There are a handful of inflection points in every NHL season and one of them is on the horizon right now.
Beginning today for the Nashville Predators and for 22 other NHL teams this weekend, the bye weeks start. Bye weeks — which provide a built-in, midseason vacation for players — disappeared from the NHL calendar during the COVID-19 years, but are back this season. They overlap the All-Star break — Feb. 2-5 in south Florida. Nine teams remain in action next week, mostly to meet the NHL’s television scheduling commitments. They get their byes following the All-Star break. The rest are off after Saturday.
For the vast majority of players, it’s a chance to take a breath, recharge for the stretch run and go on holidays, with family and/or teammates. For a few others, it’s a chance to take stock of where they are in their careers and where they expect to be in a few weeks, especially players swirling in the rumor mill — such as the Blackhawks’ duo of Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane and the Blues’ duo of Vladimir Tarasenko and Ryan O’Reilly. Toews and Kane especially have some control over their future, because they have full no-moves. Tarasenko has a no-trade clause and O’Reilly has no trade protection.
Our Mark Lazerus had a nice summing up of the pros and cons of a franchise icon such as Toews potentially moving on between now and the trade deadline.
Every answer Jonathan Toews gives about his future is a yes wrapped in a no inside a maybe. Is he just messing with us? Or does he really not know what he’s going to do?
It sure feels like the latter.
My column: https://t.co/1dP3QEcH9a
— Mark Lazerus (@MarkLazerus) January 27, 2023
Toews’ long-time partner in crime, Kane, speaking in Calgary on Thursday, ahead of a 5-1 Blackhawks win over the Flames, was just as circumspect. The Blackhawks finish up their pre-All-Star break schedule with a Saturday date on the road against the Edmonton Oilers and then don’t play again until Feb. 7. Usually, Toews and Kane are fixtures at the All-Star Game. This year, they’re not.
That gives them a full 10 days to reflect and ruminate on what they genuinely want to do next. The options are, either accept a trade to a contender or play out the string (and what’s left of their contracts) in Chicago, which would then postpone a decision on their futures to the offseason.
This is really the first legitimate time both Toews and Kane have arrived at a career crossroads, because the last time their contracts expired, they were in the primes of their careers, and signed identical eight-year extensions just before the third and final Stanley Cup championship they would win in a six-year span with the Blackhawks. Toews told Laz what is hopefully obvious to everyone: You have to think about this stuff. It’s your life, your career.
Ultimately, the time off gives them — and all the players in similar circumstances — time to dig into the decision-making process, with family, friends and advisors. In the hustle and bustle of a busy NHL regular season, it’s easy to push thoughts about the future out of your mind, to keep up with the pace of the schedule. The break eliminates the excuses. It’s time to get answers.
And it applies to NHL managers too. Most teams have held their scouting meetings — amateur and pro — by now, which also doubles as an opportunity for management to take stock of organizationally where they’re at. Every team is at or near the 50-game divide. With only eight games on the schedule next week and only 25 more in the first days following the All-Star break, this is the time to take a hard honest look at the standings and figure out if your team has a realistic chance at making the playoffs.
The focus here needs to be the bubble teams, because at some point very soon, the league will divide itself into buyers and sellers. If you’re St. Louis, what do you do? You’re six points back of the eighth-place team, which happens to be the defending…
Read More: NHL bye weeks should bring clarity for Toews, Kane, trade deadline decisions