The parade is over, the confetti has been swept up, the champagne has been poured out, each player has had its day with The Cup. The banner has been raised, and the puck has been dropped on a new season. Sadly, for the Blackhawks and their fans, the Cup has been taken given back by the NHL, but they cannot take away the great memories that the 2015 Blackhawks gave the City of Chicago.

  Now it is the 2016 Blackhawks’ job to defend their title and hoist the Cup again in mid June. The Hawks have been the center of attention this past offseason with the charges on Patrick Kane. If you haven’t heard of them yet, Kane was accused of sexually assaulting a woman in his home near Buffalo, NY. Kane was taken off the cover of NHL ‘16, and it seemed possible that the Hawks were thinking about parting ways with the troubled but talented 26-year old superstar. After some of the evidence in the case began to become in question the case has been toned down and Kane was able to return to the team and play.

  The Hawks also lost some key players this past offseason due to having little salary cap room. Some of these players included Patrick Sharp, Antoine Vermette, Johnny Oduya, Brad Richards, and Brandon Saad. Sharp, who the Hawks have been trying to trade for the past 2 years now, was traded to the Dallas Stars. Vermette, who was acquired at the trade deadline last year, signed a two-year contract with the Arizona Coyotes. Oduya, a hawks defenseman and one of the fan favorites, signed a contract with the Dallas Stars which is a two year deal. Richards, acquired going into last season, signed a one-year deal with the Blackhawks rival, the Detroit Red Wings. And probably the most shocking and depressing loss of them all had to be losing rising star Brandon Saad and known as “Man Child”. Saad wanted more money on his next contract, which was rightly so he played quite well enough to earn a raise. The Blackhawks, however, did not have enough money to pay Saad because the Hawks were more worried about re-signing defenseman Brent Seabrook, which they signed to a seven-year deal this summer.

  With only one year left on his contract the Hawks decided to get something out of the prospect. So instead of letting him walk away to get more money from another team the Hawks traded Saad to the Columbus Blue Jackets for some players and a future draft pick. This was upsetting to the fans because of how much Saad was loved but this is a business and the Blackhawks front office has shown the fans before that they know what they are doing. They are not afraid to make the tough choice if it will benefit the team and if that means parting ways with Saad, they will do it. The Hawks do have two young stars, one who played on the Stanley Cup winning team last year, Teuvo Teräväinen along with Artemi Panarin, a 23 year old left winger who has already made himself known in the NHL as a playmaker. The Blackhawks look to be just as exciting as they have been in years past. A lot of hockey analysts have been overlooking the Blackhawks and not seeing them as the favorite this year.

  Do not let them fool you, as long as you have Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane, Marian Hossa on attack, Duncan Keith, Niklas Hjalmarsson, Brent Seabrook on defense and Corey Crawford in goal anything is possible. This is still a very talented team that has an amazing chance of making a deep run in the playoffs. And who know, maybe next year around this time you will see the Hawks raising another banner with the title “Stanley Cup Champions 2016”.