The 2023 NHL Draft Combine puts a bow on the festivities, but the Stanley Cup Final keeps rolling tonight in south Florida. Can the Panthers avoid going into a 3-1 hole like the Heat did last night? Will Matthew Tkachuk build another layer of his growing postseason legend with another heroic goal? Or is the veteran experience of Vegas too much? And can Jack Eichel move one step closer to claiming a championship in his first postseason trip — and before Connor McDavid has even been to a Cup Final? Huge game tonight.
The Blackhawks dropped a video from the combine in Buffalo in which they show a few prospects chatting with the front office. Yeah, Connor Bedard is prominently featured, but we also get a peak at Adam Fantilli a couple times as well. And one player knew the answer to a tricky trivia question.
Blackhawks general manager Kyle Davidson shared a little more about their week in Buffalo. The good news is this doesn’t appear to be an NFL draft-like combine where you have someone make you burn all of your notes because of a workout.
“It’s like going to see one game and a player has a really good game,” Davidson said. “You don’t necessarily want to move them, fly up the board or anything like that. It’s all information. For the most part, I think we have a lot of that information already. But getting eyes on the players, getting to know them a little bit as people. But I don’t know how much it changes.”
The Blackhawks met with Bedard last summer, too. And he “had fun with it,” so that’s cool.
Unfortunately, the draft combine was just the latest event where we didn’t see top prospect Matvei Michkov — or any other top Russian prospects. Dan Marr told the media on Friday they were invited, but couldn’t make it. Too bad. We’ll have to hope they can attend the draft.
Some good stuff from Ben Pope on Friday evening. Fans love to find ways to improve the team — and, this summer, spend money — and goaltending has always been a position where some fans have wanted the Blackhawks to improve. Yes, even when Corey Crawford was in net. So it comes as no surprise that when names like Cal Petersen and Carter Hart are floating around the trade market, the Blackhawks are brought up as “potential” partners. But Davidson told Pope he’s perfectly happy starting the season with Petr Mrazek and Arvid Söderblom on his NHL roster (though the Hawks did sneak into the Petersen conversation with the Kings before he was ultimately dealt to Philadelphia earlier this week).
“We really liked what [Söderblom] did, which is why we re-signed him, and we think really highly of him,” Davidson said. “He spent significant time in Rockford, so the question could be, is he just ready for that next step?”
Another note from Pope’s piece, one of the factors that influenced the Blackhawks interest in bringing back Andreas Athanasiou for two more years is the chemistry he developed this past season with Lukas Reichel. So maybe they’re the wings on Bedard’s line? Or… Double-A is your 2C with Reichel on his wing and we’re shopping for Bedard’s linemates still?
It sure looks like the home of the LA Kings and Lakers is going to need a new name. I’m not sure Crypto dot com Arena ever had the vibe they wanted ( is still the best).
The Flames appear to have their new head coach selected. Ryan Huska will reportedly be introduced on Monday. Nice background on the Weekes video here, too.
Remember when Blackhawks fans were all in love with Adam Boqvist? And how fans didn’t want to give him up in the trade that brought Seth Jones to Chicago? (Yes, the picks were my bigger issue…) Well, after a couple trades this week, the Blue Jackets now have a surprisingly good, deep blue line… and Boqvist is looking at a battle for bottom-pair minutes.
Finally, a Cubs prospect hit a home run last night. A 493-foot home run!!!
