Mart 'Dead Clown' Kuula moves to Chicago

[kuulapaa]

Sep 15, 2046

Offseason 2046 was not a big success to Blackhawks. We didn't get the players we wanted from the draft – alto we got a few nice prospects there so it was not a total disaster either. We didn't sign a single UFAs but that's mostly because we didn't make any serious attempts to sign one either. There was no-one there available that would have interested us enough.

Season 2045-46 was very promising to Blackhawks organization. The young team in the beginning of it's rebuild process was deemed as the dead last in the Season Preview. As we ended up as 18th in the league and nearly made the PO's I'll have to say I was very happy with my team and how it was playing most of the season. And so was the Board too. Now we are in the search of a 1st line center but it seems to be quite dry on that front in the league right now. I have tweaked the roster a bit from last season and we're going to see some exciting rookies trying to make an effort again, especially in offense. Our defense will be quite the same than in last season, as well as goaltending where Kopecky will now take full responsibility leaving Viitanen as a backup goalie.

Defense pairings will look like this:

Belousov – Lemieux
Brännström – Howe
McConnell – Lynch
Bisofs
(Marois)

Marois who played for us whole last season is going to be sent down to AHL this season.

Our offensive lines are planned to be something like this in the season opener:

Burt – Ford – Mason
O'Sullivan – Lönn – Bäckström
Norberg – Charbonneau – Matuszewski
Korolev – Gibson – Rogers
(Murtaugh – Heerema – Kames)

Norberg and Korolev are the rookies in the roster and Murtaugh, Heerema and Kames are the ones that are seeking for an opportunity to break in. Most probably Murtaugh and Heerema will spend coming season in Juniors though.

In the Training Camp the Hawks' staff is eager to see some other prospects from last draft in action too. Especially talented LD Valdemar Neckar, #1 prospect Santtu Kinnunen and C/RW Lars Johan Oscarsson who played well in recent Tournament for Sweden U20 team are the ones under great interest.

In a press conference before the Training Camp Hawks GM said that the roster is far from ready still. ”The search for improvement is constant as the team needs to go further this season” announced the GM.

[kuulapaa]

2047 4th Jun

The season

Hawks was ranked as 23rd in the season preview. That suited the team well as we perform best as an underdog. That's what happened this time too, especially the 1st half of the season team played well.

In November the team suffered from some injuries. Especially a long term injury of our #1 defenseman Vasili Belousov (partially torn ACL, 3 months) hurt us badly. At the same time there were some other lesser injuries and that all had an effect on our game.

Hawks pace slowed down on the latter half of the season. On trade deadline some of our rival teams succeeded to get their game together whereas our game fell apart. While on the 1st half of the season I was secretly hoping we would be able to get the home advantage for the first round of playoffs, on the 2nd half and especially the closer the end of the regular season came I just wished we could win a game or two before the end of the season.

We ended up 7th in the West and faced the Blues in the playoffs. They have been insurmountable for us all but once in my times so I didn't expect too much this time either. Taking them to game #7 was therefore quite pleasing and frustrating for me at the same time.

The trades and players

After the mega trading season of 2045-46 we were a lot more withdrawn in trading this season – it was more like trying to tie up the loose ends. Or at least in the first few trades that was the case. After that we tried to address some of the lacks in our roster with varying success.

In the beginning of the season we clearly had too many players in our roster so we moved a few players away to get to the balance. In exchange for Andy Sims we got a young center Brett Murtaugh and a prospective goalie Cedrick Walsh and a couple of picks. Although Murtaugh has yet to show what he's made of and Walsh will get his entry level contract this offseason, I believe that was a decent deal for us. Moving Kim Lönn and Wesley Mason for Rino Jackson felt quite good too but Jackson underperformed the whole regular season for us and he was even sitting on the bench some games. I was ready to toss him to whoever wanted him but the PO games against Blues proved otherwise. Jackson was playing well and ended up as one of the best point scorers in team. So it seems he'll stay after all. Lönn played quite well in Thrashers until he got traded to Islanders where his play stalled badly. Now he's on injury reserve for several months because of a partially torn MCL. Mason who was the hard part for me to move played only some 40 games during the season in Thrashers. He has been disappointing by all standards.
We made another deal with the Thrashers pretty soon after the Jackson deal acquiring Allan Velemirovich. We payed a high price by sending Habs 1st 2047 and young winger Mattias Norberg in return for him. Velemirovich played well in our 1st line during the season with Charbonneau and Bäckström. Norberg also started his season in Atlanta well but couldn't keep it on the whole season. But only after the draft we can estimate who win in this one.
We sent RW Kenny Rogers to New Jersey for a couple of 2nd round picks and both team fans and the board were celebrating this move. I think they were bored or something.
Already preparing to the playoffs in January we made our biggest move of the season sending a bunch of picks including our own 1st in 2047 to Vancouver for two proven veterans, RD Jordan Sullivan and C Ilkka Alatalo. Sullivan had problems with his shoulder during the winter and he didn't play on his level at any point of the season. Alatalo was a great addition to our bottom 6 and especially to the PK units. They both will continue in the team next season too.
On the TDD we made one more deal sending G Viitanen and D Lynch to Oilers for their veteran goalie Jens Jung. Viitanen had serious issues with training schedules and his unprofessional behaviour forced me to move him. Lynch I got from waivers so I believe this trade was quite advantageous for us especially as Jung stepped up in PO's when Kopeckỳ had some difficulties in his play.

