The Chicago Blackhawks hit the jackpot ahead of the 2019-20 season when the team signed Dominik Kubalik and he proceeded to score 30 goals in his rookie season in only 68 games. His scoring pace never matched that again, but for the years the Blackhawks had him under contract, he scored and did well or well enough.
The Blackhawks first signed him to a one-year deal. Then after Kubalik scored 30 goals and finished with 46 points, he earned himself a two-year deal with Chicago, scoring 32 goals and 78 points over 134 games across the two seasons. In his final year with the Blackhawks, he scored just 15 goals and 32 points in 78 games and the team cut ties at the right time.
This was a time when the Blackhawks made a decision to break everything down and rebuild. Part of this involved not sending a qualifying offer to Kubalik who became an unrestricted free agent. While this and most of the other moves made during the 2022 offseason were questionable, the feeling was that the Blackhawks could’ve at least got something in return for Kubalik on the trade market if they had qualified him.
As it played out, the Blackhawks walked away with nothing from his three seasons of solid play, but instead of committing to a few more years on a contract, Kubalik had a solid bounce-back season in Detroit the following year before falling hard in Ottawa last season.
Kubalik went from 20 goals and 45 points on the Red Wings to 11 goals and 15 points on the Senators to close out his two-year contract. He played nearly three fewer minutes per game last season and it was the first time in his five-year career that he didn’t record at least 150 shots, only finishing with 91.
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It was a major decline to see the former 30-goal scorer with the Blackhawks demoted to the fourth line and be so much less effective without any confidence in his game.
What the cherry on top of the Blackhawks making the right decision is that Kubalik is still without a contract and there have been no rumblings about any team signing him to a PTO for this season. It remains to be seen what his future holds, but for now, Chicago is on an upward trajectory with a lot of talent and without Kubalik.
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