Blackhawks general manager Stan Bowman joined the latest episode of NBC Sports Chicago's Blackhawks Talk Podcast and laid out what's happening in the Hawks' current rebuilding process.
So far this offseason, Bowman and the team have parted with two-time Stanley Cup champs Corey Crawford and Brandon Saad and acquired players like defenseman Nikita Zadorov and forwards Mattias Janmark and Lucas Wallmark.
On Tuesday, the Blackhawks released a letter to fans aiming to provide transparency on the direction in which the franchise is headed.
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One excerpt from it read as follows:
"We’re committed to developing young players and rebuilding our roster. We want more than another window to win; we want to reach the summit again, and stay there — an effort that will require a stockpile of emerging talent to complement our top players. The influx of youth and their progression will provide roster flexibility and depth throughout our lineup."
Bowman expanded on the direction of the team and if it qualifies as a rebuild on the podcast.
"When you say 'rebuild', you're thinking, 'Let's take all the pieces we have, let's move them out, let's kind of bring it back to nothing and then start it back up.' That's not a realistic thing really in the NHL today. It may happen in other sports, but because of the way our sport is lined up with the salary cap that's just not something that really any team would endeavor to do.
NHL
"There's probably elements of that, I think we are going to certainly go younger but that doesn't mean we're just going to have a team of 22-year-old players. There's going to be a combination of veteran players and young players.
"I think if anything, we need to support the veterans more than we have. They're still high-end players, but they don't have the surrounding pieces that they had before, and instead of trying to put more and more and more on their backs, we're actually trying to distribute the load amongst a larger group. We don't have enough of those yet. ... We need more depth throughout our lineup. But the way to get that is we're going to develop it."