Dale Weise doesn’t look back fondly at his time with the Chicago Blackhawks. The veteran forward, who spent a few months with the Hawks last season, says that stint was a “disaster” because he was unhappy with his playing time under coach Joel Quenneville.
“I had 14 goals by mid-February,” Weise said in an interview with Philly.com. “Going to Chicago was a disaster because I played like five minutes a night. [Actually it was just under 10 minutes, which is still a paltry average.] It’s pretty tough to do anything when you play so little. It was a new experience for me.”
Weise bounced in and out of the lineup in Chicago following a midseason trade with the Canadiens that sent young forward Phillip Danault and a second-round pick to Montreal for Weise and Tomas Fleischmann. The move was designed to solidify the Hawks’ bottom six for another playoff run, but Quenneville never seemed to warm up to his newest additions. Weise averaged over 14 minutes per game in Montreal, but that dipped below 10 in Chicago (when he wasn’t scratched entirely). In hindsight, it’s one of GM Stan Bowman’s most puzzling deals.
The frustration from Weise is understandable. He was a soon-to-be free agent in the middle of a solid season with the Habs when he got dealt to Chicago, which was supposed to give him a role on a Cup contender. Instead, the Hawks often used other forwards despite giving up major assets for Weise, then they got eliminated in the first round of the postseason. The 28-year-old had just one assist in 15 regular season games and one goal in four playoff games (he was scratched for three others).
Weise ended up signing a four-year, $9.4 million deal with the Flyers over the summer, so all is not lost. But if you were considering the possibility of a Weise-Blackhawks reunion anytime in the near future, I wouldn’t bank on it.