I think there's a lot more variables in play that make it so difficult to tell what this team looks like next season. Is Fleury going to waive at all? Is there a market for Strome and Kubalik? What can they get for them? Does Toews make a return from yet another concussion? All these questions are tied to draft capital and cap space for next season, it'll certainly be interesting to see what happens at the deadline.

Hawks shouldn't have any trouble fill the remaining spots with their cap. But 22/23 is interesting 21m gone with UFAs Toews and Kane UFA.

Not to mention a gm and possible coach to hire

Yeah, with ownership reaching out to other pro teams in the city to figure out how to do that. Woof...

Kubalik is gonna be gone for sure. I don't know who you see making arguments to keep Kubalik, but most of the Hawks fan regulars on here realize this. Strome, however, is worth more to CHI meeting his QO than he would be in a trade. Outside of that, we need to consider everything surrounding the Hawks organization and how that could be effecting the mental health of the players. The slightest doubt in the mind of any player in the league could be the difference between success and defeat. Also, Kane has supposedly been playing through some sort of injury all season. This team should not and absolutely would not have performed as bad as they have so far this season if not for these circumstances. How much better they would have performed? I don't know. But I can say for certain it would have been better than what we've seen. All that being said, a new GM with some direction, possibly a new coaching staff, a summer off before a fresh new season, and $10mil in cap space can do a lot. Also, I have a feeling Toews might end up "retiring" (on LTIR), which would clear up another $10.5mil in cap space. And I really think that the Hawks organization needs to tackle the sexual assault of Kyle Beach WAY more head on than they have been. They've been playing it WAY too safe on that front. They need to come out and answer the hard questions and speak in absolute detail (not the bullet point corporate PR rehearsed vagaries they have been feeding us) about what they are doing to make sure it never happens again within the system and take a more solid stance on that whole situation. Giving the fans AND the players something to rally behind could make a huge difference from a mental aspect. At the very least, it'll make things less "up in the air" than they are right now.

I'm one of the few that like an outside the box hire like that

Yeah I don't mind that, it's the fact that they have no idea what they're doing without assistance from ambassadors (Eddie, Sharp, and Hossa) and other teams in the city.