The Blackhawks are making questionable RFA decisions

The Chicago Blackhawks are clearly tearing it down. Alex DeBrincat was traded to the Ottawa Senators, Kirby Dach was traded to the Montreal Canadiens, and they bought out both Brett Connoly and Henrik Borgstrom.

Now, it sounds like even more names are headed out the door as they are not going to give qualifying offers to Dylan Strome or Dominik Kubalik who are both RFAs right now. The only ones they plan to bring back right now are Caleb Jones and Philipp Kurashev.

This is a couple of big losses for the Chicago Blackhawks. Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane are still there but their forward group is pretty bare now. Seth Jones is also still there with his brother Caleb and other good ones like Connor Murphy and Jake McCabe but they are pretty bare as well.

Petr Mrazek is the only goalie signed on the roster so it is fair to say that they aren’t in a good spot at that position either. This team has begun tearing it down to nothing. That is a lot of good talent being moved out.

The Chicago Blackhawks made some strange RFA decisions this week.

The trades at least landed them something. The decision to let both Strome and Kubalik go is a bit strange though. They are both good players that can serve a purpose in different roles. Other NHL teams are going to be all over adding them for depth.

Strome has been a productive offensive player with the Chicago Blackhawks. In 225 games over parts of four seasons, he has scored 60 goals and had  94 assists for 154 points. That is not scoring production to take for granted. Some team is going to be very happy with him.

Just like Strome, Kubalik has had some ups and downs with the Hawks. In 202 games over three seasons, Kubalik has scored 62 goals and added 54 assists for 116 points. Both of them are around the same level of player in terms of points so both should get a look in free agency.

It is just weird that the Hawks won’t bring them back as bodies to play some games and see what they have in them going forward. There would always be a chance that they can trade them for assets too. They are going to be a bad team regardless so making them free agents is strange.

Hopefully, now that all of these players are out the door, the Blackhawks are bad enough to be a legit lottery threat. Connor Bedard playing in a Chicago Blackhawks jersey is clearly the plan right now. That is the only explanation for letting these two go for nothing.