Blackhawks roster reaction, season preview, and bold predictions

Blackhawks roster reaction, season preview, and bold predictions

Welcome back to another Blackhawks kind of podcast style video. Just lot of chatting today. Uh I have a lot of things to talk about including the final Blackhawks rosters for opening night have been they’ve trimmed the rosters down to 23. So we have the official uh or unofficial technically rosters for the Blackhawks season to start this year. We’ll talk about that first. I also want to just give a little season preview as well as go over some bold predictions. I posted on Twitter at Blackhawks Focus. Asked for some of your guys’s bold predictions. I got 13 bold predictions that I’m going to talk about. Maybe make some of my own as well all in this video. So, a lot to talk about. And I think the first thing to talk about is the final roster cuts. The highlights of this roster cut were Oliver Moore, Ryan Green, and Nolan Allen being sent to the Rockford Ice Hogs, which means the Blackhawks roster for opening night includes Ryan Donado, Connor Bdard, Andre Burkovsky, Tyler Bertuzi, Frank Nazar, Tabo Terrainan, Landon Sligert, Jason Dickinson, Elen McKay, Nick Felino, Colton Doc, Sam Laughaferty, and Lucas Riel as the 13 forwards. And then on the back end, Alex Flix, Sam Renzel, Wyatt Kaiser, Ardum Lefchenov, Connor Murphy, Ethan Damastro, Louis Krevier, and Matt Grizzlick, who was signed today as well, and then Spencer Knight, Arbiter Bloom, uh, in goal. So, as expected, they’re rocking 13 forwards and eight defenseman. Now, Oliver Moore and Ryan Green seem to be the highlighted cuts for me. That was kind of what I was expecting. Now, I was very impressed specifically with Oliver Moore’s camp. I thought he had a really good camp and it was one and it was he made a better impression than I expected. He made a better case from him for himself than I expected uh to make the opening night roster. But all along I really felt like the Frank Nazar path was the most likely for him and was uh will be the best for him and was the most likely for him and that it seems like it’s going to be uh what ends up happening. Now, if he plays like he did throughout camp and throughout the preseason and throughout the prospect showcase down in Rockford, we may be seeing him real soon, especially if there’s any injuries or anything of that sort. But for now, I think the the best I do think it makes sense to have Oliver Moore down in Rockford. Give him a little more development away from the spotlight before you bring him up hopefully fulltime as hopefully this is the only Rockford stint for him. Same goes for Ryan Green, though he might be down there a little bit longer than Moore. I think Moore would be the first to be called up. Blackhawks seem to really liked the current group they have with a lot of veterans in that bottom six still and I think that’s fine a fine way to start off the season. We’ll see just how things develop as the season goes on. But yeah, this was kind of what I was expecting for the forward group to be. The back end though is a little bit more surprising. I was not expecting Nolan Allen to be sent down. I thought he had done enough and I said this in my video last night. I thought he had done enough throughout his final few preseason games and throughout camp to claim and play his way into the sixth defenseman spot, but it doesn’t seem like that’s Well, obviously that’s not going to happen with him being assigned to the AHL Rockford Ice Hogs. Ethan Dastro does make the team though. I’m not sure in what role. It sounds like according to Scott Powers who says that Delastro is only going to play if Alex Vic is not ready. We know Vic’s dealing with the skate cut injury. hopeful for Tuesday, but that may not happen. And if it doesn’t, it sounds like Del Mastro will take his spot in the lineup. He did play with Renzel earlier in the preseason, so they have a little bit of chemistry there. Uh but then it sounds like he’s only going to play uh if Lassic is hurt, so we’ll see what ends up happening there. If he’s if when Vlassic gets back, he’s sent back to the AHL. Not entirely sure how that’s going to go, which um leads me to assume it’s going to be Matt Grizzlick who has claimed the sixth defenseman spot. The Blackhawks signed him off his PTO. I was expecting them to make this signing, but uh not for him to be the sixth defenseman. I was kind of under the assumption he’d just be some added depth. Maybe he got into the lineup if wasn’t ready, but outside of that, he’d be more of an eighth defenseman on the roster. But it sounds like uh he is going to be the sixth defenseman to start the season. Again, I guess nothing’s confirmed. We’ll see on Tuesday and we’ll see as the season gets uh kicks up kicks off where he ends up playing and where Dastro ends up finding himself if he finds a role with the team. Uh it’s really kind of interesting. Still was hoping that we’d or I guess I was assuming that we’d have a little more clarity on this by today, but it seems like we’re going to have to wait till the season kicks off to actually see who ends up claiming their spot and who the standard top six defenseman are. a little surprised that they’re gonna give Grizzlick the shot. I guess they