I think with no trades, you're more than likley going to see Gaudette or Borgstrom get a shot at 3C with TyJo on the wing (or reversed), but I don't see the Hawks trading for Borg and Gaudette and obliterating their development.

I agree, but it also seems like those trades were made before stan changed his mind that he wanted to be a contender. I'm operating under the assumption that Toews is going to be a full go, because I think theres no way Stan does all this if he isn't. We just have better options than those two guys if we really want to compete. Guadette can play 4C or wing and Borgstrom can get a year in Rockford with Reichel

I think we’re gonna trade Dylan Strome but ok

We gotta stop putting strome on the wing. It just doesn’t work. Trade him or put him at center with Dach at wing.

That's a waste of Dach, in my eyes. If we aren't trading Strome to Seattle for Vince Dunn (still trying to force this into the ether) , then I'd want to see Strome centering a third with Johnson capable to step in and take the draws when needed (spoiler: he will be). I think we should keep Strome, because he's capable of putting up good numbers when he's on. How do we ensure he's on?

Put Debrincat on his left. Strome is at his best with Cat on his line, so I'd like to see a line of CAT-STROME-TJ, which conveniently turns that top line into HAGEL-DACH-KANE. Hagel has proven himself useful in just about every situation, he's more than capable of getting to the dirty spots and taking finesse from 77 & 88 to get it in the net. Puts three legitimately threatening lines out there, and that = sexy time.

Problem from my perspective is that Dach is just not a center. Pure and simple. He can’t take faceoffs and he’s too indirect in his playing style to be an effective center. The latter will most likely come with time. But at wing he could be extremely effective given his size. Now I’ll admit for a guy his size he IS NOT a power forward. He doesn’t hit and really doesn’t appear to have that desire. How Dach does now means very little to me though. When Kane is actually gone, then we’ll see if Dach is for real. It’s been a very polarizing first two years as is.

I agree that strome is best with cat, but I also would rather have Kane with them too. It’s pure magic when they are each feeding off each other. Dach is a long term defensive center in my eyes anyway. He doesn’t shoot and his passing still has a little fine tuning to go. His vision is good but his defensive is very good for his age. Dach just hasn’t earned top line time yet. I don’t want that forced either. Put Johnson with Dach and Hagel with kurashev with toews and kuba, and that’s assuming you go the Dach at center route. Still three very solid lines, especially if people are as high on Dach as they act like. Let’s see him make some others better instead of others making him better.

Dach's future is down the center, putting him at wing only hampers his ability to learn on the job in the role he has to grow into. He hasn't played enough pro games for us to be polarized by his time in Chicago so far, he needs more. His job isn't going to be top line center until Toews is gone, and that ma not be for awhile yet. Who knows. So let's stop worrying about that top line vs 2nd line center stuff.

I just happen to disagree with you on the lines, because I remember how much of a disaster the CAT-DACH-KANE line was in their own zone. Sure they were magic in the offensive zone, but how often were they actually there? They got hemmed in constantly and bad **** happened, and having a disastrous blue line only made it worse.

Maybe now with a better D group, that changes. But for now, I will still reflexively grimace when I see CAT-DACH-KANE hop over the boards.