Player review

A short review to players' season and a few words of the future:
[table][tr][th][/th][th]Season 2046-47[/th] [th]Status[/th][/tr]

[tr][td]GOALIES[/td][td][/td][td][/td][/tr]

[tr][td]Pavel Kopeckỳ[/td]
[td]Mediocre, didn't get enough help from the defense.[/td]
[td]Untouchable, one of the cornerstones for the near future.[/td][/tr]

[tr][td]Jens Jung[/td]
[td]Played only a few games, lived up to expectations though.[/td]
[td]Is very likely to retire but if he continues, he can stay for another season.[/td][/tr]

[tr][td]Andreas Skrøder[/td]
[td]Played well in Norfolk.[/td]
[td]May get a call up if Jung retires.[/td][/tr]

[tr][td]UNSIGNED PROSPECTS[/td][td][/td][td][/td][/tr]

[tr][td]Cédrick Walsh[/td][td][/td]
[td]Is likely to sign an entry level contract to Hawks this summer.[/td][/tr]

[tr][td][/td][td][/td][td][/td][/tr]

[tr][td]DEFENSEMEN[/td][td][/td][td][/td][/tr]

[tr][td]Vasili Belousov[/td]
[td]Lost nearly half of the season for an injury, it seemed to affect a little in his play in the rest of the season too.[/td]
[td]We are probably looking for our options and putting Belousov on the trading block.[/td][/tr]

[tr][td]Marc-Ancré Lemieux[/td]
[td]Took a bigger role in the team as the major physical essence of our defense.[/td]
[td]We are looking forward to having him around for numerous seasons.[/td][/tr]

[tr][td]Jordan Sullivan[/td]
[td]He was brought in to fill the void of right hand shooting dman, didn't quite live up the expectations on him.[/td]
[td]There's 1+1 years left of his contract, most likely he'll stay with us unless someone needs him more.[/td][/tr]

[tr][td]Todd McConnell
[/td][td]Filled his role as a PK defender.[/td]
[td]Has 1+1 years left of his contract.[/td][/tr]

[tr][td]Tom Brännström[/td]
[td]Had a good season as #5 dman.[/td]
[td]Negotiations of contract extension undergoing.[/td][/tr]

[tr][td]Tyler Howe[/td]
[td]Very underrated player. Had ”C” on his chest all the season. Third time in four seasons scored over 40 points.[/td]
[td]Contract continues for now.[/td][/tr]

[tr][td]Aleksandrs Bisofs[/td]
[td]Very reliable defender, deserves more ice time.[/td]
[td]Hoping to have him as a core player of our defense to far future.[/td][/tr]

[tr][td]Lubor Maslonka[/td]
[td]Interesting prospect, was scoring PPG in Norfolk.[/td]
[td]Needs to be brought up to see how'd he do in the big league.[/td][/tr]

[tr][td]Samuli Palmroth[/td]
[td]Had a solid season in Norfolk, needs some more time to get ready for the big team.[/td]
[td]We are very enthusiastic to see how Palmroth will develop.[/td][/tr]

[tr][td]Tapio Joona[/td]
[td]Had difficulties to break into the lineup in Norfolk.[/td]
[td]Still having 2+1 years left of his contract, next season will be crucial in getting as many games in as possible.[/td][/tr]

[tr][td]UNSIGNED PROSPECTS[/td][td][/td][td][/td][/tr]

