Blackhawks: How Stan Bowman created a successful retool

After the Blackhawks decided to move on from hometown goaltender Scott Darling, many Blackhawks fans were completely outraged.

Many saw Scott Darling as the eventual replacement to the aging Corey Crawford, especially considering the fact that many believed the team’s championship window was quickly closing. The Blackhawks had major cap issues at the time, and signing a backup goaltender to a somewhat large deal was not in the stars for the team.

After sending him to the Hurricanes for a mid-round draft pick, Darling signed a 4-year, $16.6 million deal. He would then go on to rotate with long-time Hurricane and former Blackhawk Cam Ward. At the time, the future was very bright for the 27-year-old, who had seen a lot of success playing in the net for Chicago.

For whatever reason, Darling never could seem to figure things out in Raleigh. In his first season away from Chicago, Darling found his record to be 8 games under .500 and posted a whopping 3.18 GAA. It wasn’t long into the 2018-2019 season when Darling was put on and cleared waivers, only to be traded to Florida and eventually bought out this past Summer.

The third round pick the Blackhawks got back from the Darling deal turned out to be Evan Barratt. Barratt, 20, is still playing college hockey at Penn State and has yet to sign an NHL deal, although Chicago still retains his draft rights. Barratt has 12 points in 11 games this year at Penn State, and could be an interesting piece for the Hawks going forward as one of their better prospects.