Chicago will enter into the goalie market this offseason as Stan Bowman has confirmed that the team will not bring back veteran Corey Crawford who’ll now become an unrestricted free agent.
“I had a conversation with Corey earlier today and it was an emotional talk,” Bowman said. “The message to Corey and to everyone is that we’ve decided we have some young goaltenders in Chicago we believe in, much like Corey [in 2010]. We have a couple young goalies in [Kevin] Lankinen and [Collin] Delia who we haven’t given a real opportunity to. With where we’re headed, the NHL is relying more and more on young players. We’re going to embrace that moving forward.”
The decision to move on from Crawford doesn’t come as much of a surprise for a Chicago team that is at this point in need of a rebuild, a task they seem comfortable with Bowman undertaking given the team bringing him back in March.
The 35-year-old Crawford though has certainly left his mark on the organization since being drafted by the team back in 2003. As it stands now, Crawford will leave Chicago with the third most wins in team history compiling a total record of 260-162-53 with a 2.45 GAA, .918 save percentage, and 26 shutouts in 488 games (474 starts) in 13 NHL seasons, all in the Windy City.
Crawford was also part of the 2013 and 2015 Stanley Cup teams in Chicago.
Moving on though, Bowman has already made his intentions to sign backup Malcolm Subban who’s slated to become a restricted free-agent on October 9. Beyond Subban, the Blackhawks could turn to Lankinen and Delia who each played for Rockford in the AHL. Lankinen (25) was 8-10-2 with a 3.03 GAA and .909 save percentage in 21 AHL games having never played a game in the NHL. Delia (26) on the other hand was 16-13-1 with a 2.66 GAA, .912 save percentage, and three shutouts in 32 games. He does have experience playing in the NHL, 18 games to be exact back during the 2018-19 season when he went 7-5-3 with a 3.65 GAA and .906 save percentage.