just well obviously Dastro didn’t really seem like he was ready based off the preseason. So maybe they decided maybe they had already decided they wanted Kortinsky Allen to start in the AHL and then Delastro was going to be given the NHL spot, but they just didn’t feel like he was ready. Therefore, Grizzlick steps in. Probably more of a short-term stop gap option until one of the three guys uh I guess prove the ready between Kchinsky, Allen, and D Mastro. I felt like Allan showed enough to be on the NHL roster, but doesn’t feel like the organization thought that way. So, again, just going to kind of see how this develops, but we don’t really have a solidified answer at this moment. There’s still not really an update on Landon Slagert after the game last night. Jeff Blas said that Slagert is dayto-day and that he didn’t think it was too bad, but he’ll know more in the coming days. So, we’ll see what this means for Slagert’s availability on Tuesday. If Sigert’s out, it’s going to be Lucas Reichel that jumps into the lineup, which would be pretty exciting for all his Riel fans. I wasn’t sure if last night’s game was the last one we see uh for Lucas Reichel, but it seems like, especially if Slagger stay right now, the Blackhawks aren’t going to pull the trigger and make a trade um before the start of the season if because Riel may need to play. Reichel made the trip down to Florida. So, um yeah, it seems like he might have a chance to make the opening night lineup after just a crazy camp it’s been. and hopefully he can prove himself a little bit uh to solidify a spot on the team for the uh upcoming weeks I guess cuz it feels like really any day that he could be traded. So again, we’ll keep an eye on Landon Slagger heading into Tuesday’s game. That’s really what the roster looks like. I wouldn’t say anything too surprising ex except how the back end developed. I think the forward group is pretty much exactly as we thought it would be heading into camp. Yeah, really interested to see how uh the defensive pairs are put together for the season here. Speaking of this season, we know the Blackhawks kick off on Tuesday verse Florida. You know, we’ve said it a million times, everyone’s got that game circled on the calendar. Going to be a big one for the Panthers who are doing their banner raising ceremony, but they’re going to be without obviously Alexander Barov and Matthew Chachchuk. So, uh it’s going to be a big game for the Blackhawks, and I think it’s potentially one they can steal at least a point. you know, the the Panthers are short-handed. It’s going to be a game that has a lot of emotion running. And I think if the Blackhawks can come outing, if there’s high energy in the building, which there likely will be, if they can kind of keep things under control for the first period and then start to take over the game as it goes along, I think there is a good chance that they can actually win the game. I don’t think this is far I think this is far from a chocked win for the Panthers. And then the Blackhawks fly to Boston after for a Thursday game. I just can’t I have no idea why they would schedule a Florida to Boston game for the like it just makes absolutely no sense geographically why they would schedule that. But that is what’s on the schedule. So if they could steal a point Tuesday versus at at Florida and then play Boston, which is definitely a winnable game. The Bruins are not going to be as good as in years past this year. They could potentially get three out of four points at least on this two-game road trip to start the season before playing Saturday in Mont versus Montreal in the home opener. So very very excited and hopeful, I guess, to see how this Blackhawks season starts off. But I do want to talk about a little bit of a season preview. I posted on Twitter, like I said, at Blackhawks Focus, some bold predictions. You guys gave me a few good ones to talk about. And I think as I cover these bold predictions, I’ll just give some of my normal predictions for Blackhawks, how they end up in the standings, how some of the players perform, what point totals, how many goals they score, all that kind of sorts. I’ll talk about in this video. I am planning on having a video come out tomorrow, the day before the season kicks off, just giving a little more of a broader NHL standings, awards, points, all that kind of stuff, so I can be on record for any good takes or terrible predictions. We’ll see what happens in that video. But this one’s going to stay Blackhawks focused. And yeah, I think the best way to kind of go over this is to share my thoughts as I go through the bold predictions. Now, some of these predictions that you guys gave me are some are bolder than others. That’s what I’ll say. Some are positive and some are negative. So, I’ll just cover them as I go. And the first one I’m going to start with is from Obie, who says, “Lefer finishes top seven in Calder voting.” Now, I’m going to buy this take from Obie. Now, I think top seven, it’s going to be interesting to see how it all works out cuz there’s a lot of guys who might not not necessarily put up enough points or play good enough to win the Calder Trophy. It feels like there’s a few guys at the top of the list who are kind of competing for the