In the eyes of Jeff Blashill, the Chicago Blackhawks are going to become a winning team led by their current core.
Jeff Blashill is now through his first season as the Chicago Blackhawks head coach. He was hired last off-season after a few years as a Tampa Bay Lightning assistant coach. This tenure with Tampa followed his first and only NHL head coaching job with the Detroit Red Wings.
Coming into the year, Blashill was adamant that he didn't know what to expect in terms of the players or the potential results of the team.
In Blashill's first season, the results spoke for themselves. Early in the year, the team was dynamic and full of energy. In the second half, the team started to deal with piling up injuries, and the young players started to hit a wall.
The bad outweighed the good, in terms of wins and losses, towards the end of the season, which resulted in their second straight 31st-place finish. The team did make an 11-point improvement, however, which is not insignificant when you pair it with multiple young players taking major steps in their development.
Everything to do with the future of the team relies on their young core, which has been budding for a few years now. There are still prospects that they hope will impact the team in the long-term who aren't there yet, but the idea that they will be a winning team led by this young group is firmly in place. Jeff Blashill believes it strongly.
"At some point, I know this young team will click, and we will take off," Blashill said. "I don't know when. Is it next year? That's up to us."
Becoming a playoff team after coming in 31st for two straight seasons is incredibly difficult in the NHL. They'd need to make more than a 20 point jump in the standings.
Can they be in the mix through March, though? That is absolutely a possibility. That should not be the main focus, however. The main focus should be on the development of their young players, who will lead the team to the playoffs when the time comes.
Can Connor Bedard take the honor of being the captain this summer with a fresh new contract and live up to it? Can Frank Nazar and Anton Frondell take steps? Will any of their non-NHL prospects join the lineup and contribute? How about the upcoming top-four draft pick?
There is also a chance that the Blackhawks make a move for an NHL-caliber player who will make a difference at the top of their lineup. That would certainly help Blashill's claims come true sooner than later. If they traded for a star winger to pair with Bedard, Blashill would instantly become a better coach by default.
Jeff Blashill was always going to get another opportunity in the NHL, but he was able to wait it out for a job that he wanted. He wasn't Scotty Bowman in his prime with his pick of the field, but he certainly was an intriguing option for a lot of teams, and he chose Chicago because he wanted to help build it from the ground up.
"One of the reasons that the job was so appealing to me was the fact that I thought I was on the same page with what their vision was, both management and ownership. That remains today," Blashill said. "If it were about a quick fix, this wouldn't have been the most appealing job. This job was appealing to me because it was about the belief in how to build a championship-level team."
It is going to take a lot of work for Blashill to achieve that goal with these players, the ones who are there and the ones who are on their way, but he believes that they are well-positioned.
"I think we've been able to stay steady through ups and downs," Blashill said to cap off his opinion on the season and where things are headed. He also talked about guys having an "elite summer", which means that there is an expectation for the work to be put in for them to come back ready to have more success. Whether he's right or wrong remains to be seen, but the confidence is there, which is half the battle.
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