Take & Bake (blackhawks)

It has been posited by a variety of sources that the 2022 draft class isn't very deep including the opening round not having much in the way of coveted talent. Instead, the 2023 draft class is supposedly much deeper especially the 1st round and onto the next round, too. How does this difference in draft classes play a factor?

Though it's still ideal to try to recoup a 2022 1st and hopefully a 2023 1st as well when taking into account that Columbus will get either Chicago's current 2022 1st or 2023 1st as part of the Seth Jones trade, if given the choice between a 1st and a really good to great prospect, there's an advantage in taking the latter.

For one thing, there's more confidence in knowing the prospect's true potential in the pros as there should be a greater sample size to make that determination. Furthermore, said prospect also has a shorter development timeline from draft to the NHL. As such, it may be easier to project the prospect's water level or even lineup slot.

To put it another way, a prospect who has already been drafted and started development with another team is further along on the growth curve and theoretically has better predictability on whether or not he will sink or swim in the pros. A 1st round hopeful is harder to forecast in comparison. Even the top 10 aren't sure-fire.

As an exercise, consider the following choice dichotomies. For each example, would you rather have a 1st round pick or a top prospect:

* Avalanche: 1st rounder or Alex Newhook * Capitals: 1st rounder or Hendrix Lapierre * Golden Knights: 1st rounder or Brendan Brisson * Maple Leafs: 1st rounder or Matthew Knies * Oilers: 1st rounder or Dylan Holloway * Penguins: 1st rounder or Samuel Poulin * Rangers: 1st rounder or Braden Schneider * Wild: 1st rounder or Marco Rossi

Is it a waste then to forgo the 1st rounder? The Hawks have been rumored to desire regaining a 2022 1st round pick. Teams seek after 1st round picks for a reason. However, the presumption is that 1st round talent can only be found in that round. This simply isn't the case and the Hawks have a history of examples from recent years.

* Duncan Keith (2002 2nd) * Corey Crawford (2003 2nd) * Niklas Hjalmarsson (2005 4th) * Brandon Saad (2011 2nd) * Andrew Shaw (2011 5th) * Alex DeBrincat (2016 2nd)

Lots of 2nd round jackpots on that list. Looking ahead at what's in the pipeline today, there could be a number of picks after the 1st who could grace future Chicago rosters as not just "okay for now" players but rather as impact players who can play in all situations and be relied upon as key cogs to help the Hawks be contenders again.

* Ian Mitchell (2017 2nd) * Jakub Galvas (2017 5th) * Alex Vlasic (2019 2nd) * Michal Teply (2019 4th) * Drew Commesso (2020 2nd) * Landon Slaggert (2020 3rd) * Wyatt Kaiser (2020 3rd) * Isaak Phillips (2020 5th) * Colton Dach (2021 2nd)

General manager Kyle Davidson also has a confidant in former NHL D-man Brian Campbell -- in whatever his role in hockey operations ends up being as the organization reshuffles the deck -- who may know a thing or two about getting the most out of late rounders. Campbell was selected by the Sabres in the 6th round of the 1997 draft.

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Blackhawks Game Summary

Saturday Boxscore

DeBrincat - Strome - Kane Hagel - Toews - Dach Kubalik - Carpenter - Lafferty T Johnson - Entwistle

de Haan - S Jones McCabe - Murphy Stillman - C Jones Gustafsson

Fleury Lankinen

Scratches: Borgstrom, Kurashev, Regula

1st Goal (0-1): Brown (Formenton) SH 2nd Goal (0-2): Chabot (unassisted) 3rd Goal (1-2): Toews (Kane) 4th Goal (2-2): Toews (Kane, Gustafsson) PP 5th Goal (3-2): C Jones (S Jones, Hagel) 6th Goal (3-3): Paul (Zub, Brown) 7th Goal (4-3): Lafferty (McCabe, Carpenter) 8th Goal (5-3): C Jones (Dach, McCabe) 9th Goal (6-3): Strome (S Jones, Kane)

SOG For/Against: 28/23 PP: 1-for-3 PK: 1-for-1 Faceoffs Won: 57%

Highlights

Blackhawks Notebook

Loyalty in the Blackhawks organization could win out. And if that's the case, faith is also a driving force for Kane to have a both/and situation and not an either/or one, i.e. he can break team records and bring a championship back to Chicago. Although he may not shatter any records, the same could be said about Jonathan Toews.

