Dylan Strome's success with Capitals reflects poorly on every NHL team, not just Blackhawks
As Dylan Strome grows into a bigger and bigger star for the Capitals, the Blackhawks' decision to walk away from him for nothing in July 2022 looks silly in hindsight.
But it shouldn't be just the Hawks who look bad in this situation. The entire NHL blundered its pro scouting of Strome during the 2021-22 season, putting the Hawks in a difficult position and costing many teams the opportunity to acquire a future core player.
Hawks general manager Kyle Davidson began shopping Strome as soon as he took over as interim GM, knowing he wanted to position the team to be as bad as possible in 2022-23 in addition to accumulating as many draft picks as possible.
He found plenty of interest in Brandon Hagel — and eventually Alex DeBrincat and Kirby Dach — but he found a surprising dearth of interest in Strome. It's believed the only offers Davidson received were comically unsubstantial, such as sixth- or seventh-round picks.
Even Strome's second-half surge that season, as he tallied 36 points in 35 games between Jan. 4 and April 4 (including 14 points in his last nine games before the deadline), didn't drum up demand. He finished with 48 total points in 69 games.
The fact he was a pending free agent who would require a $3.6 million qualifying offer surely deterred suitors. So did his slow skating, his inability to shift to the wing and his inability to drive his own line (since he was productive only alongside talented linemates like DeBrincat and Patrick Kane).
After the Hawks didn't qualify Strome, making him an unrestricted free agent, he sat idly on the market for a day and a half before receiving a single contract offer: one year at $3.5 million from the Capitals. In a recent story in the Players' Tribune, Strome detailed the process of accepting that offer while playing golf.
"When the Hawks didn’t qualify me...I was surprised, for sure," Strome wrote. "But I was ready. I knew who I was as a player, as a person. I wanted to go somewhere I could show that."
The Capitals' gamble has paid off handsomely. The same traits that other teams viewed as weaknesses have made Strome a perfect fit as Alex Ovechkin's center.
Strome earned a five-year, $25 million contract in 2023 after breaking out for a career-high 65 points in his first Capitals season. He eclipsed that mark with 67 points in 2023-24, then shattered it with 82 points this season, averaging a full point-per-game and tying for 20th in the league.
He assisted on 23 of Ovechkin's 44 goals this season, including Ovechkin's 893rd career goal April 4 against the Hawks and his record-breaking 895th two days later against the Islanders.
Strome is already off to a hot start in the Capitals' playoff run, as are several other ex-Hawks. Colin Blackwell and Phillip Danault have both buried dramatic game-winning goals for the Stars and Kings, respectively.
Hypothetically, Strome would be a nice complementary forward for Connor Bedard next season, but that's unrealistic because the Hawks probably wouldn't have been terrible enough to win the lottery for Bedard had they kept Strome. That's why the true disappointment — from a Chicago perspective — was not getting anything for Strome, rather than moving on from him.
Plenty of other teams have more reason to regret the missed opportunity.
Would the Bruins still be a playoff team if they had Strome centering David Pastrnak? Would the Rangers' contention window still be open if they had Strome centering Artemi Panarin? How different would the Flames look if they had signed Strome instead of Nazem Kadri at double the price?
Could Davidson have done more to find a taker for Strome in 2022? Maybe, maybe not. But this wasn't just a Hawks mistake. This was a league-wide mistake.