Blackhawks: Alex DeBrincat should have gone top five in the 2016 draft

During the 2016 NHL draft, the Chicago Blackhawks did not have a pick until the second round. With the 39th overall pick, the team grabbed one of the best players from the entire draft, Alex DeBrincat.

Redrafting the entire 2016 NHL draft would have some pretty bad consequences for the Chicago Blackhawks.

The Blackhawks took a chance on Alex DeBrincat. After seeing other undersized players like Tyler Johnson succeed in the NHL, the team was able to take a chance on DeBrincat even though he is 5’8″ DeBrincat proved that he doesn’t need to be the tallest player on the ice to be successful.

DeBrincat has put up 229 points throughout his career thus far. That is the fourth-best total amongst the entire draft class, which puts him behind Matthews, Tkachuk, and Laine for one of the best starts to his career.

The 2016 NHL draft seems to be one of the deeper drafts of the past couple of seasons. The depth includes players like Mikhail Sergachev and Charlie McAvoy as well as one Chicago player that recently signed a nice extension: Brandon Hagel.

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The fact that DeBrincat was a second-round pick will be one of the steals of the weirder things to follow DeBrincat throughout his career, but for Chicago, it will be the blessing this team needed. Finding star players later in the draft is something every team shoots for when they acquire any type of draft pick.

For Tampa Bay star players like Point, Kucherov, and Palat were all found outside of the first round with Kucherov being a second-round pick, Point a third, and Palat a seventh. Outside of Andrew Shaw being drafted in the fifth round, I do believe that the DeBrincat draft in the second round is one of the best picks in Blackhawks history. That is until someone else comes around and changes that.

Alex DeBrincat led the Blackhawks in goals last season but not points. He was ten behind Patrick Kane for the team lead but this season I think we could see DeBrincat take over the team when it comes to offense.

He had 18 points on the power play and his ice time was at an all-time high. This season DeBrincat will have even more players he can pass the puck to set up great goals as well as get great one-timers from. If this rebuild really is over it will be because of the great play of DeBrincat that this team finds a new level.