TSN: The Chicago Blackhawks have let it be known that they are rebuilding their roster, but what will it mean to their core that has been there for a while now. They’ve already been rebuilding but now they put it out there according to Pierre LeBrun.
“And the fact is they want to continue to get younger and accumulate other young players. But when it comes to Patrick Kane, Jonathan Toews, Brent Seabrook and Duncan Keith, they want those guys to be part of this rebuild.
In fact, general manager Stan Bowman had a video call a few days ago with those four to further explain where the Blackhawks are going and what they plan to do. Now, we’ll see how those players react.
At this point we haven’t heard from them and they’ve got time to digest this during the off-season but certainly the Blackhawks want those players, those veterans to be part of this rebuild. We’ll see where that goes.”
Ben Pope of the Chicago Sun-Times: Chicago Blackhawks GM Stan Bowman on their youth movement.
“We’re probably going to go with a smaller number of veterans, relative to some teams of the past,’’ Bowman said. ‘‘We’re going to skew on the younger side, but it’s not an all-or-nothing endeavor. We’re trying to surround those guys with a better supporting cast.”
Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane and Duncan Keith will remain with the team for the foreseeable future. It also sounds like most of their offseason change may be already done with.
‘‘We were at the top of the mountain for a while,’’ Bowman said. ‘‘There’s peaks and valleys to an organization’s life cycle, and I like to think that we’ve already hit that valley and come back up. We’ve got a ways to go still, but I do think we’re heading back up.’’