For two and a half decades, the Detroit Red Wings were the gold standard of hockey. They made the playoffs 25 years in a row from 1990-2016 and, over that span, went to eight Western Conference Finals, appeared in six Stanley Cup Finals and won four of them.
Perhaps the most impressive part is the fact the Red Wings didn't skip a beat when the salary cap was introduced during the 2005-06 season. They replenished their core group multiple times and went from one Hall of Fame coach (Scotty Bowman) to another (Mike Babcock).
But the circle of life in the salary cap world has finally caught up to the Red Wings, who are in a full-on rebuild and on the verge of missing the playoffs for the fourth straight season. They're on pace to finish with only 45 points. To put that into perspective, the Blackhawks are currently sitting at 42 points. And there are still 40 games left.
The Blackhawks were the baby brother to the Red Wings in the Central Division for a long time before taking control of the entire NHL in 2009, which was the start of a stretch where the Blackhawks made the playoffs nine years in a row, reached the Western Conference Final five times and won three Stanley Cups. They followed the path of the Red Wings.
But now the Blackhawks find themselves at a similar crossroads as their longtime rivals. Do they try keeping the window open with this core group for as long as possible or revamp the roster to the point where starting from scratch makes more sense?
The Blackhawks are stuck in between.
Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews are still at the top of their games at age 31. Duncan Keith is 36 but has a lot of good hockey left in him. Corey Crawford just turned 35, but Robin Lehner is the perfect successor and he’s only 28.
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When the Red Wings made the playoffs one final time before it ended in 2016-17, Pavel Datsyuk was 37, Henrik Zetterberg was 35 and Niklas Kronwall was 35. Zetterberg led the team with 50 points with Datsyuk right behind at 49. Dylan Larkin was the only prospect the Red Wings could feel good about as a potential franchise-changer and he was 19 at the time. It was time for the organization to tear it down and it was probably long overdue, but the playoff streak became important to the franchise.
The Blackhawks aren’t there yet. And even if they wanted to, it would be difficult to execute a rebuild because of all the player-controlled contracts.
The Blackhawks are fortunate to be in a position where they have a couple of promising young players in Adam Boqvist and Kirby Dach, both of whom have grown into larger roles during their rookie season as teenagers. They are part of the next core, along with Alex DeBrincat and Dylan Strome, both of whom are 22. The organization should feel good about that.
But right now the Blackhawks should be maximizing what this current group can do without taking away from the long-term developments of their new core because at some point they're hoping the veterans performing at a high level will coincide with the younger players hitting their prime. And that’s what they’re trying to do, which makes the city of Chicago impatient with the Blackhawks in danger of missing the playoffs for the third straight season.
It might not get as dark as the Red Wings anytime soon, but the Blackhawks don't have to look very far to see what it could look like if their tires keep spinning without going forward.
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