trophy, but there’s a lot of guys that feel like they can get votes and be in the top five, top 10, and Lefchov is one of those players. Now, I do think he can get in the top seven cuz I expect the top three to be some sort of Ivan Demadov, Samron, and Ze Buy. I think those are going to be the top three finishers in Calder voting. Demodav is pretty self-explanatory. He’s just so skilled. should put up pretty good points playing on the second line in Montreal. It kind of feels like he is it’s his award to lose almost. He definitely seems like the favorite right now. And if he puts up a good season, I definitely think he’ll take it home. But if he gets injured, I think guys like Samron and Zeke Buy can snatch the award because both should be getting pretty good ice time. Obviously Samzel, we’ve talked about it for a while. A lot of people have made bold predictions that Sam Renzel wins the Calder that it might not even be a bold prediction anymore cuz it feels like so many people have said it. Uh I know I’ve said it. I said it in my summer preview video with Charlie Romelotus who also said that in that video that Sam Renzel is the dark horse called candidate just cuz he’s going to play so much. We saw what he did in his nineame sample. I think that’s pretty self-explanatory. I definitely think he can make a good push for the top three. Not sure he’s going to win it. probably would take a demade injury or something for him to win it. And I think the other guy that should get pretty good votes is Z Buy of the Minnesota Wild in a relatively similar situation. There are a lot more more proven defenders on the Wild. If you look at Brock Faber and a few other the veterans they have there, but Zoo got called up for the playoffs last year and was playing top pair minutes for the Wild. He was on their first unit power play. So I expect that to carry into this season and for him to get pretty good ice time on a pretty good Minnesota wild team playing on a power play with Kel Capri, Matthew Baldi, Joel Ericson, very good top unit in Minnesota. I think Buum can put up pretty good numbers and get himself into the Calder race for the trophy. I expect those to be the top three in some order. But what Obie’s calling for is top seven for Levinov. And I totally think it’s reasonable. There are, like I said, a lot of guys that could finish in this range. You look at Michael Misa, Isaac Howard, Jimmy Stungarude, Alexander Nikeshan, maybe Ryan Leonard’s really good. Zay Perk feels like he’s in a pretty similar situation to Ardum Levchenov in terms of play time and playing on the second unit power play. And I definitely think Ardum Levino can put up enough points and play well enough to earn a spot in the top seven caller voting. I’m going to buy this take from Obie. definitely think Leanov can have a pretty good year, especially since his defense isn’t really gonna matter when it comes to Calder voting. A lot of it’s just how many points do you put up, whether that’s a good way to vote or a bad way to vote. He should get pretty good ice time in the top four playing on a pretty good pair with Wyatt Kaiser. So, I definitely think Levino can finish in the top seven if he stays healthy. That kind of someone one of those guys feels like it’s going to get injured. There’s going to be a couple guys that get injured that maybe would have finished in the top seven. Um, so really if Leonardov can stay healthy, I do think he can finish in the top seven. Next one from Connor Bard enthusiast who gave me four predictions for this season. Some bolder than others. And the one I’ll start with is the one I basically just talked about which is Renzel top three and Cer voting. Definitely buying this for all the reasons I just gave. The next one however is Frank Nazar breaks out with at least 25 goals. Now Frank Nazar breaking out definitely going to buy that one. I think this is going to be a huge year for Frank Nazar. We’ve seen what he’s done over the last few months, whether that be preseason, world championships, the end of last season. I feel like all signs are pointing towards a big year for Frank Nazar. But does that year include 25 plus goals? I’m going to say yes, it does. I think it’s going to be very close for Nazar. I think he’ll hover around that 25 goal mark. I’m going to say that though that I am going to buy that bull prediction. Nazar had 12 in 53 games last year. So that’s what maybe close to a 20 goal pace and there were so many ten so many chances last year he just could not finish. We’ve seen however already in this preseason he’s had four goals in this preseason it looks like his finishing is better. We know how he ended this season. We know how he played in world championships. He’s playing on probably the Blackhawks best line with Tavo Tervan and Tyler Bertusi and should get time on the first unit power play. I definitely think Nazar can hit this 25 goal mark. I think that’s around the range that he’s going to end up finishing this year. And if he can do that, I certainly think he take that for his first full season. Next one from Conor Bernard Enthusiast says Connor Bernard bounces back. Definitely going to buy this one. We’re all kind of expecting a year three leap for Bernard. Now, how much is that leap? I think if he