NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Kyle Davidson wasted little time putting pen to paper with Nick Foligno.
The Blackhawks’ general manager inked Foligno to a one-year contract with a $4 million salary-cap hit Tuesday, one day after acquiring his free-agent rights from the Bruins in the trade that also brought wing Taylor Hall to Chicago.
It’s probably an overpay on the 35-year-old veteran forward, but the Hawks can afford to do it. And they probably needed to in order to persuade Foligno, in the later stages of his career, to stick around on a team with no playoff aspirations next season.
Foligno has slowed down from his heyday as Blue Jackets captain, but his personality hasn’t changed, and he remains a smart, reliable player, particularly in the defensive zone.
He finished with 26 points (10 goals, 16 assists) in 60 games with the Bruins last season while averaging 12:22 of ice time. Opponents generated only 25.7 scoring chances per 60 minutes during Foligno’s five-on-five shifts, which put him fourth-best among Bruins forwards and better than anyone on the Hawks.
Davidson raved Tuesday about the leadership Foligno will provide. The contrast between that and his earlier justifications for not bringing back Hawks veterans Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews is interesting, but he likely believes Foligno will offer teammates guidance without requiring the immense level of deference that Kane and Toews did.
“Whatever young players end up on our team next year — [and] there’s going to be some spots open for young players — they’re going to be in an environment where they’ll have some great mentorship and leadership in that room,” Davidson said.
Defensive decisions
The Hawks will give forward Philipp Kurashev a qualifying offer, preserving his restricted free-agent rights, agent Pat Brisson confirmed Tuesday. But they won’t give defenseman Caleb Jones a qualifying offer, making him an unrestricted free agent.
With Jones therefore moving on, and with Alec Regula and Ian Mitchell having been traded, the Hawks’ short-term defensive depth chart looks a little shallow, particularly on the right side with only Seth Jones, Connor Murphy and Nikita Zaitsev. That could be an area Davidson addresses this week.
“It’s something we’ve certainly considered, giving some of our left-shot defensemen the opportunity to play the other side,” Davidson said. “We’ll see how that plays out, but there’s some opportunity there.
“[I’m] also not ruling out going out and perhaps picking up a right-shot ‘D’ in free agency, but [that’s] nothing we’re going to chase. [There are a] couple of different options.”
Draft prep — and butterflies for Bedard
Connor Bedard stuck to his favorite “wait and see” line again Tuesday in regard to the Blackhawks picking him No. 1 overall, but the realization seemed to sink in that the moment is finally coming Wednesday night.
“Me and [fellow top prospect Nate] Danielson were talking — I don’t think we’re going to sleep at all tonight,” Bedard said. “We’ll probably be pretty wound up. It’s just super exciting how close it is, and to be here with friends and family. It’s hard to have words for it.”
Davidson said the Hawks will hold off on officially declaring their first pick until they walk on stage Wednesday, in order to “respect the function of the draft and the ceremony of the draft.”
Their No. 19 pick, on the other hand, will be highly unclear until the Jets pick 18th. But the Hawks have prepared for all possible scenarios for how other teams could act and have become “really comfortable” with their prospect rankings, Davidson said.
