Pick 6: Goalies (blackhawks)

blackhawks

Pick 6: Goalies

By Theo Fox

Jan 20, 2022 • 9:03 pm

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Note: The candidate pool spans the entire organization which includes the Blackhawks, not just the IceHogs and the rest of the system.

Top 3 in the Organization

1. Drew Commesso 2. Arvid Soderblom 3. Kevin Lankinen

Top 3 Honorable Mentions

1. Dominic Basse 2. Cale Morris 3. Collin Delia

Commesso is head of the class as far as Blackhawks goaltending prospects. He's having a strong sophomore campaign in college, served as Team USA's starter at the truncated World Junior Championships, and was recently invited to represent his country at the Winter Olympics. His star is rising which hopefully carries over to his pro career.

What's to like about Commesso is quite identical to what's to like about Arvid Soderblom: they're both calm in the crease, they play big, and they move efficiently. Commesso lets plays come to him and manages rebounds effectively. Even though both are athletic, Soderblom is relatively more explosive in how he gets around the paint.

Like Commesso and Soderblom, Kevin Lankinen also shows composure in net and is even keel from start to start. He won't crank out gems of games on the regular but he also doesn't get habitually blown out of the water either. If you want an example of that, look no further than Collin Delia who can run scorching hot or chilling cold.

Any team should look for stability between the pipes and the Hawks could get that from Commesso, Soderblom, and/or Lankinen. That doesn't mean they're Vezina caliber. What it does mean is they'll give their team a chance to win. Delia's game, though, is temperamental where he can pitch a shutout one game then get shallacked in the next.

Of course, all goalies have clunkers so Commesso, Soderblom, and Lankinen will naturally have bad games where a loss here and there can be pinned on them. What will help them catapult to the next level of being just average to great to even all-star worthy is if they can consistently stay poised and flex their technical skill.

Also in the system is the aforementioned Basse as well as Cale Morris. Basse is having a much stronger sophomore year than his freshman year. He's known for his athleticism and ability to use his huge 6'6" frame to his advantage. Morris has some intrigue as he's also composed in net with good control of his movements and rebounds.

Then there are Tom Aubrun and Ivan Nalimov. A fellow undrafted college free agent like Morris, Aubrun is likely a career minor leaguer as his progression in the Blackhawks organization has mirrored that being more of a fixture with the Indy Fuel than with Rockford IceHogs. As for Nalimov, let's forget that experiment ever happened.

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Next Game vs Wild

And the nickname Ekker is such a hockey nickname with the -er suffix.

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Roster Updates

Hagel - Strome - Kane DeBrincat - Toews - Kubalik Kurashev - Dach - Borgstrom Khaira - Lafferty - Entwistle

de Haan - S Jones McCabe - Murphy Stillman - Gustafsson

Fleury Lankinen

Reserves: Carpenter, Hardman, C Jones, Morris

It's expected that Marc-Andre Fleury and Lankinen will split starts with the back-to-back games.

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IceHogs Updates

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Trade Rumors

The article also stated the corollary of the untouchables claim which is that the Hawks are all ears for offers on every other player which includes Fleury, Dach, Alex DeBrincat, Brandon Hagel, Connor Murphy, and Jake McCabe. While Fleury has been in the rumor mill for weeks, the others being available is a tad surprising.

It's important to remember that just because a team is open to hear trade offers doesn't mean they would say yes. Yet, what would help is if the organization has not only a clear direction in which to take the team whether it's a rebuild, retool, or other strategy but also a clear idea on who to construct a team around in 2022-23 and beyond.

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See you on the boards!

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