can get to around the point per game mark, I would say that’s a big bounceback year for Bard and that would really be exactly what you want to see in my opinion. Those are around where my expectations are. If he can get close to point per game, I’d be very very happy with that. Just looking at the line he plays on, it’s still not great. It’s going to be so so hard for him to put up, you know, 90 100 points playing with Ryan Donado and Andre Burikovski. Now, I think those guys are suitable, but you know, when you we’re talking about some of the best production in the NHL, it’s probably not going to happen with guys that are better suited in middle six roles. I still do think though that Baddard is going to improve on his production and I think just his all-around game is going to improve. He looks already to be a little better in the defensive zone under Jeff Blasville. Obviously a super small sample size, but even in training camp just I’ve noticed that his stick is so active on the forche that I think that’s going to generate a ton of steals and turnovers for Bard. He just looks way better in all areas of his game. He looks faster. You know, it just really feels like he is primed for a big gear and every aspect of the game. Definitely going to buy that he bounces back this year. And then the final one from Conor Bard enthusiast says Spencer Knight gets 25 wins. Now this one I am going to sell. I think the Blackhawks as a team will probably get at least 30 wins this year and maybe up to 35 potentially. So that would leave Arvid Soderblum to have 5 to 10 wins on the year. And I still expect Arvid, even though Spencer Knight’s going to be the starter, to get at least 30 starts this season. So for him to only have five to 10 wins, feels kind of unlikely. I feel like Arvid could get at least 10 wins in his 30 or so starts. Maybe realistically 12 or 13 wins in those 30 starts for Arvid. And then even if Spencer Knight’s playing, that’s 50 52 games. For him to get 25 wins and go 500 in that stretch would mean Arvid would have to play decently bad if we’re assuming the Blackhawks jump all the way up to 30 to 35 wins. I don’t know if I explained that the best, but basically I’m going to sell this take. I don’t think the Blackhawks are going to quite win enough for Spencer Knight to get 25 wins, even if he plays decently well. A realistic expectation for Spencer Knight’s probably about 20 wins on the year. Maybe if the Blackhawks are good, he could get close to 25. Uh but that would be the Blackhawks taking a pretty big leap in the standings and I’m just not sure that’s going to happen. I’ll talk about that more in a future bull prediction we have coming up here. I do want to get this one out of the way real quick from Kyle says Nazar scoring 30 plus goals. Since I just kind of talked about this, I expect Nazar to finish around 25 26. I don’t think I’m going to buy this one. I think I am going to sell Nazar hitting 30 plus goals. I don’t want to set the expectations too high. Now, keep in mind I did ask for bold predictions. So, obviously getting a bold prediction here makes sense, but I am going to say sell to this one because I don’t want to set the expectations too high. I think with Frank Nazar, if you can get a 60point season out of him, you’d be thrilled with that in his first full year. that would set him up really well. I mean, Conor Bernard had what, 61 points in his first season. Now, he missed 15 games or so, but still, I mean, Conor Bernard had around 60 points in his season. Frank Nazar, though, he’ll be on a really good a pretty good line, I would say. And he’s shown really good production. I still think 30 goals is a little bit aggressive. Like I said, I think he can flirt around 25, 26 goals this season. Not sure he’s going to get to 30, but I really hope I’m wrong. if he hits 30 goals in his first full year. I mean, we’re looking at a really, really good player here, even though he already is a really good player. And even if he doesn’t hit that, very excited for Nazar. But yeah, I mean, if he could hit 30 goals, that’d be awesome. But I think that is setting the expectations a little bit too high. And I don’t want to be on record saying that I expect 30 plus from Nazar cuz that’s just a little too early for that. Another Spencer Knight one from Calvin who says, “Night will have a 905 save percentage.” This one I’m gonna buy. I think Spencer Knight can get there. Overall on the season, he had a 902 last year and then in his role with the Blackhawks uh since being traded, he was around like a 895 or so. I think having that experience throughout the last month, two months of the season was super valuable for Knight to get kind of experience being a full-time starter and get a little bit of an understanding of the workload and what that entails. I feel like that prepared him pretty well for his first full season as a starter. Now, I don’t think it’s going to be all pretty. It’s definitely going to be some games where he struggles just being a first or full-time starter for the first time in his career. Going to be a little bit difficult. Very happy we have Arvid backing him up who can take 30 35 games uh if need be. But Fortnite, I think, uh I I think about a 905 is a reasonable line to