It’s Monday. I know, the coffee is still kicking in for me, too. It was a lovely weekend for me; my middle son’s travel baseball team actually had an off weekend so I was able to celebrate my 17th wedding anniversary on Saturday without chasing around the suburbs and coming home covered in infield dust. The NBA might crown a champion tonight — it would be Denver’s first NBA title — so we have to wait one more day before Vegas can try to clinch their first championship on home ice tomorrow night.
The NHL Draft Combine is officially closed, so it’s relatively quiet on the NHL front outside of tomorrow night’s game. But there was still a lot to unpack from the week in Buffalo. Let’s roll.
Charlie Roumeliotis of NBCSN was in Buffalo for the NHL Draft Combine last week, and he dropped some miscellaneous notes from the event — , because there’s a lot in there. He mentions the first meeting prospect Gabe Perreault took among his 23 interviews was with the Blackhawks; I had him going to Chicago in my mock draft this weekend.
Here’s what Adam Fantilli told Charlie about his teammate at Michigan, Frank Nazar:
“He’s a great player. He had that surgery, that was tough, but when he came back, he was able to play the role that we needed him to play and he did absolutely amazing for us. I always said, if anyone’s going to be able to come back and have an impact after a surgery like that, it’s going to be him, and he was able to come back and be a huge part of our team through the playoffs and into the Frozen Four. I think he’s going to be amazing at the next level.”
Finally, general manager Kyle Davidson had no update to provide on negotiations with either Caleb Jones or Philipp Kurashev, both of whom are restricted free agents currently.
Ben Pope was also in Buffalo and, similarly, emptied . I thought this note about the Blackhawks’ approach to Russian prospects was noteworthy from Pope’s closing thoughts from the combine:
Davidson said the Hawks have spent time assessing those players’ “willingness to come and want to play in North America,” but he’s not apprehen💫sive about picking Russians as a rule.
Scott Powers at The Athletic also shared a collection of thoughts and impressions on Monday morning. This comment from Scott was noteworthy to me:
If I were betting on 🃏the Blackhawks moving up, back or standing still from the No. 19 pick, I’d put my money onﷺ standing still.
Powers also mentions Rockford IceHogs goalie development coach Peter Aubry as a guy who might be on NHL radars for a job in the coming seasons. The entire coaching staffs in both Chicago and Rockford are coming back for the 2023-24 season, but Aubry might be a guy other organizations target in the near future.
Did you check out our full 2-round mock draft this weekend?
Earlier in the weekend, Scott Wheeler at The Athletic dropped a list of 27 players who just missed the cut on his Top 100 prospects list for the upcoming draft. It’s a solid read because he provides comments on all 27 players. One name in there that I’ve been following is Ryan Fine, an undersized forward who can absolutely FLY. If the Blackhawks are indeed looking for speed, Fine is a guy they might have circled in the third or fourth rounds.
As we continue waiting for the Stanley Cup Final to end and the trade flood gates to open up, the biggest name to watch is Winnipeg netminder Connor Hellebuyck. He’s a bona fide star in the league; he’s been a Vezina finalist in three of the last six seasons. But he’s also one year away from unrestricted free agency, and he has reportedly told the Jets he has zero intention of re-signing with them in 2024. Hello! Someone out there is going to pay a premium to get an elite player this summer… the Jets hope. But this getting out certainly hurts Winnipeg’s leverage in the trade market.
No, I don’t see the Blackhawks trading for Hellebuyck. But could they get involved in a trade as a third team to eat salary? Absolutely. And this might be a deal that goes down around the draft if a team wants to get an eight-year extension done with the player (see the Seth Jones trade timeline).
Finally, I watched this game on Sunday night and was both disappointed and fascinated the entire final two innings. Stanford’s stud, Quinn Mathews, finished the eighth inning with 15 strikeouts — and 136 pitches thrown! During the bottom of the eighth — during which Stanford stretched their lead from two to five runs — the ESPN broadcast shared with us that Mathews presented to a class on alternatives to Tommy John surgery this semester… and he previously had to get the OK from his parents to pitch in a game after going over 120 in a game. The fact they sent him out to start the ninth inning — and let him finish the game starting the final batter with four sliders — feels like malpractice. But hey, it was the kid’s final home game so whatevs…
