podcast and where they could find you on social media. Yeah, absolutely. You can find Lockdown Blackhawks for free wherever you may be listening to your podcast. Check me out on YouTube as well. If you want to go and follow me on X, you can find me right here down below, Jack Bushman, too. All right, Jack, thanks so much. Absolutely. Thank you for having me on, Gil. Lots of fun as always. Today’s episode is brought to you by Indeed. You just realized your business needed to hire someone yesterday, but how can you find amazing candidates fast? Easy. Just use Indeed. When it comes to hiring, Indeed is all you need. 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The Chicago Blackhawks signed goalie Spencer Knight to a contract extension to set him up as the team’s starting goaltender for the foreseeable future.
Jack Bushman of Locked On Blackhawks joins us to discuss the impact of the signing, the team’s offseason moves and some of the top prospects who have a chance to impact the team.Plus, what to expect from Connor Bedard this season.
All this and more on today’s Locked On NHL Podcast with Gil Martin.
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