predict. Hopefully in the future we could see him getting a little higher than that. Maybe 910, 915. Um maybe that in the in a few years we could get there, but for this season and his first full season as a starter, I do think a 905 is a pretty realistic mark and definitely one you’d be very happy to get. I am going to buy this take from Calvin. Next hot take I’m going to talk about is from Boosezie. I’m not sure if I said that right, but his take is that they they outshoot their opponents more than five times. Now, this obviously is uh sarcasm, but it is worth talking about. I’m kind of happy someone mentioned something about this because I can’t I do want to talk about it cuz the Blackhawks were outshot so many times last year. I mean, they were I think maybe the worst and shot differential last season. I mean, they averaged 24 and a half shots. I have to imagine that’s among the lowest in the league. Now, I do think there is reason to expect this number to go up and for the shots against to go down. The shots against going down. I think just a new system from Jeff Blast. So, you’re getting some guys there defensively that can hopefully be a little bit better than what we had last year. I mean, it was the first games in the NHL for Ardum Lefnov for Samoa. That was only nine games, but and then you had some of the older veterans like Alec Martinez who’s, you know, was was solid, but I mean, that was the last year of his career. It wasn’t like we’re getting prime Alec Martinez. Way too many games with TJ Brody back there. The first games of Ethan Damastro, Nolan Allen, Louis Crevier. So, it was really not a great backend last year. One that will hopefully be a lot better this year. And you’re just getting a new system. And I’m just really hoping that that can translate to less shots against overall. And then for shots for I think again looking at the back end, it’s going to play a pretty big role in that. you’re adding Sam Renzelle who’s shooting probably like four shots a game I think in this preseason something around there he loves to shoot and then also Ardum Leov also loves to shoot especially on the power play going to be getting a lot more pucks on net just from those guys we’re adding six seven shots per game hopefully we’re not seeing as many Bedar games where he only has one two shots on goal hopefully he’s back to four five or something along there hopefully Frank Nazar shooting more as well I think there’s a lot of players that will hopefully translate to more shots on goal and a lot of reasons why the shots against should be down. So, will they outshoot their opponents more than five times? Yes, I think I will buy that. And I think overall, though it might not be a majority of the time they’re out shooting their opponents, there will be more games this year where that is the case. Now I had one, two, three, four people, five actually say they give the same hot take and that is basically that the Blackhawks finish as the worst team in the league and get Gavin McKenna for next year. Now this take I am going to sell mostly the fact that they have the worst record in the league. I don’t think that’s going to happen. I don’t expect them to have the worst record in the league. I do expect them to jump in the standings from 61 points last season to around 70, maybe even close to 75 points. Probably around 70 72 is my expectation for this season. I just think really everybody on the roster should be better than they were last season. Especially the young guys. We’re getting full seasons out of San Renzelle, out of Ardum Leonoff. White Kaiser looks so much better just to heading into this season and this is going to be his first year in a full-time NHL role. You have another year of Alex Vlastic. You have, you know, Conor Murphy steady on that third pair. You have much better goalendering this year. Last year heading into the season with Peter Morazzic. Well, now you have Spencer Knight as your 1A. Arvid showed a lot better or a lot more growth last season than his disastrous year before. So you have more reason to believe he can be a really steady backup slash1B option for you this year. And then on the forward group, you’re hoping Bard there’s a lot more progression from him. Full season of Frank Nazar. He looks like he’s going to be a huge factor. You did add Andre Burkovsky. That’s, you know, not the best topline option, but he’s still a solid player that’s in competitive teams, middle six. And then as the season progresses, we should see Oliver Moore get called up and have an NHL role. Maybe Ryan Green towards the back end of the season also gets into the lineup. So, a lot of reason to believe. Plus the new coach bump. I even almost forgot to mention that. That’s going to translate to at least a few more wins. New systems cleaning up and just the Jeff Blash coach bump. All of that should translate to multiple more wins this season. That’s why my expectation is about a 10-point jump in the standings this year, which would definitely not be the worst team in the league. I definitely expect San Jose. I I don’t know why people expect San Jose to be so good. I’ll talk about this in my NHL standings prediction video tomorrow, but I’m not expecting a huge San Jose jump. That defense is just terrible