The dog days of summer are here, and that means that news is going to be coming in at a snail’s pace, and hey, that’s ok. In my opinion, the Hawks are sitting in a great spot as they enjoyed the last month and a half before the opening of training camp. However, the downside to that is the lack of material for content, so it will be time to get a little bit creative here while we wait for hockey to talk about once again. Today I am coming to you all with just a quick hit blog. I write these blogs here because I love this team and I want to give all of you an outlet to discuss, so my main goal the rest of summer is to write about what you all want to read about, so please send me a message if you have anything you would like to see from me going forward; I love to hear it!

Quick Hits
The Athletic Goalie Ranking
The guys over at The Athletic started a new series where they are ranking teams current and future goalie situations. They only started with the bottom ten teams; however, the Hawks found themselves right in that range, with their current duo coming in at 27th overall. I don’t know if the Hawks bias in me is coming out, but I do feel that’s a bit of slap in the face of Mrazek and Brossoit. Are these guys elite goaltenders in this league? Definitely not, but both are coming into the 2024/25 season after great seasons. We all know the story about Mrazek playing a career high 56 games, and despite the team in front of him, he finished the year with a.907 SV%, which was the reason this team didn’t look worse than they were. Brossoit is coming into this year following up a 15-5-2 season that saw him finish the year with a.927 SV%. Again, this might just be my bias, but this goalie tandem is better than 5th worst in the league.

They did give the Hawks future goaltending outlook a better ranking at 9th overall; despite only having two goalies in our system that seem like legit prospects, the ceiling for Commesso and Gajan is high enough to get them in the top ten. Scott Wheeler only has two teams in the NHL, with two goalie prospects breaking into his top 20—one being the Red Wings and the other being our Blackhawks. Take that with a grain of salt because trying to determine the true development of goaltenders is such a crap shoot that anything can happen over the next few years, and goalies typically don’t really hit their peak until the 26-age range.

United Center is Getting an Upgrade

Spanning an estimated ten years, The 1901 Project is a long-term, multi-phased development that includes housing, retail, entertainment and public open space on 55+ acres of privately owned land. #The1901ProjectChi pic.twitter.com/h5LbcqnK0y

— United Center (@UnitedCenter) July 23, 2024

It was announced today that the Hawks and Bulls will be working together to overhaul the area surrounding the UC in a massive project. This plan is being called “Project 1901,” and it will be a 10-year, $7 billion dollar ordeal to turn the parking lots into various venues such as mixed-income housing, a 6,000-seat music hall, a green space, and more. Right now, the play is to add parking structures that will go at least 3 stories high and will more than likely make an already rough exit from Hawks games even more difficult. There hasn’t been any word on how this is being paid for, but the city has stated there has not been a request for financial assistants, so it seems like this will be paid for by private investors.

I am all for this; the area around the UC is very bland and just doesn’t give you that wow factor when walking up to the arena that you get from other stadiums. What I am really hoping for is with this buildup if the Hawks can get in line to host future 4 Nation and/or World Cup games. That really would be a big win for this undertaking.

That’s going to be it for today, as always. I appreciate you guys checking out these blogs, and I will see you all on the next one!

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