IT’S TIME TO LET THE KIDS LOOSE
With a struggling, aging roster, Hawks look for youngsters Boqvist, Dach to provide boost
LOS ANGELES — If there’s any silver lining to starting the season with eight losses in 11 games, it’s that the Blackhawks’ front office has been convinced to unleash the kids.
The Hawks recalled Adam Boqvist from the AHL on Thursday, one day after announcing — three games ahead of the deadline — that Kirby Dach will remain with the team for the rest of the season.
Less than a month ago, when the Hawks took the ice for their home opener, they had neither Dach nor Boqvist in the lineup: the former was still recovering from a concussion, which would eventually lead to a three-game conditioning stint with Rockford, and the latter had been assigned to start his professional career with Rockford indefinitely.
But now, the team’s last two first-round selections are with the big club. Dach already has six games under his belt and is guaranteed a lot more (though coach Jeremy Colliton said he doesn’t expect him to play every game from here). And Boqvist likely will make his debut sometime during this three-game California road trip, which starts Saturday against the Kings.
Boqvist will join the Hawks after scoring his first professional goal Wednesday in a 6-2 win for the IceHogs.
But that also marked just his first point in six AHL games, and his defensive reliability remains a concern. Just last week, Colliton made it sound as if Boqvist needed significantly more development in that regard at the minor-league level.
“That’s not a bad thing for him to continue have time to learn the pro game, and obviously with the focus on defending,” Colliton said on Oct. 24. “Ultimately, we want to see him down there defending the way he’s going to have to up here, and that’s the challenge for him.”
With the questionable defense the Hawks have played lately — the crisis reached a low point Tuesday as the Predators had 51 shots on goal and 42 scoring chances — the logic might be that they can’t get much worse.
And that’s not bad logic. If things get better for the Hawks, why not have Dach and Boqvist along for the ride?
Then again, it’s also very plausible that Boqvist was recalled simply to provide an extra body in California — with Connor Murphy on injured reserve, the Hawks had the roster spot necessary to recall him without a corresponding demotion — and that he’ll go directly back to the AHL next week.
For now, the Hawks are the only team in the league to have both a 2018 firstround pick and 2019 first-round pick on their active roster.
Given the nature of this aging roster and the discouraging results so far, that fact should provide a welcome source of long-term optimism.
Neither Dach or Boqvist are 20 years old yet, and they both remain a long way from their peak potential — but even at this early stage of their careers, they are already NHL-caliber players, the Hawks have evidently determined.
That’s a truly exciting development at the end of a thoroughly depressing month of October.