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Something In The Way: C.I.’s ’15-’16 Season Preview – Trevor Daley

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Oh you’ve probably been waiting for this one.

If earlier today we previewed the Hawks player with the least amount of questions about his upcoming season, this would be the one that quite possibly would have the most. The d-man taking Johnny Oduya’s place, without having really any of Oduya’s game (though some people still seem to think he does, which I can only assume is because they’re both black). The biggest piece gotten in return for Patrick Sharp (unless you think CatButt can do a whole lot from the 4th line). But if the defense allergic Stars were so happy to include Daley in this deal, doesn’t that give one pause?

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Something In The Way: C.I.’s ’15-’16 Season Preview – Niklas Hjalmarsson

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If the Norris Trophy were simply about defense and only defense, Niklas Hjalmarsson would have to be a contender every season. Hammer is in the bottom 20 of all NHL d-men in the amount of shifts he doesn’t get that start in the offensive zone. He takes on the toughest competition every night, and has done so for the past three years at least (allowing Duncan Keith to become Fireball Mario). Last year, he was on the ice for the third least amount of goals against per 60 minutes despite those obstacles. And having just turned 28, he should be right in the heart of his prime as a d-man (we can only hope). Hammer might enter the season as the player with the least amount of questions about him. He’d be manning 75% of the other teams’ top pairing.

But we still need to find a way to have a stick laying on the ice that he can swat away dismissively on the few occasions he scores.

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Something In The Way: C.I.’s ’15-’16 Season Preview – Brent Seabrook

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It’s funny on this blog, because there are certain players who we have spent as much time defending as we have criticizing. Brent Seabrook may top the list. After he signed his extension, it felt like once a week we had to explain to people why having two Canadian Olympic defensemen on the team for the long haul was a good idea. Then, when Seabrook was carrying around three pounds of nachos in his upper intestine, or at least sure skated like it, we kept having to point out just how sluggish he looked and how much Keith was bailing his overstuffed ass out (in particular to one certain Hawks blogger).

And then Seabrook had last season, where he looked better, skated better, played better, cemented himself as something of the heartbeat of the whole dressing room, and no one said anything. Which is preferable. Of course, with Biscuit heading into a free agent season and every Hawks fan having Cap Paranoia (Self-Destroyah’!…AND IT GOES LIKE THIS!), he’s probably headed in for a season of everyone looking at him quite intensely, trying to figure out if he’s worth paying what he very well might ask (which could be somewhere between $7-8 million per).

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Something In The Way: C.I.’s ’15-’16 Season Preview – Duncan Keith

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We did Corey Crawford last week, and then I opined that either he or Keith will be the most important Hawk this season. But Keith is pretty much the most important Hawk every season. When he’s good, the Hawks are one of the best teams in the league. When he’s bad, the Hawks suffer. When he’s other worldly, the Hawks can do things like win a Stanley Cup playing with four d-men, taking out offensively gifted teams like Anaheim and Tampa in a row.

Two Norrises, two gold medals, three Cups, and now a Conn Smythe, and yet it feels like when discussions in the national press come up of the best d-men in the league, I still see names like Weber, Suter, Subban, Karlsson more often than I see Keith’s. That’s ok, we know the truth here. And last spring’s utter dominance probably shifts that discussion. No one would argue that Keith is a surefire Hall of Famer now, and he might even be first ballot.

What does that leave in store for Keith this year? Let’s dig in…

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Something In The Way – C.I.’s ’15-’16 Season Preview: Scott Darling

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Let’s get back to hockey for the seven minutes before something else breaks.

Much like the backup quarterback in this town, although I suppose that’s a lot of towns (and recently the backup point guard), the backup goalie in Chicago has become something of a revered figure. I’m exactly sure when this started. Hackett over Belfour? Passmore over Thibault? When Khabibulin was stealing all his money after the lockout? Maybe it was two consecutive seasons of Niemi outplaying Huet and then Crawford outplaying Turco. Maybe we’re all scarred from watching Hasek leave after backing up Belfour and just assume every backup is now a multi-Vezina winner in waiting (KEENAN WANTED A TEAM AROUND LINDROS AND HASEK MY GOD!!!!).

It doesn’t hurt when that backup also happens to be from Chicago.

There will be more eyes cast on Scott Darling this year, as some still view him as a path to get some salary cap relief if he can prove to be starter-quality in the NHL (those “some” might be in the front office as well). Will he? Let’s find out (not really)!