The 2019-20 Blackhawks, while far removed in terms of success, were still built around the remaining framework of the 2015 Stanley Cup team.
The 2021 Hawks, while winning games more like the 2015 team, are fundamentally not.
And thus, when hockey historians and fans alike look back on the Hawks’ most recent dynasty era, the would-have-been NHL season of 2020-21 — starting in October and running through April — will be remembered as the time the page turned on the Hawks’ old core.
Brent Seabrook’s Friday retirement, albeit 15 months after what turned out to be his final game, cements that guard-changing even further.
In October, Brandon Saad was traded to the Avalanche and Corey Crawford’s contract was not renewed. In December, Jonathan Toews began his leave of absence, which looks increasingly likely to last the duration of the 2021 season and indefinitely longer.
In January, Crawford abandoned his short-lived stint with the Devils and retired. In February, Andrew Shaw tragically suffered yet another concussion, putting the future of his career seriously in doubt. And so far in March, Seabrook and Shaw have both moved to Long-Term Injured Reserve.
General manager Stan Bowman, one constant through all of the Hawks’ modern chapters, gave a less-than-optimistic update on Shaw’s status Friday.
“First and foremost, I’m just concerned about him to make sure he gets himself in a better place,” Bowman said. “When he feels better, we’ll have a better feeling if he’s going to be returning to play or not. That’ll come from him and the doctors.”
But Bowman also reflected on the overall trend of the Hawks’ old core aging or injuring out, just in time for the youth to move in.
“I was thinking of that yesterday,” he said. “The number of guys that were here, it’s dwindling... I guess it shows time’s passing and we’re all getting a little bit older. But it was a pretty special ride with that group that was with us for a long time.”
Patrick Kane and Duncan Keith remain the two championship-era pillars still going strong. At 32, Kane seems to have only improved with age; he could very easily win his second career Hart Trophy this season. 37-year-old Keith appears to have at least another year or two left in him, too.
Nonetheless, the Hawks have gone from seven 2015 holdovers as of last season down to, at the moment, two holdovers playing presently.
And while Teuvo Teravainen, Niklas Hjalmarsson, Antti Raanta and Saad remain not only active but impactful players on other teams, even more members of the 2015 bunch — from Marian Hossa to Patrick Sharp, Johnny Oduya to Kris Versteeg — had already retired before the past six months.
“It’s strange, it is,” Bowman said. “Those players have been fixtures for a long time and they’ve brought us some tremendous memories. That’s something that can’t be taken away, and we’ll always be tied together for those great years as a group.”
These Hawks just aren’t those Hawks anymore.
These Hawks are turning out to be pretty good, though — and if the Hawks hope to enter another championship era soon, this was clearly the right way to go.
Equating the franchise’s “new core” of Alex DeBrincat, Kirby Dach, Ian Mitchell, Adam Boqvist and Kevin Lankinen, surrounded by important role players like Dominik Kubalik, Dylan Strome, Philipp Kurashev, Brandon Hagel and Nicolas Beaudin, to the early days of the Toews-Kane-Keith-Seabrook-Crawford era might be slightly premature.
The comparisons are readily apparent, though. As the chapter finally, officially, fully turns from one to the other in 2021, even the old guys see the Hawks’ future coming into focus.
“Throughout the lineup, everyone’s pulling on that rope,” Seabrook said. “The last couple of years, it’s been tough around here. And this team is having fun. They’re enjoying it, they’re in every game and they’re competing.”