still. Seattle, I don’t think is going to be that good. Nashville, I think, could finish below the Blackhawks this year. Pittsburgh could definitely finish below the Blackhawks cuz once we get into the second half of the season, they are going to be tanking for Gavin McKenna. Philly, I’m not sure. They jump too much. I think Boston, maybe even Buffalo. I I just hope for the Buffalo Sabres fans that their team can be better. But uh maybe they fall in the standings or something. Uh we’ll really see. I think there are a lot more teams though that are going to be worse and below the Blackhawks in the standings, which is why I do expect them to not be the worst team in the league. And I am expecting maybe 71 72 points on the season. Now I think best case scenario is we do see a jump about 10 maybe 12 13 points and then you still have relatively decent lottery odds to potentially jump up. I mean we saw the New York Islanders get the first pick this year with whatever super low odds they had. So you still want to be eligible to jump up for J for Gavin McKenna in this draft. And if you can do that uh just have some type of odds I think it’s still a successful season. You want to see growth. Obviously, Gavin McKenna looks unreal. You know, you already have the connection there to Conor Bard, but also it would be pretty disheartening to see the Blackhawks have another terrible year when the expectations within the organization is that they do improve at least to a scale. Now, on the flip side, the last bold take I have here comes from Fernando, who says, “Playoffs, question mark. I’d like to see us sneak in.” And I’m really happy someone left this bold prediction cuz I definitely wanted to talk about this. Now, obviously, playoffs are very unlikely for this year, right? I just gave my expectation at about 71 72 points. And to make the playoffs, you’re going to need about 95 94 at least to sneak in. I mean, the Calgary Flames missed with 96 points last season. So, you’re going to need at least, you know, 25 points, which is like 12 or 13 more wins than already expected to make the playoffs. Very, very unlikely. But I guess I will throw out a few reasons why, you know, there is a world where it happens. Again, very unlikely, but it’s not completely out of the question like it was last year or the year before. There is this the off chance that they’re super ahead of schedule. Uh, but what would need to happen for this? Well, one, Connor Bugard will need that 90 plus point season that I said was very unlikely just a few minutes ago. He’s going to need to be unreal and really carrying the forward group. Him and Frank Nazar. Frank Nazar is going to have to drive that second line, which honestly looks like a pretty good line with Terravana number two. That’s going to have to be an unreal second line driven by Frank Nazar to have a competent top six that is providing enough offense for a team to be a playoff team. That’s definitely going to have to happen. The third line’s going to have to be what Jeff Blastill is calling it, the shutdown line. that is going to have to be a lockdown defensive line that could potentially have some scoring upside especially with basically with Elia McKay of my guy could provide a little bit of scoring there and quite honestly I think what would have to happen is Oliver Moore gets called up and plugged into that third line spot which would take that line from where it is now to just another level having Oliver Moira with Elia McKay would be a really nice combo of elite speed creating what would be a decent top nine and if everybody’s performing ing above expectations. That’s a that could potentially be a team that pushes for a wild card spot if everything is going right. Then on top of that, the back end’s going to have to be unreal. Sanzel, he’s going to have to play like we saw in those nine games and probably be the caller front runner carrying a top pair with Alex Vic uh creating one of the better top pairs in the league. That was is what will have to kind of happen in order for the Blackhawks to be a playoff team. Renzell’s going to have to be the Calder front runner kind of like Brock Faber was a few years ago where he’s playing that these top minutes on a team that is a realistic playoff team. That’s basically going to be the season Renzel has to have. Left’s going to be have to be way ahead of schedule defensively because I mean we’ve already seen this preseason and still making some defensive mistakes. Still not quite there defensively which obviously is okay. Um but if we’re going to be a playoff team that’s going to have to get cleaned up quickly. White Kaiser is going to have to play, I mean, really just as good as I’ve seen him play in practices throughout training camp. He looks, like I said, unreal to start this season, but that’s gonna have to be a top four that is playing like veterans, even though they’re all pretty young guys. And that third pair is going to have to be a shutdown pair. Conor Murphy is very good defensively, and whoever ends up slotting in next to him is going to have to be very steady and holding their own defensively in order to create a competent playoff potential decor. And that end goal. Probably the biggest factor is going to be Spencer Knight playing like