Blackhawks trying to find opportunity in adversity The defending champions are dealing with significant roster turnover and off-ice distractions, writes TSN's Senior Hockey Reporter Frank Seravalli in his latest column.

Frank Seravalli TSN Senior Hockey Reporter Follow|Archive

SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Joel Quenneville was startled as he scanned the Blackhawks’ locker room during his annual training camp meeting with players.

They were actually paying attention.

“As I was talking, I’d never seen such an attentive group in all my life,” Quenneville said. “I was wondering why everybody was so alert.

"It was because I didn’t know half the guys. There were a lot of new faces, a lot of different guys.”

Quenneville, 57, is on the precipice of perhaps the most difficult coaching job of his career - certainly of his eight seasons in Chicago.

He admitted on Friday, after the Blackhawks’ first on-ice workouts of the season, that he will need to make more roster decisions than ever since being hired five games into the 2008-09 season. The salary cap’s rise of just $2.4 million, compared to the average of nearly $5 million over the last four off-seasons, handcuffed the Blackhawks again.

Add in the “challenging” summer that Blackhawks president John McDonough said has “weighed on all of us,” and Patrick Kane’s sexual assault allegation that undoubtedly provides an enormous distraction. From the drop of the puck, the Blackhawks face an uphill climb to become the first team to repeat as Stanley Cup champions since the Detroit Red Wings in 1997 and 1998.

“I think we’ll be fine,” Quenneville said coolly.

For the Blackhawks, this training camp feels a lot more like 2010 than 2013, when they were also suiting up to defend the Stanley Cup. That summer, the Blackhawks moved on from Dustin Byfuglien, Andrew Ladd, Brian Campbell, Troy Brouwer and Antti Niemi.

“I look back to 2010 and we lost, I would say, almost half the team, and we got off to an ordinary start (16-12-2),” Quenneville said. “This year, I would say, we definitely lost three or four key pieces to our team that were a part of it, who had meaningful contributions.”

The Blackhawks said goodbye to Brandon Saad, Patrick Sharp, Antoine Vermette, Brad Richards and Johnny Oduya all because of salary cap constraints. Kimmo Timonen rode off into the sunset.

The roster is littered with young players fighting for jobs, particularly on the back-end. There are numerous holes to fill, questions to be answered.

“It’s odd when the season starts. You look around the room and there are a lot of new faces still,” Jonathan Toews said. “You miss those guys. You want your team to stay the same, especially when you have success. You want that team to stay the same forever. Unfortunately, that’s just not the way things work.

“We’ll trying to find opportunity in most things people view as adversity.”

There will be plenty of adversity. The Hawks are now targets, both on and off the ice, at least until legal clarity is achieved in Kane’s allegation. That cloud could linger for the bulk of the season, too, if Kane is indicted by an Erie County grand jury investigation.

Thanks to Bowman, the Blackhawks are still in relatively good shape.

He could have traded Sharp to Dallas in exchange for prospects and more salary cap flexibility, but he opted to reload with Trevor Daley and Ryan Garbutt than rebuild. Marko Dano, who skated with Toews on Friday, came over in the Saad trade with Columbus and can step in immediately. There is more room for Teuvo Teravainen to grow. Forward Artemi Panarin, a KHL import, is expected to jump into the top two lines.

For all of the turnover, Blackhawks still have six players left from their 2010 Stanley Cup championship roster. By comparison, only Claude Giroux remains on the Flyers, the team they faced in the 2010 final. Their opponent from 2013, Boston, has seven players remaining; the Hawks have eight.

With almost every tough roster decision, Bowman has made the right choice in whom to ship off. They have core anchors at every position: Toews, Kane, Marian Hossa, Ducan Keith, Brent Seabrook and Corey Crawford.

And you could still make a playoff-calibre roster from the Blackhawks’ castoffs who are still active in the league (below).

“You could look down the line from Ladd to Byfuglien to all those guys who are leaders and all-star players who started here and moved on,” said Bryan Bickell, one of the 2010 holdovers. “It’s part of the business: you win and teams want you.”

How will the Hawks carry on?

“Like we have before,” Bickell said, smiling.

There will be growing pains. Young players can’t be expected to fill the void of all-stars. And the circus-like media hordes are not going away anytime soon.

“We didn’t say we weren’t going to be tested going into the season,” Quenneville said. “We welcome that challenge. At the end of the day, we think knowing how to win hockey games is in place with our key personnel. These guys have an amazing appetite for winning.”

Hawks Departures

What would a depth chart look like filled with all of the Blackhawks' departures since winning the 2010 Stanley Cup?

Forwards Left Wing Centre Right Wing Brandon Saad Antoine Vermette Troy Brouwer Andrew Ladd Michael Frolik Jimmy Hayes Patrick Sharp Brad Richards Kris Versteeg Brandon Bollig Brandon Pirri Viktor Stalberg Joakim Nordstrom Dave Bolland Tomas Kopecky*

Defence Defence Brian Campbell Dustin Byfuglien Nick Leddy Johnny Oduya Sheldon Brookbank Michal Roszival*

Goalies Goaltender Antti Niemi Antti Raanta Ray Emery

*Currently back with Blackhawks on a tryout contract

Frank Seravalli can be reached at frank.seravalli@bellmedia.ca.