Three Reasons To Like The Chicago Blackhawks Center Situation

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Tyler Johnson #90, Chicago Blackhawks (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images) /

The Chicago Blackhawks preseason has been filled with a lot of fun things to watch. From Marc-Andre Fleury playing a game in a Hawks uniform to seeing Seth Jones on the blue line. One area I think the team has done a great job with has been the center depth.

The Blackhawks traded for Tyler Johnson this offseason and a lot of people, myself included, assumed he would be the guy on the third line. This season to start training camp though Jeremy Colliton showed that probably was not the case as he started Johnson with Alex DeBrincat and Patrick Kane.

The decision has created a really offensive top line to watch with those three stars, and while they might be undersized compared to other lines in the league, I hope they can stick together for the majority of the season.

With Johnson being on the top line that leaves guys like Jonathan Toews and Kirby Dach available to play on the second and third line. Obviously, throughout the past ten years, the Kane and Toews lines could be interchanged as the first and second lines and this year is no different.

Toews with Kubalik and potentially a guy like Brandon Hagel plays an all-around game that the Johnson line doesn’t have. There are some reasonable doubts as to why the Hawks shouldn’t use Johnson with Kane and DeBrincat, but today I want to highlight three reasons why that is the best move for the team.

1. The Depth Is On Full Display

The Chicago Blackhawks are going to have three really good lines. One with Johnson Kane and DeBrincat that can score a lot of goals, one with Toews that can win a lot of faceoffs and provide offense as well, and then the Dach line which will be the wildcard line in my opinion.

Having a top nine that has Toews Johnson and Dach down the middle is a step up from last season, and is a great improvement on the Hawks centermen depth from the past handful of seasons.

Toews has been winning a heck of a lot of faceoffs throughout training camp and the preseason, and Johnson is also a very capable guy in the dot. Dach on the other hand definitely still needs to develop and improve but the great thing is he can do that in a sheltered third-line role. This brings me to the second reason I like this center situation.

Kirby Dach #77, Chicago Blackhawks Mandatory Credit: Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports /

2. No One Line Needs To Do Everything

The Blackhawks are in a position where no one line needs to do everything for the team. Yes, Toews will be primarily utilized in a defensive role, and the line with Johnson is going to be heavily offensively with a lot of offensive zone draws, but at the end of the day every line in the top nine is capable of playing in any situation, and there is not a drastic drop off in skill from line to line.

3. Kirby Dach Gets To Play In A Better Situation

Kirby Dach on the third line with guys like Adam Gaudette or whoever the Hawks decide to play with Dach will be playing in more favorable matchups. Kane is going to get the best defensive guys the opponent has to offer, and so will Toews. So Dach being on the third line is going to give him some more favorable matchups than if he was on a line with Patrick Kane playing 20 plus minutes a night.

Playing Dach in this position gives him the opportunity to gain some more confidence after missing a lot of time last season, and build some chemistry with some other forwards on the team. The third line is such an interesting unit in my mind because it could feature a guy like Dylan Strome who is looking to make an impact on the roster and show he belongs with this team.

Chicago has a lot of options down the middle. Outside of the big three in Johnson Toews and Dach, the team has a handful of other options like Borgstrom, Gaudette, Strome, and Carpenter should anyone get injured and the team needs to run with a different player down the middle for a few weeks.

The Blackhawks center depth has arguable never been as good as it has been right now. Even with the uncertainty revolving around Johnson and his size, Toews and his health, and Dach and his inexperience, the three centermen together can provide a really good top nine this season for a team trying to make a push for the postseason.

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1. The Depth Is On Full Display

2. No One Line Needs To Do Everything

3. Kirby Dach Gets To Play In A Better Situation

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