the first round pick Spencer Knight when he was drafted top 15 overall. Talking probably 912 to 915 safe percentage out of Spencer Knight. And Arvid’s going to have to carry his own as the 1B option. That’s really what it’s going to have to take. The special teams as well are going to have to play really good. the penalty kills going to be as good if just as Jeff Blau is hoping it will be. The power play is going to have to be top 10 in the league. A lot of stuff has to go right for the Blackhawks to be super ahead of schedule and make a push for the playoffs. But I do say there is a world where it happens. There are a lot of players on this roster that when the Blackhawks are have playoff expectations are still going to be the same players on the roster. I mean, you look at the top four decor. I mean, in 3, four years, that’s probably not going to change at all. It’s probably going to be the same guys. So, really, we’re just talking these guys are going to have to be playing like they’re have 3 to four years of experience and growth in the league, which, you know, obviously is very unlikely, which is why this is very unlikely. And it’s not a bad thing if they’re not there yet, because, you know, there’s still young players in the league and to get that experience, you have to get the experience. So, uh, there’s reasons why it’s very unlikely, especially because the top end of the forward group is kind of lacking outside of Conor Bard. Not sure they’re going to they’re just really not going to be able to generate enough offense this season to make to be a playoff team, but on the off chance that it happens, it’s just they’re kind of going to have to be carried by some of the star young guys like Bernard and Frank Nazar, as well as get very good goalending. But again, I’ll throw it out there cuz there is a world where it happens. But my expectations are around 70 to 75 points, which is still pretty far from a playoff spot. But thank you, Fernando, for throwing that into the bold predictions cuz I definitely did want to talk about the potential that it could happen. I mean, just look at the NBA champion OKC Thunder here. Uh they brought home the trophy as the one of the youngest teams, if not the youngest team in the league. So, they were super ahead of schedule. Obviously, it’s a different sport, but it definitely does happen. Thank you to everybody who left a bold prediction under my tweet. Again, Blackhawks focus. We’ll probably do some more interactive tweets. I mean, all my tweets are interactive. If you have any Blackhawks thoughts ever, definitely reply, share your thoughts with me. I read every reply, but Blackhawks focus. Thank you for everyone who left a bull prediction. I was able to cover, you know, your guys’ bull predictions. Also, kind of give my standings preview for the Blackhawks and some of my expectations for this year. I do want to kind of close out this video um with my personal bull predictions. Now, I’m not going to tweet these out or anything, so these are YouTube exclusive. If you’re if you’re watching this late into the video, you get my exclusive bowl predictions for this season. And the first one I’m going to do here, and this is a pretty hot prediction, is that Tavo Terrainan sets a careerhigh in points this year. His care his previous careerhigh was 76 in the 20189 season with Carolina. I think he could beat that and get close to 80 points on the season this year. First off, like I said, he’s playing on right now to start the season the Blackhawk’s best overall line with Frank Nazar and Tyler Bertusi. Nazar looks so good to start the season. He’s shown a ton of goal scoring and I think him playing off of Terrain who’s just such a good playmaker would be really good. You also have Tyler Batuzzi on that line who’s another really good goal scorer. So Tavo being the playmaker on a line with two guys that can score. Frank Nazar who can really drive play up the middle with his speed. I think that’s a really good scoring line and one that Tavo could benefit on. On top of that, you know, he’s playing on the top power play unit with Connor Baddard who they’ve shown really good chemistry on that power play last season. And I think if we’re expecting a year three leap from Bard in some fashion, that’s going to come with more power play points. And if Conor Bernard scoring on the power play, if Sam Renzel’s, you know, facilit facilitating play as the power play quarterback as opposed to, you know, Alex Lassik, it was last year or at some points. I mean, I guess this was the second unit, but Alec Martinez was quarterbacking power play. So, now that you have Sam Renzel up there, I think that’s going to make for a much better power play. You still have Tyler Batuzzi in front of the net. You have a full season with Frank Nazar also on that first unit. And then Table is just they were kind of being hit the savvy veteran just facilitating play setting up Baddard setting up Nazar working off of Sanzel. I think all this stuff is going to translate for a very big Terra Vining year and my bold prediction is that he does set a new careerhigh in points this season coming off a 58 point season last year. I think we could see potentially now again it’s a bold prediction but I think there’s a world