[tr][td]Valdemar Neckar[/td]
[td]Young LD prospect played well in Czech Jr. League.[/td]
[td]Maybe it is time to bring him in to play some NA hockey next.[/td][/tr]

[tr][td][/td][td][/td][td][/td][/tr]

[tr][td]LEFT WINGERS[/td][td][/td][td][/td][/tr]

[tr][td]Ravil Korolev[/td]
[td]He made the impact immediately. Too bad his playoffs ended to an injury in game #4.[/td]
[td]It seems he will be one of the cornerstones to build the future Hawks on.[/td][/tr]

[tr][td]Allan Velemirovich[/td]
[td]Lived up to the expectations no matter how high his price was.[/td]
[td]Has a year left of his contract, probably will stay at least that time with us.[/td][/tr]

[tr][td]Colin Burt[/td]
[td]Had a poor season by all standards. Needs to get in a more offensive line again.[/td]
[td]We're trying to sign him to a long term contract this offseason.[/td][/tr]

[tr][td]Harry O'Sullivan[/td]
[td]Didn't find a steady spot in the lineup and suffered some from that. Stepped up nicely in PO's though.[/td]
[td]He'll be a great asset in the future for us.[/td][/tr]

[tr][td]Tyler Lemieux[/td]
[td]Had a PPG season in Norfolk. Is in jeopardy to stall to a regular AHL'er though.[/td]
[td]He has 1+1 years left of his contract. Expectations are lowering on him.[/td][/tr]

[tr][td]Drew Timmins[/td]
[td]Had a marvellous season in WHL, scored 52G+86A in 71 games. Won Bob Clarke Trophy.[/td]
[td]He will play in Norfolk/Greenville next year and he hopefully continues his great run.[/td][/tr]

[tr][td]Stefan Hjelm[/td]
[td]A mediocre season in Norfolk.[/td]
[td]Most probably he's not going to be a NHL player ever.[/td][/tr]

[tr][td]UNSIGNED PROSPECTS[/td][td][/td][td][/td][/tr]

[tr][td]Santtu Kinnunen[/td]
[td]Has played two great seasons in Finnish Elite League in row.[/td]
[td]Going to get his entry level contract any day now.[/td][/tr]

[tr][td][/td][td][/td][td][/td][/tr]

[tr][td]CENTERS[/td][td][/td][td][/td][/tr]

[tr][td]Rino Jackson[/td]
[td]Poor regular season but better playoff games.[/td]
[td]His future in Hawks is under consideration.[/td][/tr]

[tr][td]Joey Matuszewski[/td]
[td]Joey had another great season for us.[/td]
[td]Hoping to keep him as a Hawk 'til the end of his career.[/td][/tr]

[tr][td]Charles-Philippe Charbonneau[/td]
[td]Had a career opportunity playing most of the season as the 1st line center. Good season but not a great one.[/td]
[td]Trying to find him a more suitable spot in the lineup for the future.[/td][/tr]

[tr][td]Ilkka Alatalo[/td]
[td]Joined the team on the trade deadline. Did well (as he should too) as a defensive line/penalty kill center.[/td]
[td]He'll stay with us if we can afford his salary.[/td][/tr]

[tr][td]Keaton Gibson[/td]
[td]Had one of the better seasons but he's expected for more.[/td]
[td]Will continue as a bottom 6 forward in the lineup.[/td][/tr]

[tr][td]Marcus Heerema[/td]
[td]Couldn't handle the pressure.[/td]
[td]He will get some time to develop in the minors before bringing him up constantly. Will get some games there though.[/td][/tr]

[tr][td]Brett Murtaugh[/td]
[td]A decent season in Norfolk but he should be able to do better.[/td]
[td]Luckily there's no hurry to bring up the young centers. He'll get another year in Norfolk and hopefully his game will take some steps ahead then.[/td][/tr]

[tr][td]Roberto Carroll[/td]
[td]Had a good season in Norfolk.[/td]
[td]Not very likely to make it in the Hawks lineup ever.[/td][/tr]

[tr][td]UNSIGNED PROSPECTS[/td][td][/td][td][/td][/tr]

[tr][td]Lars Johan Oscarsson[/td]
[td]Has two good seasons in Swedish Elitserien in row.[/td]
[td]Going to join the team to adjust to NA hockey next.[/td][/tr]

