The new Blackhawks look sorta like the old Blackhawks, which is good because those teams ruled. Chicago got off to a stunning start to the 2017-18 season Thursday with a 10-1 win over the defending champion Penguins.
That’s the Hawks’ highest-scoring game since October 1988, which is before Patrick Kane was even born. He had four points against Pittsburgh as the second line skated circles around the defense.
There are 12 new players on the Blackhawks’ roster for the 2017-18 season, which is a serious overhaul from the past season. Eight of those players were in the lineup for the season opener.
With that in mind, here’s a run down of how every member of this year’s team was acquired. This will presumably be familiar stuff to those who follow the team super closely, especially during offseasons, but it’s a good resource to have now that we have an initial data point indicating this team might kick ass. We’ll sort this by type of transaction.
Draft picks
Duncan Keith: 2002, second round, No. 54 overall
Brent Seabrook: 2003, first round, No. 14 overall
Corey Crawford: 2003, second round, No. 52 overall
Jonathan Toews: 2006, first round, No. 3 overall
Patrick Kane: 2007, first round, No. 1 overall
Ryan Hartman: 2013, first round, No. 30 overall
John Hayden: 2013, third round, No. 74 overall
Nick Schmaltz: 2014, first round, No. 20 overall
Alex DeBrincat: 2016, second round, No. 39 overall
Trades
Gustav Forsling: From Vancouver, Jan. 29, 2015 (Clendening deal)
Artem Anisimov: From Columbus, June 30, 2015 (Saad deal)
Richard Panik: From Toronto, Jan. 3, 2016 (Morin deal)
Brandon Saad: From Columbus, June 23, 2017 (Panarin deal)
Anton Forsberg: From Columbus, June 23, 2017 (Panarin deal)
Connor Murphy: From Arizona, June 23, 2017 (Hjalmarsson deal)
Free agent signings
Tanner Kero: Two-year contract, April 2, 2015
Michal Kempny: One-year contract, May 24, 2016
Jan Rutta: One-year contract: June 7, 2017
Patrick Sharp: One-year contract, July 1, 2017
Lance Bouma: One-year contract, July 1, 2017
Tommy Wingels: One-year contract, July 1, 2017
Jordan Oesterle: Two-year contract, July 1, 2017
Cody Franson: One-year contract, Oct. 4, 2017
The most interesting thing here, at least to me, is seeing the generational gap in their draft picks. You have the longtime core of Toews, Kane, Crawford, Keith, and Seabrook drafted from 2002-07, then nobody over a six-year span with the exception of Saad, who had to be traded then re-acquired. Everyone else had to go for one reason or another.
But now with this new group of forwards in Schmaltz, Hartman, Hayden, and DeBrincat leading the way, the Blackhawks appear to have their next key group of homegrown players. It’s cool to see those two sides coming together after years of wondering whether the team would be able to pull off a relatively smooth transition to younger guys. There have been bumps — where’s my boy Teuvo at?!? — and there will be more, but it’s working for the most part.