He Can Keep Getting Away With It

The worst part about Connor Bedard's injury.

A caveat up top: This is all moot if Connor Bedard only ends up missing the upcoming roadtrip for the Hawks. It sure doesn't feel like it'll just be that, and the air around it gives off the impression that it's going to be a long time on the shelf for basically the only reason to watch the Hawks. The only reason the Hawks have been able to see relevance, even if it's with the aid of binoculars.

There are many aspects to Bedard's injury which are totally dispiriting. As mentioned above, the watchability of the Hawks sinks down to next to zero without him. Saturday night's run-out against Detroit had all the passion and verve of a walk to the gallows, if the gallows were just some barely ok hockey team, which the Wings are. No one in the UC ever felt at any moment like the Hawks had a chance to score, much less win, and that dread and depression absolutely dripped through the screen. And the Hawks didn't.

However, the worst aspect is that any hope of urgency being attached to Kyle Davidson has simply disappeared. There was a near-impossible needle that Davidson would have wanted to thread this season, though he would never admit it. It was Bedard proving to be a true, foundational, generational star while the Hawks simultaneously ate shit most every night and brought about another top three pick. As Bedard showed everyone thorough the season's first two months, he was too good to let the Hawks finish that poorly, combined with Spencer Knight at the other end.

With nothing else on the roster, and Saturday night showed just how little there is besides from the two poles on the Hawks, Knight and Bedard probably carry the Hawks to 80-85 points. Whatever the status of everything else, that would have brought actual expectations for next seasons. Ones that if they weren't met, would at least force the Hawks to ask some serious questions about themselves for the first time in five or six seasons.

Now Davidson can thread that needle, or at least claim he has. If Bedard misses a month or two, there will still be questions about whether or not he can carry MVP-levels throughout a full season (we'll circle back to this), but no one will ask them inside or outside the organization. He's already done enough to prove that, will go the story. And he can get the Reddit-heads and sycophants to drool over yet another prospect joining the organization, even if there's literally no room for another.

Adding yet another top three pick would only force Davidson closer to the kind of big decision he hasn't ever made. I have erred in the past by saying Davidson has never found a real solution for the future from outside the organization. That's not true, he did find Knight, and he should get credit for that. But that only came about because Seth Jones demanded out. Davidson has never had to pick which of his precious prospects have to be moved to get something tangible. He was sleeping on Cutter Gauthier, who now has 16 goals and is the kind of winger Bedard is screaming for. He had more than enough to match whatever the Ducks offered the Flyers. We're still waiting for that kind of trade.

Perhaps the Hawks can get Frondell, Kantserov, the next top three pick, and one other kid on the team next season and move forward with that. That's all top six winger spots right there. Every other kid in the pipeline that everyone loses their mud over then becomes expendable. As soon as they start getting moved for actual NHL pieces, that should turn up the pressure.

But until that happens, we have no indication that it ever will. Bedard's injury, and specifically the impact it will have on this season, pushed everything into the future. Again. The Hawks remain all projection, hope, and wishcasting, instead of something actually tangible. Which is what Bedard and Knight were giving fans for the first time.

Watching the Hawks without Bedard will make it clear just how far they have to go. But with another season now teetering on completely pointless, that destination remains nebulous. The suspicion has always been that Davidson is far more comfortable with that. He knows nothing else.

To boot, Bedard's injury, if it turns out to be significant, will have to raise questions about his durability. This would be his second significant injury in three seasons. Look at Jack Hughes, who is currently in the land of wind and ghosts for a heavy chunk of time for the fourth time in five seasons. He is another undersized superstar which his team is built around. We can call them freak injuries or terrible accidents, but whatever they are, Jack Hughes is not posting enough for the Devils to be taken seriously as Cup contenders. Is that the future for Bedard? That the question is even in the ether is scary.

-As for whatever went on on the actual ice this weekend, the Hawks appear to be putting off a real decision in net for at least a game or two by recalling Laurent Brossoit today. They might have to give up on the idea of Arvid Soderblom entirely. Detroit's first two goals can't go in, and for a team that is going to struggle to score, an early two-goal deficit might as well be a team-wide case of The Plague. It's Soderblom's fourth-straight awful start, and there really can't be any more.

Drew Commesso has been in Rockford for two full seasons plus this one. If he's not ready to be tried out in the NHL by now, he probably won't be. Just because Corey Crawford spent 17 years in the AHL doesn't mean that's the prescription for everyone. Maybe they don't actually want to trade Brossoit and have him back up Knight, but then they'll have three goalies either in Chicago or Rockford, and someone who needs to play won't be.

Maybe the Hawks worry about a young goaltender in a backup role. But the AHL's weekend-only schedule should have Commesso prepped for going four, five days between starts. Also, Knight doesn't have to pile up 65 starts, especially in a season that now looks like it really isn't going to matter. Even if Commesso is going to have trade value, he'll need NHL starts to prove it. What is there to lose?

-The Hawks offense could use any juicing it can get, which would mean some help from the blue line. Yet Jeff Blashill has paired the only two puck-movers on the roster, Levshunov and Grzelcyk, together. How are the Hawks supposed to get any drive from the other pairs? And aren't these two going to get stuck in their own end a lot, given their defensive deficiencies? Are we back to thinking Alex Vlasic is a puck-mover again? Because he isn't. Or do they think Louis Crevier is because he happened to have one shorthanded goal batted off his stick by Vincent Trocheck into the net?

Judging by the Hawks calling up Ethan Del Mastro today, they don't think this is a problem and they also have no plans for Kevin Korchinski. Which are both more indications that they really have no idea how to develop a d-man who is more comfortable with the puck on his stick than not, because they've never had one, and that they don't care that they don't.