Anything is possible

With that goalie tandem, absolutely

Hawks 100% have the skill to make the playoffs. Now with Shaw back It looks even better (I miss Shawzy)

Can Crawford stay healthy? If so, that tandem is the best in the league.

2 Big additions to the blue line.

Full season of Strome, Nylander...

This is a nice team...Not a bad time to be a hawks fan at all!

Either just miss or just make

With the following lines yes, and depending on goaltending yes.

Saad (Nylander, Sikura) - Toews - Kane
Cat - Strome - Shaw
Kublik - Kampf (Smith) - Perlini (Saad)
Caggs - Smith (Kampf) - Carpentar

Keith - Gus
De Haan - Murphy
Maatta - Seabs

The wild card in my opinion is who will emerge out of Kubalik, Sikura, Perlini, and Nylander. If two of those guys can put up 20 goals or more and goaltending shows up then it's a lock. Personally I think Kubalik is going to be the best of those 4. Saarella is a wild card to watch also.

It's always a bad time to be a Hawks fan

I 100% agree with you. Kubalik is gonna be a stud IMO. I think Sikura and Perlini are expendable. Nylander is my 20 goal scorer wild card. Saarela and Wedin will be top forward call ups for injuries and Saarela makes the team next year.

I believe they are. They're the same team if not better offensively. Another year in the league for Debrincat/Strome can't hurt and the addition of some high level forward prospects like Kubalik/Nylander/Dach more than make up for Kahun's departure. They also addressed their (3) biggest areas of need. Their defense was quite bad. Added DeHaan and Maatta. Their goalie situation was suspect because Crow is often injured these days and Delia might not be ready for that kind of work load...signed Lehner. Their PK was atrocious...added (3) new PK guys in Maatta, Smith, and Carpenter. Also, let's not forget that they weren't the 3rd worst team in the league last year. They just happened to win the lottery. So being 2 spots out of the playoffs isn't exactly the biggest hill to climb.

Yee at the very least a wild card spot.

There's potential there but I think they likely just miss.

As a leafs fan, I see it as a HUGE disappointment if the hawks miss the playoffs. There's really no excuse this year.. but that's just my 2 cents.

It's really hard to say. There's only room for 5 central teams in the playoffs. If you assume that Minnesota misses and the wildcard slots to go Central teams, then you need to pick one team of the following to miss:

St Louis (Reigning cup champs)
Nashville (Lost Subban but gained Duchene)
Winnipeg (Lost some parts, still a powerhouse)
Dallas (Picked up Pavelski)
Colorado (Huge Offseason. Added Kadri, Donskoi, Burakovsky and will have a full season of Makar)
Chicago (Added depth and a Vezina finalist goaltender)

Basically, Colorado and Chicago are going to be gunning for the WC2 spot.

I still say they just miss. The defense is still in shambles, but the goaltending could be a bright spot. Still, I think the offense will always produce, since we've always had great firepower. But that defense, it's still not there. de Haan is a great add, since he plays defense and can move the puck and skate. Besides Keith (in a limited capacity), none of the other dmen can do that. Seabrook can't skate or play offense, Gus can't play D, Maatta is a terrible skater and a questionable puck mover, and while I actually like murph, I don't see any offensive upside (including moving the puck). People forget that while our D was a huge problem last year, an even bigger problem was our inability to carry/move the puck in/out of our own zone. That, unfortunately, hasn't changed for the most part. All in all, I think between not moving the puck well enough on the back end, and our really REALLY big problem with no speed, our goals against are still gonna be a problem. But hey, I've been wrong before.

I am confident in making the playoffs. I know the central is stacked but I think the hawks can do it. The two wild card spots very well could go to two central teams. We finished the season very strong and almost snuck into playoffs last year despite the terrible start of the season we had. Our goaltending last year was not good. Ward was not ideal during the time Crow was out. We addressed that with Lehner. If Crow is healthy, we have the best tandem in the league. Our defense was not good last season. De Haan was a huge pick up, as was Maata. This will let Seabrook play less minutes and have a better partner. Colliton will now have the team for the whole season. It seems like things were going right towards the end, hopefully they can go right from the start. The amount of forwards we have fighting for those last few spots is incredible. Whoever it is, is really gonna have to earn it. If someone starts playing bad or someone gets injured, we have players that can file those roles. Last year we had Martinsen, Johnson and Fortin filling in at times. The guys we have now to fill the lineup during these times are a huge upgrade. And our PK was terrible. I like the kind of game Smith brings to our team. I think he will absolutely own the PK.

If we last in the league being a hawk fan is the best?

Hoping for some good battles this year

I think the Hawks have a decent shot at the playoffs - they had some flashes of good play last year and they got better this summer - but like some people above said, even if 5 central teams get into the playoffs, it'll be tough for them to find room. Gotta play the games to see what really happens though.

It’s so dumb like why does almost every central team have a playoff looking team? put us in the pacific this isn’t fair ?

Yes