Chicago Blackhawks: Carl Soderberg is coming to town
The Chicago Blackhawks have signed Carl Soderberg in free agency.
The Chicago Blackhawks send another mixed message with their latest free agency signing as they ink Carl Soderberg to a contract in free agency. They have signed him to a one year deal worth one million dollars. Now, it sends the wrong message because he is a 35-year-old centerman that plays solid bottom-six minutes. That isn’t necessarily the type of contract that you hand out when you are “rebuilding” but this one sort of gets a pass. Soderberg is clearly there as a placeholder for the injured Kirby Dach.
Dach injured himself in a World Juniors preliminary game playing for Team Canada. They are going to need a center to help them eat minutes during the 2020-21 season so a guy like Soderberg should really be able to help. They clearly don’t want to just throw some of the young guys into the fire of an NHL season unless they feel they are ready. That is a very smart thing to do if you are Stan Bowman and the Blackhawks.
This is a move that does not hinder the youth movement in any way, shape, or form. If anything, it helps them because it allows the younger guys to develop while the show goes on in the NHL. He is also pretty good defensively so he could help the team at the NHL level in a lot of ways as well. They won’t defend very well as a team this season so one guy who is good in his own end won’t save everything but it will certainly help.
He also isn’t too bad in the offensive zone for a bottom-six centerman either. He had 17 goals and 18 assists for 35 points in 2019-20 for the Arizona Coyotes which are not bad totals at all. If he can bring some of that to the 2020-21 Blackhawks, they would be very happy with it. Despite rebuilding, they still want to play well and allow the young kids to develop. Having a guy like Soderberg in the clubhouse should help.
Hot. The perfect 2021 Chicago Blackhawks lineup. light
Soderberg was only in Arizona for that one season. Prior to that, he was drafted by the Boston Bruins where he played for three seasons before four seasons with the Colorado Avalanche. It has been a nice career for him so far and now he looks to help the Blackhawks regrow as an organization. People are going to rip on the signing but this one isn’t actually all that bad. There are some benefits to having a guy like this on your rebuilding roster. Hopefully, they are able to get Dylan Strome signed next.