[tr][td]Maxim Roach[/td]
[td]Had his best season in OHL.[/td]
[td]A big and ultra aggressive center will get his chance in the organization now.[/td][/tr]

[tr][td][/td][td][/td][td][/td][/tr]

[tr][td]RIGHT WINGERS[/td][td][/td][td][/td][/tr]

[tr][td]Herman Bäckström[/td]
[td]Had a good sophomore season but picked a long term injury in the end of regular season.[/td]
[td]Untouchable.[/td][/tr]

[tr][td]Jarrid Ford[/td]
[td]Suffered a bit from changing lines, a poor season to his standards.[/td]
[td]Needs to improve in order to keep his status in the roster.[/td][/tr]

[tr][td]Kevin Berry[/td]
[td]Played up to his defensive role in the regular season. Surprised pleasantly in the playoffs.[/td]
[td]Continues in the team for now.[/td][/tr]

[tr][td]Petr Kameš[/td]
[td]Had his first shot in the Hawks lineup but was then sent to Norfolk where he had a good rookie season.[/td]
[td]Will stay with us for now.[/td][/tr]

[tr][td]Markus Pettersson[/td]
[td]Had a good season in Norfolk.[/td]
[td]Needs to develop with huge steps to get a new contract with Hawks.[/td][/tr]

[tr][td]UNSIGNED PROSPECTS[/td][td][/td][td][/td][/tr]

[tr][td]Radek Duben[/td]
[td]A decent season in QMJHL.[/td]
[td]Another very aggressive prospect. Will get an entry level contract offer this offseason.[/td][/tr][/table]

[kuulapaa]

2047 15th July

Offseason deals

The offseason brought some significant changes into the Hawks roster. We managed to pull off a couple of great deals that balanced the top end of our lineup.
In first deal we sent the corner stone of our defense LD Vasili Belousov to Maple Leafs for their 1st in 2048. This deal enabled us to bring up our Slovakian RD prospects Lubor Maslonka who has played two seasons in AHL. In his 149 games he has 42 G + 90 A = 132 Points so we thought he has deserved his chance in Hawks now.
In the second deal C Rino Jackson, RW Jarrid Ford, Maple Leafs 1st in ´48 and Devils 2nd in ´48 went to Toronto in return for C Andreas Persson and RW German Naumov. This was something we had really been looking for – or actually getting Persson was it. Getting also Naumov was pure bonus. In Persson we got the true #1 center we have been lacking for years and adding Naumov back in our lineup gives us a real opportunity to send out two dangerous offensive lines.

The draft

The 2047 draft known as a little weak one didn't go anywhere near as planned for Blackhawks. We had a long and thorough list for our 9 picks as it was known that GM Kuula was not going to be able to attend to the draft. But when the event began Kuula was there even though only over his mobile phone. He ended up trading seven of the picks for future ones and picking two players outside of the top of our list.
With the 2nd round pick as 46th overall Kuula chose to pick a high speed center, Canadian Oliver Arsenault who has played one season in QMJHL in St. John's. His production hasn't been too good there but neither has he had been given too much ice time. As his best skills are skating and faceoffs he slightly reminds Mac Pisani. He still has to wait another year for his entry level contract.
On the 3rd round Hawks got another promising forward in LW Cole Monahan. Skating is not one of his strengths but instead of that his technical atts seem to be quite promising. He'll stay in WHL Calgary for now.
All the other picks Kuula swapped for futures which feels like a good idea now as there was not too much talent in this draft.

The retirement

In July the Hawks board got a somewhat expected announcement from our #2 goalie Jens Jung who had decided to retire. As we have Andreas Skrøder under contract we only had to call him from Norfolk and the issue was dealt. We held a great party for Jens before we put him in a train to next city to continue the farewell parties somewhere else.

Season starting lineup

1st line: (LW) Korolev - (C) Persson – (RW) Naumov / (LD) Brännström – (RD) Sullivan
2nd line: (LW) Velemirovich - (C) Matuszewski – (RW) Bäckström / (LD) Bisofs – (RD) Lemieux
3rd line: (LW) O'Sullivan - (C) Gibson – (RW) Charbonneau / (LD) McConnell – (RD) Maslonka
4th line: (LW) Burt - (C) Alatalo – (RW) Berry
Goalies: Kopecky (Skrøder)

The lineup is much more talented offensively than in years in Chicago so we're expecting a lot from this season. And although the Blackhawks board announced that they expect the team to be improved it is more than obvious that the minimum goal for this team is the playoffs. It shouldn't even be impossible to finish 4th to 6th in the West and fight for the spot on the second round in PO's.

