Hawks Weekly Update: 9/16

It’s been a minute.

But man, is it good to be back. Last week we had a couple of prospect showcase games and some small news items. NHL hockey is slowly arriving and I can’t wait.

If you’re new here, this is your weekly update on the Blackhawks.

I compile all things of interest to include articles, videos, news, and game recaps. You can follow me on Twitter at DirtyThird81. I mostly just lurk and occasionally post very random takes. Not worth a follow.

A small change to the format of this thing but here you go, all things Hawks related from the week of September 9-15.

Articles

The Athletic, some of Second City Hockey, and other links may require a subscription to read.

• (The Athletic) Powers on the new Chicago Sports Network and other Hawks rumblings. Basically, no one knows anything about this CHSN thing. Some personnel changes in the business/operations side of the Hawks. Season tickets will be capped at a smaller number.
• (Eat The Hatchet) Last week I posted my 2024-2025 Season Preview. Shameless self-promotion.
• (Chicago Sun Times) Pope wrote on Bedard’s point projection. Pretty interesting read and an excellent write-up. Pope compares Connor Bedard to previous 1st OVA picks since 2005 (which Bedard produced higher than average) and then looks at how Bedard can potentially avoid the “sophomore slump.” Give it a read.
• (The Athletic) The Blackhawks top the Athletic’s list of rebuilding teams. Not surprising considering Bedard is a huge factor. Obligatory reminder that this team is still far away from exiting the rebuilding stage.
• (NBC Sports Chicago) Charlie Roumeliotis wrote a little piece on Colton Dach. Dach is trying to earn an NHL spot this season. If he does, he would have to be very impressive during training camp as those spots are slim as it is.
• (Second City Hockey) SCH is knee-deep in their Top 25 Under 25 rankings. The latest has Kurashev jumping up to the No. 6 spot.

News

• The Tom Kurver’s Prospect Showcase took place last week. More on that below.

• Levshunov took a shot to the foot on the first day of the showcase practice. He missed the prospect showcase and is expected to miss a couple weeks.

• Prospect Alex Pharand received a minor injury during an OHL preseason game. He also didn’t participate in the prospect showcase.

• Some CHSN updates… Looks like Pat Boyle, Caley Chelios, and Tony Granado will provide in-studio coverage. There’s still not a whole lot of news at this point, which is concerning. Pope reported that CHSN should replace NBC Sports on DirecTV. There’s no movement yet for Comcast. As someone pointed out on Twitter, since CHSN drops on Oct. 1, there’s 3 preseason games that take place before then. Don’t worry though, they will be shown on the Blackhawks website. This also dropped today:

  

Tom Kurver’s

Read/watch about it here:
Ben Pope: Blackhawks Prospect Notes
Scott Powers: Notes from the weekend
Charlie Roumeliotis: Observations from the Blues and the Wild
Rinkside General: Blackhawks Prospect Report Card

Practice for the prospects started on Wednesday and both games were played Friday and Saturday evening.

I only caught the first period of the first game, but here’s what I gathered from highlights.

Other than whetting your appetite for real Hawks hockey, the focus on this years prospect camp was Frank Nazar. Not that this would make or break anything for Frank, it just gives us normies something to talk about.

Artyom Levshunov would have been the focal point, however, as stated before, Levshunov did not play after taking a puck to the foot on the first day of practice.

Nazar looked fine. He picked up an assist in the 4-3 OT loss to the Blues on Friday and an assist and a goal in the Hawks’ 4-2 win over the Wild on Saturday. He made an impressive pass in the Wild game before getting absolutely trucked. The pass would lead to a goal from Ryder Rolston.

Training camp is where Nazar is going prove himself capable of an NHL spot.

Other prospects who did things were AJ Spellacy and Nick Lardis. Spellacy showcased his speed in his goal against the Blues. Kid’s got wheels. Lardis looked solid with a goal and was out with a sickness for the second game. Paul Ludwinski showcased some speed and toughness. Landon Slaggert looked solid.

Both Ludwinski and Samuel Savoie (who played alright) should be very fun to watch in Rockford this year

Ethan Del Mastro and Nolan Allan were the only defensemen who looked capable out there. The rest of the D apparently looked like mouth breathers. EDM also had a nice breakaway chance in OT in the first game. He missed because of terrible ice.

Martin Misiak looked like boo-boo-doo-boo. Despite a nice pass to Nazar for a goal and an empty netter. This is a prospect that makes me wonder. The second-round pick signed his ELC this year and is returning to the OHL at 20 (which is old there). Not sure what KD sees in him other than his physical profile.

Drew Commesso played in net for the first game and looked alright. He was screened pretty badly on one of the goals.

Again, I only watched the 1st period of the 1st game, but from reading what people were saying, the defense looked pretty bad and Misiak (despite an empty net goal) left a sour taste in people’s mouths.

Really nothing else here than just a pulse on the prospects. The Hawks start training camp Thursday, Sept. 19.

The Pig Pen

We’ll have a better idea of how things in Rockford look after the Hawks training camp. Opening night for the Pigs (capital P baby) is October 12 and they’ll be having a block party to kick things off. They’ll play the Grand Rapids Griffins, Detroit’s AHL affiliate. Last year, Grand Rapids knocked the IceHogs out of the playoffs.

Now, I don’t follow the AHL too closely, other than attending FireBirds games and keeping tabs on the Hawks prospects. But this season should see the Pigs in the playoffs again.

The Hogs have a new assistant coach in Josh MacNevin and resigned goalie Mitchell Weeks to a 2-year deal. Reminder that Jaxson Stauber was not resigned by the Hawks and is now in Utah’s pipeline.

But who we really care about in between the pipes is Drew Commesso. Commesso had his ups and downs in his first pro-year. He posted a .906 save percentage and had a 2.65 GAA across 38 games played.

The player to watch this season will be Artyom Levshunov. Let him cook in the AHL. Have him earn top pairing minutes, earn powerplay minutes, earn a spot on the PK, and get him some playoff time. And then maybe, only maybe, get him a couple NHL games as a reward. There’s also Kevin Korchinski who might be in Rockford. Throw in Isaak Phillips, Wyatt Kaiser, or Del Mastro, and you have a solid AHL blueline.

If Nazar and Slaggert start in the AHL, man, watch out. With Brett Seney, who was great with the Hogs last year, Cole Guttman, Savoie, Ludwinski, and Gavin Hayes, the Hogs will be fun to watch. Link to their schedule.

Week Ahead

Training camp starts on Thursday, Oct 19.

Here is the schedule and I’m adding the Blackhawks regular season schedule which can be grabbed from their website.

Training camp will be open to the public 30 min. before the scheduled times.

Preseason starts September 25 against the Red Wings.

Sick Bay

Just from the prospect weekend

• Artyom Levshunov (foot)

• Alex Pharand (undisclosed)

• Marcel Marcel (undisclosed)

  • Marcel was a last-minute scratch before the prospect showcase started

• Nick Lardis

  • Only listing him here because he was sick for Saturday’s game. Chill, he’s fine.

Who am I listening to?

I was initially going to make a running list of all the podcasts and YouTube channels in my rotation and update it as necessary. But that’s boring and who really cares about who I listen to or watch (checks section title).

So, instead, every week I’m going to pick 1 podcast episode or YouTube video that is Blackhawks-related and share it here.

This week, The Chicago Tomahawk’s latest episode gets the spot. Matt and Mike return from the summer to dicuss Korchinski, Bedard’s potential next contract, and some other NHL news.

I recommend this podcast because 1- they’re cool dudes and 2- this is a great podcast with a “casual” feel by two dudes who know what they’re talking about.