NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Kyle Davidson wasted no time putting pen to paper after acquiring Nick Foligno.
The Blackhawks’ general manager signed Foligno to a one-year contract with a $4 million salary cap Tuesday, a day after he acquired his free-agent rights from the Bruins in the Taylor-Hall trade.
It’s probably too much pay for the 35-year-old veteran forward, but the Hawks could afford it. They probably actually had to do that to convince Foligno in the latter stages of his career to stay on a team that has no playoff ambitions next season.
Foligno has slowed down somewhat from his heyday as the Blue Jackets captain, but his personality hasn’t changed and he also remains a smart, reliable player – particularly in his defensive zone.
Last season, he had 26 points (10 goals and 16 assists) in 60 games with the Bruins and averaged 12:22 minutes on the ice per game. During Foligno’s five-a-side shifts, opponents were generating just 25.7 chances to score per 60 minutes, making him the Bruins’ fourth-best forward and better than any other Hawks forward.
Davidson gushed about the lead Foligno will provide. The contrast between that and Davidson’s justifications for not retrieving Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews is interesting, but he likely believes that while Foligno will provide guidance, it won’t require the same immense level of deference that Kane and Toews did.
“Whatever young players end up on our team next year – [and] There will be some vacancies for young players – they will be in an environment where they will have great mentoring and leadership in this space,” he said.
defensive decisions
The Hawks will make forward Philipp Kurashev a qualified offer and maintain his limited free-agent rights, agent Pat Brisson confirmed Tuesday. But it doesn’t sound like defender Caleb Jones will get a qualifying offer.
With Jones likely to move on and Alec Regula and Ian Mitchell both substituted, the Hawks’ near-term defensive depth chart looks a bit flat — particularly on the right flank, where only Seth Jones, Connor Murphy and Nikita Zaitsev can be seen. That could be an area Davidson addresses this week.
“We certainly thought about giving some of our left-backs the opportunity to play at the other end,” Davidson said. “We’ll see how that plays out, but there’s a chance.
“[I’m] I’m also not ruling out going out and maybe getting a right-shot “D” in free agency, but [that’s] nothing we will pursue. [There are a] a few different options.”
draft preparation
Connor Bedard once again stuck to his favorite line of “wait and see” on Tuesday regarding the Blackhawks’ No. 1 pick, but the realization that the moment will finally come seemed to dawn on Wednesday.
“Me and [fellow top prospect Nate] Danielson talked, I don’t think we’re going to sleep at all tonight,” Bedard said. “We’ll probably be pretty done. It’s just super exciting how close it is and being here with friends and family. It’s hard to find words for it.”
Davidson said the Hawks would wait until Wednesday to officially announce their first pick to “respect the function of the draft and the ceremony of the draft.”
The No. 19 pick, meanwhile, will be highly unclear until the Jets announce the No. 18 pick. But the Hawks have prepared for all sorts of scenarios of how other teams might behave and have been “really comfortable” with their potential placements, Davidson said.