Ben Pope of the Chicago Sun-Times: Goaltending is going to be Chicago Blackhawks GM Stan Bowman’s top priority this offseason.
“That’s a top priority, getting goaltending situated for next year,” he said. “But I don’t have that mapped out right now.”
Ideally, re-signing Corey Crawford to a deal in the $3 to $4 million range would work for the Blackhawks.
UFAs Robin Lehner, Braden Holtby and Jacob Markstrom will likely cost too much. Other options could be Thomas Greiss, Cam Talbot or Anton Khudobin.
Tracey Myers of NHL.com: Chicago Blackhawks pending free agent goaltender Corey Crawford plans on meeting with GM Stan Bowman this week to talk about his future.
“Going into the meeting, that’s the main thing is to win a championship, to play, to be the main guy and play a lot,” Crawford said. “Salary, that can be discussed. That’s something that is not as important at this time. We’ll see how those discussions go.”
The 35-year old isn’t sure how much longer he wants to play, so a short-term deal makes, but he could change his mind.
“I change my mind pretty quick. I could turn around and say, ‘Let’s sign something longer, three or four years,’ and maybe they decide, ‘OK, let’s do that.’ Until we talk and really discuss all the options, it’s really hard to say right now.”
Ben Pope of the Chicago Sun-Times: Playing time is going to be more important that salary for Corey Crawford going forward.
“I don’t know where our cap is,” Crawford said. “We have a bunch of guys we need to sign. That’s something that we’ll discuss in our meetings with Stan. But definitely I’m leaning toward staying in Chicago.
“I don’t want to play half the games and sit on the bench for stretches at a time. My value is just not as good doing that. I’m way more valuable playing games and playing consistently. It really depends on how much I’m going to be used. Salary, that can be discussed. That’s something that is not as important at this time.”
The Chicago Blackhawks have other pending free agents in Dominik Kubalik, Dylan Strome, Drake Caggiula, Slater Koekkoek and Malcolm Subban. Crawford knows that deal may not happen right away.
“I don’t know how much is going to get done right away,” he said. “I assume things will happen closer to next season. So it’s going to be a waiting game.”
