Chicago Blackhawks Greatest 100- #66 Darcy Rota

The Chicago Blackhawks countdown to the all-time greatest is down to #66 which brings up another 200 foot player that didn’t seem to live up to his potential.

After a fine juniors career, Darcy Rota was the 13th selection overall in the first round by the Chicago Blackhawks in the 1973 draft.

Rota stepped right into the lineup the next fall, and in a move Joel Quenneville would never make, Rota was put on a line with Stan Mikita and Cliff Koroll. He had a solid rookie season with the two veterans netting 21 goals in his rookie campaign.

Rota played a 200 foot game which meant sometimes his offense suffered because he was covering all of the ice, so he never really lived up to the big time scorer everyone expected. He was a consistent scorer though scoring over 20 goals in his first four full seasons with the Chicago Blackhawks.

After playing with Mikita, Rota also played on a line with Dale Tallon and Chico Maki, and he proved he was consistent up and down the ice on a nightly basis.

Rota played 448 games with the Blackhawks scoring 117 times with 110 assists, but none of that was good enough to stay because the Hawks really liked Tom Lysiak, and Rota was one of the pieces sent to Atlanta to get the high scoring centerman.