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Prospect Camp Recap + Tidbits |
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Another prospect developmental camp is complete for the Chicago Blackhawks organization.
There is more buzz around the overall quality of the pipeline for the Hawks in recent years.
The primary focus was on defence, and although it was only a few days of skills and drills and 1 scrimmage, these premiere defenders didn't disappoint.
Earlier in the week, I made predictions for fun, just which prospects would make the 1st and 2nd "All-Star Teams. These are not real teams, but I wanted to dive into some storylines as to who needed to have a good showing and who was expected to stand out.
These teams were not based on long-term potential or how many goals they scored in the scrimmage but more who left the biggest impact with the media, Blackhawks executive and coaching staff
Below were my selections:
1st All-Star Team
C – Jacob Nilsson
LW – Tim Soderlund
RW – Mattias From
LD – Lucas Carlsson
RD – Adam Boqvist
G – Wouter Peeters
2nd All-Star Team
C – Evan Barratt
LW – Alexandre Fortin
RW – John Dahlstrom
LD – Chad Krys
RD – Henri Jokiharju
G – Peyton Jones
As always there were some nice surprises during the week.
The media coverage was solid and there were a plethora of great people to follow if you were looking for written and video analysis.
As mentioned before, it was a little tricky that the format of this week is primarily built on individual skills vs. actual gameplay, which isn't as fun for the fans, but I believe more beneficial for the players.
I won't re-do my 1st and 2nd All-Star Teams above (as there were some players that came in and impressed and others that fell in line with the pack and were on the "meh" scale.
I don't think I need to dive into how great the defensemen looked, specifically, Boqvist, Jokiharju, Beaudin and Mitchell.
Those guys were the focus and they didn't disappoint.
What stood out to me during this week was how the Hawks have finally started to build up some depth at Centre; this was led by the most noticeable and talked about C, Jake Wise. He looks like he could be a serious steal when we look back in a couple years.
Along with Wise, there was Entwhistle, who Stan Bowman mentioned the Hawks would have drafted (in the spot they took Altybarmakyan – 2017, 70th overall) if the Coyotes didn't scoop him up with the 69th selection.
I was impressed with the newly acquired prospect and will be able to pop over to Hamilton (OHL) to watch him play this year.
From there, the Hawks have promising pivots in Barratt, Kurashev, Hakkarainen and Noel.
The outcome of how well these prospects turn out will take time obviously, but early results are that the Blackhawks have a lot of potential NHLers that will make an impact in the next 2-4 years.
The one you might see the most could be Henri Jokiharju. Stan Bowman, Mark Kelley, etc. all spoke very highly of him this past week. When I'm reading between the lines of their comments, I'm not looking just for "skates well, good passer." but stuff like "he looks physically stronger than last year… he was really good defensively, etc." because the latter is what hints that he's capable of playing in the NHL and that he would stay (and thrive) and in a Joel Quenneville system.
This is just step #1 for Henri and the rest of the Blackhawks prospects as they have the Traverse City Rookie Tournament which is September 7-11. Then from there, some will head to the Hawks training camp and even get in some pre-season games.
There a lot more impressing that needs to be done, specifically from Jokiharju but all signs are pointing to him getting the chance to play in the NHL this year.
Is that why Stan Bowman hasn't pulled the trigger on a Justin Faulk deal? I heard no. I heard it was because the asking price remains too high and Stan isn't willing to give up some of these high-end prospects that they finally own the rights to.
Moving on from prospect camp, here are a couple rumours and tidbits that I have been hearing over the last 3-5 days:
* Maxim Shalunov – I have heard as of a few days ago that considering how the Blackhawks' off-season has transpired, the Hawks put in another call to Shanulov's camp to see if there was anything that could be done to bring him over this year.
The Hawks knows that he is under contract but wanted to reach out one last time before the season started to see if anything could be done.
Although it looks unlikely I was told that this would happen, this would be the year for Shanulov to come over. There is a spot in the top 6 (or 9 depending on what position they wanted him at) this year.
He undoubtedly has NHL type talent with 40 points in 46 games in the KHL last season which was good for 19th overall.
Shanulov is listed at 6'4 / 216 lbs and has recently been playing centre (another reason to be excited about the Blackhawks depth there) and had more points this year than 2 of his countrymen that are NHL bound this year – Jan Kovar (signed with NYI) and Valeri Nichushkin (DAL).
He has played 60+ games on North American ice in the AHL and ECHL.
I will stay on the outcome of this but there has been talk about bringing the young Russian back to Chicago, but my guess is it will all depend on politics and the contract itself.
* Jeremey Colliton was really impressed with the defence this past week.
There was some concern from Colliton that after losing the veteran presence of Franson, Svedberg and Clendening that they would be in a tough spot but he came out very confident after spending some time with the young defenders.
It is going to be a battle to fit them all in and the Hawks wouldn't want to give up on any of them before they really see what they have in them, so some guys are going to have no choice but to play well and a lot for the Indy Fuel in the ECHL.
I was told that the Hawks will have a better idea by early 2019 (and closer to the deadline) on what they have on guys on the farm. Then they will look to move some to improve the team and make room for the future (guys like Mitchell and Beaudin could be there in 2019-20).
* All is quiet on the trade front on my end, but I would think some teams are focused still on guys like Karlsson, Pacioretty, Faulk and Skinner.
If one of all of those guys is moved, look for smaller moves to be made throughout the rest of the summer and maybe closer to training camp.
At this point, I heard from a contact saying that he doesn't expect the Hawks to land any of the above bigger names.
He wasn't convinced the Hawks were going to do anything else outside of a few PTO invites. He said if they did make a trade it would be someone a little off the board that Stan might look to spin into an immediate help.
See ya out there!
JL
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Chicago Blackhawks Blogger • 
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