Mark Madden: Blackhawks' situation with aging stars sounds very familiar

When NHL free agency hit last weekend, Chicago made moves with an eye toward the future. It traded winger Brandon Saad, a two-time Stanley Cup winner. It let goalie Corey Crawford walk via free agency. He also won two Cups. The Blackhawks want to skew younger.

The Blackhawks’ core four of Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane, Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook is upset. Seabrook is signed for four more years. Toews, Kane and Keith have three years left.

Toews stated his displeasure to TheAthletic.com via thinly-veiled diplomacy. Cliches abounded: “I want to win.” “We prepare ourselves to win a Cup for our fans.” “It’s a completely different direction than we expected.” “I’ve never been told that we were going through a rebuild.”

Toews is an excellent hockey player. (He used to be better.)

He’s also delusional.

When did Toews become general manager? Why does he need to be apprised of the team’s direction? It’s a courtesy to a veteran, yes. But it sounds like Toews wants input. (Toews engineered trading winger Artemi Panarin to reacquire preferred linemate Saad in 2017. Panarin was an MVP finalist this year. Saad wasn’t. So much for Toews’ prowess as a GM.)

While Toews may “want to win,” and prepares to “win a Cup for our fans” (gag), the Blackhawks are done doing that.

Chicago last won the Stanley Cup in 2015. The Blackhawks lost in the first round in 2016 and ’17, then missed the postseason in 2018 and ’19. They made it this past campaign because the field was expanded to 12 teams in each conference. The Blackhawks were the No. 12 seed in the West and upset Edmonton in the preliminary round before losing to Vegas in the first round proper.

That’s five years of sub-mediocrity. The window has closed for the Blackhawks. Toews doesn’t know it, or doesn’t want to.

Part of the problem: Chicago signed that core four for too long and for too much. Toews definitely doesn’t want to know that.

A legit rebuild means getting rid of some of those four. If any asked out, management surely would be tempted to oblige — save Kane, who is still a game-breaker. But instead of truly rebuilding, the Blackhawks chose to disintegrate slowly and give those four a few victory laps.

Actually, it wasn’t really a choice: The core four each have full no-movement clauses.

Does any of this sound familiar?

What Toews says is understandable. He believes what he says. That’s what makes great players great. But talk is cheap, and those four contracts aren’t.

The Blackhawks’ core players don’t stink. But in a playoff series, when you game plan and can draw a bead on your opponent over the course of between four and seven games, losing even a half-step puts you on the back foot.

Does it sound familiar yet? (It played out the same way in Detroit and Los Angeles.)

It hasn’t gone that bad for the Pittsburgh Penguins, yet. Maybe it won’t. But that’s certainly the direction the Penguins seem pointed in. Consider what Chicago did in ’16 and ’17. The Metro Division is improving by leaps and bounds. The Penguins are no lock to make the playoffs next season.

When it goes bad, GM Jim Rutherford will be the bad guy — wrongly so, because there’s no trade(s) that can fix what’s happening.

The time to make a blockbuster deal was after the second-round elimination by Washington in 2018. Evgeni Malkin was 31 and coming off a 98-point season. He’d have fetched big return, and younger legs and spirit could have been assembled around Sidney Crosby.

But the Penguins didn’t do that. Ownership doesn’t want to trade stars, understandably so. Malkin has a full no-movement clause, anyway.

Trading Malkin would have offered no guarantees. But what’s happening can’t be stopped.

GM Stan Bowman is the bad guy in Chicago. The stars are Teflon to the media and fans.

Boy, this has to be sounding awful familiar.

Chicago’s Keith breaks down what he wants in very simple terms: “Shouldn’t we be trying to win? I mean, we’re the Blackhawks, right? Let’s do it.”

Rah, rah, sis boom bah. If only it were that simple.

Bowman isn’t trying to lose. But no team wins forever, especially in a league with a salary cap.

What also isn’t so simple is to look in the mirror and see yourself as you really are.