As for Tyler Johnson, he also was taken out by an unfortunate incident where an errant dump-in by Dominik Kubalik knocked him on the side of his head. Johnson is now in concussion protocol. Just as he recently returned courageously from a novel neck surgery, Johnson landed back onto injury status and jeopardizing his season again.

Interim head coach Derek King went with 11 forwards and 7 defensemen to begin the Senators game but that strategy didn't particularly pay off as Johnson's early departure dropped the forward ranks to 3 lines plus a spare skater. At least losing Murphy brought the D corps down to the standard half dozen troops.

* While you want to applaud Toews for fighting to stand up for Kirby Dach getting hit by Zach Sanford, the fisticuffs may not have been a wise decision for someone with a concussion history and who just came out of concussion protocol at the start of March.

* According to Sportsnet, the first goal by Caleb Jones that Seth Jones assisted on was the first brotherly connection on a tally since Rich and Brent Sutter did it for the Hawks 28 years ago. With 2 goals on Saturday, little brother now has more goals than big brother.

* King said in a weekend interview that he's looking to get Kevin Lankinen several consecutive starts at some point this season. Lankinen could get more than his fair share of starts if Marc-Andre Fleury does in fact get shipped out by the trade deadline.

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IceHogs Game Summaries

Friday Boxscore

Hardman - Reichel - Connolly Teply - Slavin - Busdeker Barratt - Gicewicz - Altybarmakian Morrison - G Mitchell - Gabriel

Phillips - I Mitchell Beaudin - Galvas Stanton - Kalynuk

Soderblom Delia

1st Goal (0-1): Davies (Glass) 2nd Goal (1-1): Barratt (Busdeker, Altybarmakian) PP 3rd Goal (1-2): Davies (Smith, Grimaldi) PP 4th Goal (1-3): Grimaldi (Donovan, Novak) PP 5th Goal (2-3): Connolly (Hardman, Reichel) PP 6th Goal (3-3): Hardman (Teply, Reichel) Shootout (4-3): Teply

IceHogs: * Connolly (miss) * Teply (goal)

Admirals: * Davies (miss) * Grimaldi (miss) * Glass (miss)

SOG For/Against: 24/36 PP: 2-for-4 PK: 3-for-5

Sunday Boxscore

Hardman - Reichel - Connolly Teply - Slavin - Busdeker Barratt - Gicewicz - Altybarmakian Morrison - G Mitchell - Gabriel

Phillips - I Mitchell Beaudin - Galvas Stanton - Kalynuk

Delia Soderblom

1st Goal (0-1): Sikura (Cassels, Angle) 2nd Goal (1-1): Slavin (Phillips, I Mitchell) 3rd Goal (1-2): Sikura (unassisted) 4th Goal (1-3): Stenlund (Christiansen, Clayton) 5th Goal (1-4): Mullin (Cassels, Sweezey) EN

SOG For/Against: 25/29 PP: 0-for-3 PK: 3-for-3

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IceHogs Notebook

* Michal Teply scored his 4th shootout goal of the season on Friday with 3 of them counting as the game winner. He was also awarded a penalty shot on Sunday but failed to convert.

* Andrei Altybarmakian is hard to not notice in his shifts as he gives a dogged effort along the boards at both ends. Even if he's not putting up points, he creates space for his teammates.

* Mike Hardman continues to grow as a power forward throwing his weight around, crashing the crease, and tipping shots. If he marinates in the AHL for another season, he could be a Bryan Bickell clone.

* Alec Regula was reassigned to the Hogs yesterday but didn't play on Sunday. Look for him to suit up on Tuesday for the rematch against the Monsters to avenge the 4-1 loss.

* Reese Johnson may have been released several days ago from LTIR and reassigned to Rockford but he still isn't game-ready yet.

* Also in sick bay are Kale Howarth (shoulder injury) as well as Dylan McLaughlin and Chad Yetman (both are in concussion protocol).

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See you on the boards!

Sources: Chicago Sun-Times, Chicago Tribune, Daily Herald, NBC Sports Chicago, The Athletic Chicago

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