The Chicago Blackhawks could put another piece of a future core in place if they drafted goaltender Yaroslav Askarov in the first round.
The Chicago Blackhawks know that the future beyond Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane, Duncan Keith, and Brent Seabrook is something they need to somewhat start thinking about. Well, they have a young core budding with players like Kirby Dach, Alex DeBrincat, Adam Boqvist, and Ian Mitchell. One thing they don’t have is a guy you can point to as the goalie of the future. They might look to add one of those in this year’s draft.
They traded Robin Lehner to the Vegas Golden Knights at the trade deadline which shows that they probably didn’t have much mutual interest in a long term deal with him. Corey Crawford is one of the greatest goaltenders in the history of the franchise but he is on an expiring contract as an older player. He might get a short term contract with them again if he wants to stay but they still need a goalie of the future to join this budding core.