[kuulapaa]

Oct 1st 2048

Season 2047-48
There's only one easy way to put it – it was a disappointing season in many ways. The expectations were high after the acquisitions of Persson, Naumov, Sullivan and Svoboda. And Blackhawks sure did well on the regular season ending up on 5th place in West – that is actually the best ranking since 2034-35. But in playoffs we couldn't do anything in our series against the Wild. We have for long had hard times playing against high scoring all-offense teams like Wild or Oilers. That didn't change this time either and we lost the series in 5.

The other disappointment was the draft. It wasn't supposed to be a great draft but Hawks had a plan. It just seems that the GM's all over the DMA draft better every year so the good prospects are harder to get. That hit us this year as we didn't get any of the three or four players we were aiming at. Some of the prospects we picked look quite nice too but they weren't the type of players we needed most. All in all Blackhawks picked 13 prospects, there were a few good dmen like Self and Blais but the most interesting player is goalie Juha Myllykoski from Finland who was picked on the 3rd round (#79 OA). He looks like he's going to be our #1 goalie somewhere in future.


Transactions on the Trade Deadline 2048 and after that
No huge trades took place this time but some of them effect significantly on the roster on the opening of the coming season.

Hawks sent RW Kevin Berry + a 2nd to Devils for C Frantisek Vlcek. We signed Berry from AHL two seasons ago. He played to his expectations but I couldn't pass a chance to get younger.

We signed LW/C Pascal Lavigne from AHL. He is a 1st round pick (#12 OA) from 2037 though. He joined the team in the end of February and played 19 regular season games scoring 7 G + 13 A = 20 points which was much more than expected.

In June backup goalie Jere Näckel joined the team from FA, he played last season in Finnish Elite League. He has already taken the place of Andreas Skrøder who was sent to Norfolk through waivers. We also signed a prospect of our own, D Jyrki Jyrkkiö from Finland. He is not too likely to see any NHL games any time soon if ever.

We also sent LW Harry O'Sullivan to Nashville in exchange for LD Lubomir Ondrejka. O'Sullivan wasn't getting enough ice time with us and we needed a good defenseman. Ondrejka was drafted by me a few years ago so I was very happy to get him back to play big minutes as our 1st pairing dman.

Another trade saw us sending newly acquired C Vlcek and our top dman Jordan Sullivan to Tampa for young C Pierce and a pair of picks. This deal seemed a bit unbalanced to some but I think it was a good deal to both teams. We got a talented #2 center – alto with some serious shortage in his physical atts. It will be interesting to see how he will make it. In addition we got a 2nd and a 3rd round pick with which we can get some decent prospects. Bolts got a veteran leader in their defense and a promising center prospect.

After the draft we claimed Oilers D Gareev from the waivers. He is no Sullivan but he brings some nice experience to our defense for the coming season.


Offseason
Once again Hawks didn't sign any top players from UFA or RFA. We signed five prospects from last two drafts and a young depth dman from AHL. We also resigned two of our own RFA's. And later in August we pulled a minor trade with the Thrashers swapping young C Charbonneau to young D Thorburn. There was also a lot of traffic out from the team as well as we let eight of our contract players to walk.


Season Preview 2048-49
I'd see that Blackhawks' roster is a tad weaker than a season ago, mostly because of the leave of Sullivan. But actually I think the tweaking that is done to the roster has also made it more balanced and that compensates the lack of some personal talent.

In NHL Season Preview the Blackhawks was ranked as 23rd which is astonishingly low. It doesn't worry us a bit because the lower we are ranked the better we perform. It will be interesting though to see how much other Western teams like Nucks and Avs improve their game and how much harder will it be to claim a playoff spot because of that.


Season starting lineup
1st line: (LW) Korolev - (C) Persson – (RW) Naumov / (LD) Ondrejka – (RD) Gareev
2nd line: (LW) Lavigne - (C) Pierce – (RW) Bäckström / (LD) Self (rookie) – (RD) Lemieux
3rd line: (LW) Burt - (C) Heerema – (RW) Kameš / (LD) Svoboda – (RD) McConnell
4th line: (LW) Kinnunen (rookie) - (C) Matuszewski – (RW) Gibson [/ (LD) Bisofs – (RD) Palmroth (rookie)]
Goalies: Kopecky (Näckel)