Today's News Clips June 21, 2018
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Today’s News Clips June 21, 2018 Chicago Tribune Bulls and Blackhawks need to make bold moves at drafts, bringing stars to Chicago David Haugh June 20, 2018 On successive summer nights, the United Center’s co-tenants will use their respective drafts to determine how long the upcoming winters will feel for Chicago sports fans. The Bulls and Blackhawks, both drafting in the top 10 for the first time in 11 years, need to find a star, a supremely talented player capable of making teammates better and opponents nervous. The Bulls hope to draft one at No. 7, while the Hawks would be wise to try trading the eighth overall selection in a deal for a veteran who fits that description. If they do this right, neither team will be in this spot again for the foreseeable future. The Bulls can fit a promising rookie onto a young, evolving roster that ends the incessant talk of tanking and starts challenging for an Eastern Conference playoff spot. The Hawks face greater urgency to add immediate help to take advantage of a championship window that threatens to slam shut. Both approaches require the kind of boldness each team demonstrated a year ago when the Bulls traded All- Star Jimmy Butler to begin rebuilding and the Hawks made two deals they would come to regret. This time around, the stakes are just as high for both teams. Start with the Bulls. Conventional wisdom says the team will play it safe and draft a prospect who fits a profile: a high-character, low-risk player who accomplished much at a powerhouse program, a description that makes Duke’s Wendell Carter Jr. or Villanova’s Mikal Bridges the choices likely to produce a collective response of “Meh.’’ Except the Bulls bucked convention when they traded Butler on June 22, 2017 — daring to be wrong about a direction that felt so right. So I suspect Bulls executives John Paxson and Gar Forman will go with that feeling again Thursday night at the Advocate Center and head down a fascinating path lined with as many risks as rewards. They could trade up to draft Texas 7-footer Mo Bamba, a difference-making defensive force with the kind of personality the Bulls embrace and Chicagoans would appreciate. But is Bamba too one-dimensional? They could maneuver to take Missouri swingman Michael Porter Jr., a scoring machine with enough confidence and swagger to compare himself to Kevin Durant and Giannis Antetokounmpo. But can an organization set back nearly a decade in 2012 by a knee injury to its franchise player afford another high pick on a player like Porter whose back surgery cost him all but three games of his freshman year? They could stay at No. 7 and gamble on Oklahoma shooting sensation Trae Young, the draft’s most polarizing player whose selection might crash the Bulls’ Twitter feed. But can a 6-foot-2 defensive liability coexist in the same backcourt with 6-4 Kris Dunn? I would love for the Bulls to find out, but doubt Young is the name they announce. My guess is the Bulls end up with Bamba, a rim protector with a 7-10 wing span that practically reaches into the 300 Level. Speaking of defense, that also describes the Hawks’ biggest priority. They could address it during free agency by pursuing top target John Carlson of the Capitals, along with the rest of the league, or by swinging a draft- day trade for an established veteran defenseman such as Justin Faulk of the Hurricanes or Tyson Barrie of the Avalanche. Or maybe Hawks general manager Stan Bowman has another impact player he is considering? Would Bowman try to engineer a trade to bring Blue Jackets forward Artemi Panarin, rumored to be on the trade block, back to Chicago? Similarly, would a reunion with Scott Darling solve the backup goalie problem? Any other former Hawks available for another Stanley Cup run? Drafting a tough young defenseman or dynamic forward might look good from a developmental aspect, but Hawks Chairman Rocky Wirtz underscored the importance of next season with recent comments to Crain’s Chicago Business. And if you think Wirtz is getting antsy without a playoff series victory since the 2015 Stanley Cup Final, imagine the way President John McDonough’s stomach is churning. Solace comes from knowing that if goalie Corey Crawford returns healthy, the Hawks have no reason to believe they can’t fill other holes this offseason well enough to return to the playoffs. But Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews aren’t getting any younger. Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook never have looked older than they did last season. Coach Joel Quenneville likely wouldn’t survive a second straight year of missing the playoffs. So while drafting and developing players sounds good at organizational meetings, contending now matters more than competing later for a Hawks organization desperate for a return to glory. That process of boldly building the next championship roster begins Friday for the Hawks. The Bulls can set an intrepid tone 24 hours earlier. Feel the draft? The winds of change blow through the West Side, where both teams aggressively seek conditions conducive for winning. Chicago Tribune Blackhawks open season Oct. 4 at Senators, host Maple Leafs three days later Jimmy Greenfield June 20, 2018 he Blackhawks’ drive to return to the NHL playoffs begins Oct. 4, when they open the 2018-19 season against the Senators in Ottawa, Ontario. Their home opener comes three days later against the Maple Leafs, the team announced Wednesday. The Oct. 7 home opener will give Hawks fans their first glimpse at a team that still could undergo many changes via trades and free agency after missing the playoffs for the first time since 2008. The Hawks won Stanley Cup championships in 2010, ’13 and ’15. The full regular-season schedule will be released Thursday. A strong start could help alleviate fears that the Hawks' window of contention is closing. However, they began 3-0-1 last season, which included a memorable 10-1 drubbing of the then-two-time defending Stanley Cup champion Penguins at the United Center in the opener, a game that proved no harbinger. Hawks general manager Stan Bowman is scheduled to speak to the media at noon Thursday, a day before the NHL draft begins. The Hawks have eight picks in the two-day draft, including the eighth and 27th selections in the first round. The Hawks play the first of six exhibitions Sept. 18 against the Blue Jackets in Columbus, Ohio. The preseason home opener is Sept. 25 against the Red Wings. The Athletic Blackhawks draft guide: What they need, who they’ll pick and things to keep in mind Scott Powers June 20, 2018 It’s been a while since the NHL draft was as important for the Blackhawks as this one. They would obviously prefer not to be drafting as early as they are or have two first-round picks, but that’s their situation after missing the playoffs and being sellers at the trade deadline. How the Blackhawks use the eighth overall pick adds to the intrigue. Do they trade it to improve now? Do they keep it? Do they go with a defenseman or a forward? Who will be available at No. 8? Will they move their other first-round pick? Could they pull the trigger on some bigger trades? There are plenty of things to consider about the Blackhawks’ 2018 draft, so let’s dig in below. 1. Where are the Blackhawks slotted to draft? First round: The Blackhawks have the eighth overall pick, which they landed in the lottery, and the 27th overall pick, which they acquired along with Victor Ejdsell and a fourth-round pick from the Nashville Predators for Ryan Hartman and a fifth-round pick. Second round: None — their second-round pick was traded to the Montreal Canadiens along with Phillip Danault for Tomas Fleischmann and Dale Weise in 2016. Third round: The 69th overall pick and the 87th overall pick. The latter was acquired from the Washington Capitals for Michal Kempny. Fourth round: The 120th overall pick, which was also acquired in the Hartman trade. The Blackhawks traded the 100th overall pick and Mark McNeill to the Dallas Stars for Johnny Oduya in 2016. Fifth round: The 142nd overall pick, which was acquired from the Columbus Blue Jackets as part of the Artemi Panarin-Brandon Saad deal. The Blackhawks dealt the 131st overall pick to the Predators in the Hartman trade. Sixth round: The 162nd overall pick. Seventh round: The 193rd overall pick. 2. Who will the Blackhawks draft at No. 8? The Blackhawks are expecting the best available player to be a forward. They’re anticipating a run of defensemen right before them. Aside from Rasmus Dahlin, the consensus No. 1 pick, Quinn Hughes, is probably the only other defenseman the Blackhawks really desire with their early pick. It’s unlikely Hughes will still be available at No. 8, but if he is, the Blackhawks would likely select him. If Hughes is gone, the Blackhawks will likely turn their attention to a forward. There have been four forwards mentioned the most with the Blackhawks in recent weeks: center Jesperi Kotkaniemi, winger Brady Tkachuk, winger Oliver Wahlstrom and center Barrett Hayton. Kotkaniemi is considered the top center in the draft, and his stock has recently skyrocketed. Plenty of people are convinced he could go No. 3 to the Montreal Canadiens. At this point, it’s difficult to envision him dropping to No. 8, but the draft is a crapshoot after Dahlin and Andrei Svechnikov.