unlikely Nazar plays at least the first third of the season in the NHL. He's likely going to start in the AHL and see how it goes from there. Hawks will bring in a top 6 player almost certainly, but TBD who that will be. Levshunov spends the season at Michigan and signs at the end of their season as you indicated, maybe getting in 9 or less games so the Hawks don't burn a year of his ELC.

This is pretty much the worst possible Hawks offseason. I have no idea why they’d bring back basically every free agent. Anderson and maybe Raddysh still show promise at forward; Philips and Crevier would both be fine on a two-way deal as a seventh defenseman. Entwistle, Reese Johnson, and Roos each bring nothing to the team. Tinordi was terrible last year; literally anybody else would be a better 3rd line defenseman. If the team is counting on the young guys to take a step forward, then presumably one of Wyatt Kaiser and Ethan Del Mastro will be the 3rd line LD. As for the forward lines, Bedard is on the 1st line, Dickinson 2nd, Foligno 3rd at best;

Honestly, I would actually prefer something closer to this. I would still like one top 6 addition and one solid vet RD, but outside of that, I think this is better for the rebuild. All these other ideas people keep proposing cost too many assets and will probably get us in cap trouble down the road.

The worst possible summer, imho, would be if they went on some big spending spree, acquiring players and signing big contracts. That would just be a big old slap in the face and offend my senses.

I suppose you’re right. “Worst possible offseason” was incredibly hyperbolic of me— none of these moves hurt the team long term. But this would also reflect a complete lack of desire to move forward in the rebuild: no prospects playing in the NHL, no upgrades to play with the young players already in the NHL, nothing to move along the rebuild. Looking at the team last year and deciding to run it back would be ridiculous.