where we could see a 20 point increase from Terravana. My next bull prediction, I’m not sure how hot this one is. Maybe you think it’s really hot, maybe you don’t, but it’s going to be Wyatt Kaiser scoring 30 plus points on the season. Now, last year he played in 57 games and had a career-high eight points. Now, the Blackhawks top scoring defenseman last year was Alex Flick with 30 points. Keep in mind, he was playing top Unic power play and he was the, you know, number one defenseman by far on the team. So for Kaiser, who’s not going to be on the power play because that’s Fenzel in Lechanov’s spots. For him to get 30 plus points, I feel like that is pretty bull. But I just love Kaiser’s play so much. He moves just so well and he looks so much better to start this season. I like I said earlier in this video, I’m expecting a big year from Kaiser and 30 plus points. I think it’s in the realm of possibility. Now, obviously probably unlikely, but I mean Conor Murphy got 19 points last year and that’s a defensive focused defenseman. I think Kaiser has a lot of offense and playmaking to his game playing with Ardum Lechinov who they seem to be a really good pair. I think there’s a world where Kaiser does finish with 30 plus points if he plays a full healthy season. Then my final bull prediction for the Blackhawks this season is that Colton Doc finishes top 10 in the NHL in hits. Now, for a little context, number 10 last year was Marcus Felino, who had 253 hits, and on average, that is 3.1 hits per game over a full 82 game season. I feel like Colton Doc can do that if he stays healthy over the season. We saw him get hurt last season. Really hoping for a full healthy season from him, but this is someone that we’ve seen in pretty much every game he’s played. Average four, five hits per game. even throughout this preseason. That’s what we’ve seen from Colton Doc. So, I think if he can stay healthy that he can be in the top 10 leaders for hits with his scoring upside. He’s a really intriguing bottom six option for the future. Very excited to see Colton Doc this year. I’ve said a lot of good things about him this preseason. That’s going to be my third and final bull prediction for the Blackhawks this season. looking a little bit more at a player perspective, not as much as a team bowl prediction. But I guess on that topic, I’ll throw out a overall team bowl prediction. And I think that is that the Blackhawks power play and penalty kill both finished in the top 10 across the league. Now, they were pretty close, if not they did this last season. I should actually probably fact check that. They had the number seven power play last year, but the number 14 penalty kills. So, I think they could finish top 10 in both categories this year. I feel like the power play only got better heading into this season with more weapons. Uh you look at the first unit which remains pretty good except now you have an actual quarterback in Sam Renzel and a full season of Frank Nazar. And then on the second unit it took drastic upgrades. I mean I honestly can’t believe they were number seven last year with Craig Smith, Pat Maroon, and Alec Martinez on the second unit. Replaced those guys with Ryan Donado, Andre Burkovsky. Well, Donado was probably already on that second unit, but you know what I mean. like with Burkovsky, with Ardum Lechinov at the point, I think the second unit got a ton better and the first unit should progress as well, especially with Sam Renzelle manning the top unit. So, I think the power play stays top 10. And then with the new penalty kill system and just with some of the assets they have, you look at a full season of Frank Nazar on the penalty kill specifically. And then keep in mind we have Jason Dickinson, Elia McKayv, Turbo Terra Deinan is also a really good penalty killer once Oliver Moore gets called up which should happen at some point this season. He’ll be on the penalty kill as well. So I feel like there’s a lot more weapons on the penalty kill that complement Jeff Blasill’s new PK system pretty well. And I definitely could see this PK unit being top 10 in the league, which would make the power play and penalty kill both top 10. That will be my overall team bowl prediction. So, there’s four YouTube exclusive bowl predictions. And I think that’s going to wrap up my video. Planning on making an overall NHL standings prediction, awards predictions, all of that sorts tomorrow. Not sure if I’m going to be able to get that video out though cuz uh we are really close to the Blackhawks uh opening nights here on Tuesday. But I think that’s going to wrap this one up. I feel like I gave a pretty good season prediction, covered a lot of bold predictions, and kind of recaped the roster, a little bit of the preeason. You know, I don’t know if I really need to talk too much more about the preseason. You guys have seen from the game recap videos we’ve done throughout the past few weeks. I’ve talked about the preseason probably way too much. Ready for some regular season hockey, which is on the way. But yeah, I think that’s going to wrap this video up. Thank you for watching and we’ll see you very

X/Twitter: @BlackhawksFocus
Email: blackhawksfocus@gmail.com

Blackhawks roster reaction, season preview, and bold predictions