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Finnish Blackhawk prospect Teuvo Teravainen saved his best for last in the Hawks’ third game of the just-completed London Rookie Tourney.

Here’s some “youtubes” of him flashing his estimable skill on one of his three assists in the game.



Further proof this kid has top drawer talent. But not proof he’s ready to be the Hawks’ second line center, even though many in the tweet-o-sphere relentlessly bang that drum.

I’ll come back to that.

What I saw through three games in the tourney is a Hawk talent pool that is weak in net and on defense. Time after time in each game, Hawk defensemen were turnstiled/beaten wide, among other glaring issues. Dillon Fournier and Stephen Johns look to have talent you can work with. Neither is close to ready for the NHL.

The forwards were good, and based on all three games, Teravainen and 2011 first rounder Philip Danault were the best Hawk forwards.

Back to Teravainen. If he’s going to play center in the NHL, he will need to be really solid defensively. Or he won’t play center in the NHL for Joel Quenneville. All those who can’t process this should probably look no further than Brandon Pirri and Jeremly Morin, two other “much-loved” prospects that Quenneville has not been comfortable playing very much in the recent past.

Is he bad defensively? I don’t know. I do know he has to also make the transition from larger European ice to smaller North American ice and bigger, faster players. This was evident in game 1 of the tourney, although Teravainen clearly stepped up in game 3. Game 1 jitters? Maybe. A better matchup against the Sens in Game 3? Maybe.

Regardless, perspective—one of my favorite words—is required here. These are glorified scrimmages against kids. Not NHL games against men. Danault looked really good in this same tourney in 2011 (2011 as in three years ago), and he is still, until further notice, a minor league player.

But did both players look head and shoulders better than most of the other players in this tourney? Yep. And that’s usually a harbinger of good things to come.

I’ll be back with more as I have it,


JJ

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