The Chicago Blackhawks haven’t made any major moves before the trade deadline yet, and it doesn’t sound like captain Jonathan Toews is pushing to change that. When asked about the Wild’s big addition of Martin Hanzal following the Blackhawks’ win over the Blues on Sunday night, Toews said he “loved” the Hawks’ current roster.
“I love our group,” Toews said, via CSN Chicago’s Tracey Myers. “Everyone is getting better individually, contributing more and more, and it’s a lot of fun to see the way we’re playing right now. We know that the ceiling is way higher and we can keep getting better, too.”
The Blackhawks have won nine of their past 10 games, and the re-emergence of Toews as a premier scoring threat has been a big part of it. The center has returned to form with Nick Schmaltz and Richard Panik on his line, which comes after he hinted to reporters a couple weeks ago that the team needed stability to build chemistry.
Now we’re seeing signs that patience is paying off, and Toews probably doesn’t want to screw it up by adding outside pieces. The Blackhawks are already starting to look like Stanley Cup contenders, and that’s with a roster full of rookies like Schmaltz who have made big progress since October.
Toews doesn’t ultimately make the roster decisions — GM Stan Bowman does — but you know he has the ear of the organization’s top officials. And with the team’s confidence seemingly growing by the day, it’s getting harder to envision a scenario where the Blackhawks pull the trigger on a game-changing move.