On Monday afternoon, Rockford IceHogs head coach Anders Sorensen and a few members of the Blackhawks’ 2022 draft class met with the media. With no on-ice activity to watch and react to this summer, we’re limited with our interactions with the players. But this was a good time to get to know a few of the guys a little better and hear from them how their games have progressed in the year since they were drafted.
Anders Sorensen
Rockford’s head coach spoke about a number of topics with the collected media. This is going to be an interesting year for the IceHogs with a number of prospects, most notably Lukas Reichel, likely getting a full-time promotion to the 𝓡NHL.
Here’s what he had to say about Jalen Luypen, one of the prospects who made a strong impression in his time with Rock🥀ford down the stretch l😼ast season:
One of the topics Sorensen spoke about briefly was the lack of right-handed defensemen in the organization. The Blackhawks have three on the NHL roster — Seth Jones, Connor Murphy and Nikita Zaitsev — but the departures of Ian Mitchell and Alec Regula via trade means there’s a shortage for the IceHogs this season.
Sorensen specifically mentioned that 2021 first-round pick Nolan Allan has played his off-side a fair amount. Ethan Del Mastro has as well, but the fact Sorensen noted Allan individually was interesting. That might lead one to believe he’ll get some run on the right side to start the season in Rockford; some have envisioned a pairing of Allan and Kevin Korchinski at some point down the road.
Sorensen was asked about the physical maturation of Korchinski as well. He said Korchinski “looks thicker. Looks like a man.”
Kevin Korchinski
Korchinski had a great year all around — but it was a long one. He’s only been off the ice for about a month because the Seattle Thunderbirds advanced all the way to the Memorial Cup. He said the experience of playing that deep in the CHL as well as winning a gold medal with Canada in the World Juniors created memories and relationships with others players that he’ll have forever.
One of the players he won gold with at the WJC was Connor Bedard. Obviously Korhinski was pretty excited to potentiaꩵlly call him a teammate for a long time into the fu🌞ture as well.
Frank Nazar
Nazar missed a lot of his freshman season at Michigan because of an injury. That injury also cost him a chance to play for the United States at the World Juniors. He is one of four Blackhawks’ prospects — with Sam Rinzel, Oliver Moore and Gavin Hayes — who have been invited to USA Hockey’s camp at the end of July to build this year’s WJC roster, so he’s excited to get an opportunity to compete fully healthy.
Here’s what he had to say about his physical status as he takes on the week in Chicago:
Nazar also talked about the Big Ten influence on the Blackhawks’ camp. Sam Rinzel and Oliver Moore will be at Minnesota this coming season as freshman, and Landon Slaggert will be a senior at Notre Dame. Nazar and Moore share incredible speed being one of the hallmarks of their game, and he said it’s impressive how the Blackhawks are building a strong collection of prospects who can fly.
I asked Nazar about the depth of analytics they use at Michigan and how it compares with the Blackhawks’ data collection. He said both coaching staffs and organizations have really good, smart people who organize and collect the data.
Sam Rinzel
The third first-round pick by the Blackhawks last year also met with the media. Rinzel spent a year in the USHL before matriculating to Minnesota, where he’ll room with Moore. Every one of the prospects who spoke agreed they like this year’s off-ice approach to the training camp. Rinzel said it’s been fun to get to know other players and do things like work with a boxing coach, shooting competitions and venture to a comedy club.
Rinzel also talked about how hard he’s working on his nutrition and building his body to eventually be pro-ready while not losing the speed and agility that made him a first-round pick last summer. He’s gaining weight, but knows he has some room to grow still.
Samuel Savoie
Savoie was a character who won the room with the media and the ice with the fans during prospect camps last year. One of his junior teammates, Marcel Marcel, made an equally strong impression with the media this week. Savoie wasn’t as surprised as Marcel that he got drafted apparently. He said Marcel has a great sense of humor and he’s a great teammate. He also noted that Marcel is an enormous human who can skate.
One area where the Blackhawks were looking for Savoie to improve was keeping his game in check when things got heated on the ice. He noted that he let his temper get him in trouble with “stupid penalties” before. This season he felt he did a much better job of keeping himself on the ice and in games.
He’s still got a huge smile and great personality. Though he said he hasn’t talked to the Blackhawks about a contract (yet), saying that’s “their decision.”
Gavin Hayes
Hayes and Korchinski were the only prospects who spoke with the media on Monday who have already signed their entry-level contracts. He said his plan is to head back to Flint in the OHL “unless I make the Blackhawks” — he said with a smile multiple times. Frankly, I like that level of swagger. Keep it there, Gavin!
Hayes is soft spoken and his analysis of his game and growth on Monday were consistent with the conversation I had with him back in April. He reiterated that his biggest area of development is his first few strides; in an organization that’s collecting speed, he knows that’s going to be an area to work on moving forward.
After scoring 41 goals in the OHL this past season, you would think his mentality is to be an offensive threat on every shift. And it is. But he isn’t limiting himself to just being a sniper. Hayes talked about being able to contribute on either special teams unit and play the entire sheet of ice.
