The Blackhawks’ rebuild has a green light at last.
Longtime veteran goaltender Corey Crawford won’t return to the Hawks next season, general manager Stan Bowman announced Thursday, and Crawford’s departure may soon be followed by a number of other veterans.
The Hawks, after three straight seasons of losing records with their aging Stanley Cup dynasty core, have committed to building through youth moving forward.
“Next year’s different,” Bowman said. “We’re going to have a different emphasis and we’re going to have new players coming. We’re not really looking back. We’re looking forward to where we want to get to, and we’re going to build something exciting.”
Crawford, 35, has started 473 games for the Hawks and won two Cups as the team’s primary starting goalie dating to 2010-11.
#crOwMG Forever. pic.twitter.com/gLuSq0bJtS
— Chicago Blackhawks (@NHLBlackhawks) October 8, 2020
But he’ll become an unrestricted free agent Friday at 11 a.m., joining a loaded class of free-agent goalies. Bowman said he had an emotional conversation with Crawford on Thursday morning about the departure.
“He’s up there with the legends of the Blackhawks. Corey stands tall as a two-time Cup champion,” Bowman said. “The message to Corey and everyone else today is that we’ve decided that we’ve got some goaltenders here in Chicago that we believe in.
“The NHL is relying more and more on young players. We’re gonna embrace that moving forward.”
The Hawks will turn to Collin Delia, 26, and Kevin Lankinen, 25 — two of the best AHL goaltenders over the past few seasons — to take over the goaltending duties at the NHL level. They’re also still hoping to re-sign Malcolm Subban, 26, despite not tendering him a qualifying offer Wednesday.
With the salary cap staying flat for next season due to the coronavirus pandemic, the space-strapped Hawks and Crawford had reportedly not seen eye-to-eye during earlier contract negotiations. Crawford made $6 million annually during his expiring contract and expected a slight decrease, but the Hawks were allegedly offering barely half that.
Bowman nonetheless insisted Thursday that the decision to move on from Crawford was more about organizational direction than contract disagreements.
That indicates numerous other long-tenured and/or important players could also be on the move soon.
“Now that we’ve made the decision the way that we’re going to move forward [with youth], there’s going to be a lot more things that we’re going to talk about over the coming days as far as planning next year’s team,” Bowman said.
Bowman avoided explicitly labeling the Hawks’ new approach as a full-on rebuild, but made it clear this represents a “philosophical” shift in team-building.
The Hawks have shopped Brandon Saad a moderate amount in recent weeks, with The Athletic’s Pierre LeBrun reporting that the Avalanche and Bruins have shown particular interest. The 27-year-old play-driving wing could fetch an impressive package of picks and prospects in exchange.
Other useful veterans like Calvin de Haan, 29, and Connor Murphy, 27, could also potentially be used as trading chips, though no definitive rumors have aired about either of them so far this offseason.
Meanwhile, the likes of Patrick Kane, Jonathan Toews and Duncan Keith — the other core members on the same level as Crawford — remain likely still safe, but may be less untouchable than before.
This story will be updated.
