Chicago Blackhawks’ Mark McNeill Finally Joins Big Club

After 188 games across five seasons with the Rockford IceHogs, Mark McNeill will finally be a member of the Chicago Blackhawks. For how long remains to be seen.

McNeill was recalled by the club Monday morning ahead of tomorrow’s final game before the All-Star break, at Carolina. McNeill, a 6-foot-2 center by trade, was a first-round pick of the Blackhawks way back in 2011, going 18th overall. And he’ll rejoin fellow 2011 first-round selection Phillip Danault in the Indian Head.

McNeill was “the guy” still left in the minors who hadn’t yet broken on to the big club. With the ever-growing list of youngsters the Blackhawks have given trial runs to this season, it’s kind of surprising it took McNeill this long to get to the Blackhawks. Of course, he hasn’t played in all of Rockford’s games this season due to injury, but it’s always kind of surprising to see a first-round pick a team hasn’t soured on spend such a long time in the minors in this day and age.

McNeill this season boats nine goals and 10 assists in 19 games as well as no rating. McNeill was on a six-game points streak with the Hogs, having tallied four goals and three assists in that time.

The Blackhawks, as I noted last week, have been intentionally playing a man down for some time, and this puts them at the full 23 players. Interestingly, Richard Panik‘s name (at the time of this post) appears on the Rockford stats sheet on the team’s website, but his name has not been removed from the Blackhawks’ website roster, nor has anyone said Panik has been or will be demoted. So for now, the Blackhawks are rolling with 23 players.

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The timing of this move is somewhat interesting at face value, considering Chicago just has tomorrow’s game at Carolina before the All-Star break. Of course, playing against the lowly Hurricanes would be a great way for McNeill to make his NHL debut. Where he’d slot in isn’t entirely certain, as CSN Chicago’s Tracey Myers notes the Blackhawks probably won’t practice before Tuesday’s game. The easy answer is he gives Rasmussen a breather, or one of McNeill or Rasmussen slots in on a fourth-line wing to prevent us from having to see more Brandon Mashinter.

Also, as pointed out by the Chicago Sun-Times’ Mark Lazerus, the Blackhawks have a three-game road swing through Colorado, Arizona and Dallas coming out of the break, so perhaps the team is being cautious in case of injury — a wise move, in my view.

Here’s how Hockey’s Future sees the 22-year-old McNeill:

“McNeill is a solidly-built forward that plays with keen awareness at both ends of the ice. He has the ability to impose his will in both zones, whether it be by forcing a turnover defensively or facilitating the play in the offensive end. He is versatile and can play both center and wing. When at his best, his presence makes opponents tentative. However, overall consistency can be an issue. McNeill has shown that he can be more than just a one-dimensional player as he has been used both on the powerplay and penalty-killing units. He has the size and hands to be an effective offensive performer, but needs to work on his focus.”