Chicago Blackhawks: Are the new guys making an impact?

Chicago Blackhawks, Kevin Lankinen Mandatory Credit: David Banks-USA TODAY Sports

The defense could be developing a solid foundation

Right behind Lankinen is Ian Mitchell. Yes, he’s almost scored on his goalie several times, but he looks like he belongs in the NHL. While he makes mistakes, he’s becoming more and more confident with each game he plays, especially moving the puck in the offensive zone.  There’s really no denying his impact so far.

For those of you interested in this sort of thing, his possession metrics over the 11 games he’s played are decent.

If he’s only going to improve from this point onward, then Chicago definitely has made a step forward defensively by adding him to their roster.

By contrast, Nikita Zadorov has been…underwhelming. He’s not a rookie, but he was expected to play a major role this year. The logic of acquiring him for Brandon Saad was that Chicago needed to be bigger and have a more imposing presence on the backend, especially with so many new players suiting up this year.

Zadorov was likely intended to be a threat deterrent to make sure people weren’t taking runs at guys like Boqvist, Mitchell, or even Lankinen. The result has been so-so, and both the eye-test and metrics uphold the lack of quality in his play.

People criticized Bowman when he dealt Saad for Zadorov, and so far the experiment hasn’t really been what fans were hoping for or sold on. Big hits are fun and all, but winning games is more fun. Since this year is focused on development, Zadorov should probably be scratched for a game so someone else (Nicolas Beaudin, perhaps?) can get a shot.

Unfortunately, the fact that scratching Zadorov so a largely untested rookie can take his place is a bad sign, especially this early in the season. If this trend continues then trading Saad away will look particularly bad by the end of the year.

Last on this list is Boqvist. He’s harder to pin down because he looks alright in the offensive zone but then appears to struggle a bit defensively. Back in 2018, Boqvist was drawing comparisons to Erik Karlsson.

Karlsson is a Norris-winning defenseman that has been praised and criticized in equal measure throughout his career. One of the most persistent complaints about the former Senators captain is that he doesn’t play defense. You can go back to 2015, and even though being hailed as an elite player, people were consistently saying he was a defensive liability.

On some level, if the comparisons to Karlsson hold up, Boqvist may end up finding himself in a similar situation. Chicago may have a budding offensive-defenseman on their hands who will be plagued by people saying he’s unreliable in his own end, but too valuable offensively to trade away. Only time will tell, but personally, I’d be perfectly happy with a Norris-winning defenseman on the blue line for Chicago. Crossing my fingers that he continues progressing towards this once he clears COVID protocol.

While Lucas Carlsson and Nicolas Beaudin appear to be promising players, neither one of them has played as much as the other players on this list, so they weren’t covered here. However, it wouldn’t be shocking if Beaudin started to get more and more minutes. Even with only a few games, he looks to be legit.

The forwards are a mixed bag

The forwards have been a mixed bag, but Philipp Kurashev should definitely be in the NHL. He, along with Brandon Hagel, probably stands out the most among the newer forwards. While it’s on the horizon, for now, the real issue may become what to do with the rookie center.

Before the proverbial stuff hit the fan with injuries and whatnot, Chicago’s center depth likely would have been (in descending order) Toews, Dach, Strome. Kampf. That order may persist into next year which may push Kurashev out to the wing which isn’t his natural position. For now, Kurashev is absolutely taking advantage of the playing time he’s getting and is proving every game he gets that he should have a place on the roster.

By contrast, Pius Suter has been good but kind of vanishes a bit during games, only to all of a sudden make quality plays here and there. Yes, he did have a hat-trick against Detroit, but aside from that, he has three points in the other 10 games he’s been in. What’s more, his play is inconsistent, and even the metrics back up that he’s not necessarily excelling when he’s on the ice.

The idea that he be played all season to only score 15-20 points seems more and more possible with each game. He’s looking like bottom-six depth, something Chicago has an apparent abundance of at the moment. The scoring touch he had in the Swiss-league doesn’t appear to have followed him to North America, but it’s still early in the season and this could quickly change. He’s shown enough so far skill to be considered differently than a fourth-line grinder such as Matthew Highmore.

Mattis Janmark has also been a surprise and a pleasant one at that. He’s an already proven NHL player, but he’s making positive contributions almost every time he’s on the ice. He works his butt off and makes stuff happen. He’s trying to do what he can in all zones to help Chicago win games, and it’s working even if the team doesn’t have the depth to compete with stronger opponents. Hopefully, his work ethic rubs off on the youngsters because he’s definitely being a great role model for the rookies.

We’ll have to wait and see how the season progresses, but everything is progressing well. The win column looks bad, but that was never the point this year. Chicago is aggressively appraising its depth, and the results have been positive.

This is exactly what this season should be used for, giving prospects and rookies ice-time. Despite everything, this proves to be an exciting year to see how some of these new players progress, and really demonstrate how they could be the start of a brighter future for the Blackhawks.