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Season Review: Defensemen |
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The next five blogs will be 2019-20 season reviews by position as well as for the coaches. The roll-out schedule is as follows:
* Today, 9/7: Defensemen
* Wednesday, 9/9: Centers
* Friday, 9/11: Wingers
* Monday, 9/14: Goalies
* Wednesday, 9/16: Coaches
While individual evaluations and grades aren’t being handed out, this series of blogs will provide a more holistic review. Each blog will conclude with a look ahead to the future as well as share any recent Blackhawks news and updates.
Up first: defensemen.
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FLIPPING THE ICE
Overall, the blueline corps is not effective at having a persistent ability to push the pace from their own zone onward to start the attack. In other words, there is no consistency at flipping the ice.
What does flipping the ice mean exactly?
Flipping the ice involves contesting every puck, recovering it, and moving it up ice to the offensive zone.
Do the D-men contest the puck? Yes and no.
Yes, they do contest the puck when it gets in deep or in danger areas within their zone. They don’t always win puck battles (i.e. recover pucks), though, oftentimes because the opponent simply outworks them.
No, they don’t contest the puck when they allow the carrier to freely waltz into the zone crossing the blueline with ease. Not only that, the trailer isn’t far behind able to get to soft spots for passes.
Assuming they recovered the puck, do the D-men move it up ice efficiently? For the most part, no.
Part of it isn’t their fault as it’s tough to pass the puck out if forwards aren’t getting open. As a result, the D-men circle around and play catch until a forward gets open. By that time, though, the other team is applying pressure to keep the puck in their offensive zone and force turnovers.
If the other team is covering forwards like flies on sugar, then there needs to be a counter-strategy to create openings.
The stretch pass is fine in particular situations when a forward is darting at full speed to an open seam to then create an odd-man break. However, it’s used too much as a way to just move the puck long distances to teammates with no momentum.
So what is the option if teammates aren’t getting open? Skate the puck out themselves. However, the D crew as a whole isn’t mobile enough to do that as a reliable go-to weapon to start the attack.
Duncan Keith still has a good set of wheels but he’s really it as far as the veteran defenders.
Connor Murphy, Olli Maatta, and Calvin de Haan are decent skaters but not swift of foot.
Neither is Brent Seabrook, even if his recent surgeries restore his body and give him a new lease on hockey life.
Slater Koekkoek is actually pretty mobile. However, like Adam Boqvist and the younger D prospects, he is still developing albeit further along on the curve.
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BEING WELL ROUNDED
Erik Gustafsson is the poster boy for what it’s like to be an NHL defenseman who is all offense but no defense.
Even if his offensive dynamism and production this past season had been on par with what he registered in 2018-19, Gustafsson still likely would have been traded for valuable assets, i.e. 1st round draft pick and/or high-end prospects.
Why not keep Gustafsson then? Wouldn’t he have helped the powerplay and generated offense from the backend?
Yes, no doubt that would have been exciting to watch. However, his lack of defensive awareness and commitment are the opposite of how the Blackhawks D prospects are being developed.
Case in point: Boqvist. He wasn’t lighting the AHL on fire before he became a permanent fixture on the Chicago backline. Once in the NHL, he followed suit by playing conservatively on offense so that he could focus more on developing his defensive game.
Another example is Ian Mitchell who has the tools and acumen to be like his idol Keith, i.e. a two-way rearguard who nullifies plays defensively, flips the ice expeditiously, and generates offense with intelligent playmaking.
Nicolas Beaudin and Chad Krys improved considerably from start to finish in their rookie years at Rockford learning how to protect the high danger areas, not stray out of position, battle for 50/50 pucks, play the body whenever necessary, and manage gaps to angle players off pucks and seal off lanes.
What Beaudin and Krys are steadily learning in the AHL as they are still works in progress was what Lucas Carlsson has done quite well as the IceHogs best all-around defender over the past two seasons.
Boqvist, Carlsson, Beaudin, and Krys are all capable of carrying the mail with their smooth skating. None of them are speed demons but that’s fine as they are all agile with good edgework.
Wyatt Kalynuk and Slava Demin may actually be the best skaters in the D pipeline. And although not as strong, Alec Regula is still a decent skater with room to improve.
While all three of them have varying levels of defensive capacity, they at least have the wherewithal to take care of their end first rather than think up ice and escape the zone before the puck does.
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GETTING YOUNGER & MOBILE
As D prospects graduate to the NHL, they will incrementally help the blueline get younger and more mobile. This will amp up the ice-flipping capacity to be more effective and consistent.
For one thing, flipping the ice starts with contesting pucks and winning them to recover possession. If all D-men in spots 1-6 can do that, then the team can rely on any of the defensive pairs to fight for and regain the puck, not just hope for favorable matchups because only a few defensemen can actually defend well.
Then once the puck is possessed, these new-age defensemen who the Blackhawks are developing will be able to just skate the puck up ice on their own and with skillful haste to immediately start the rush rather than waste time deep in their zone which allows the other team to set up, attack, and force turnovers before play reaches the center line.
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LOOKING AHEAD
For the next few seasons, it would be ideal to matriculate at least one if not two young defenders to the Blackhawks blueline per year.
This past season it was Boqvist with spot duty going to Dennis Gilbert who really doesn’t have a long-term future with the team as long as the other D prospects develop well.
For 2020-21, Carlsson deserves time as he has nothing left to prove in the AHL. Then Mitchell or Beaudin are next in line for the upcoming season with the edge going to Mitchell given his age and experience in the NCAA and international tournaments.
Then two years from now, Beaudin should be ripe at that point and any of Krys, Kalynuk, and Regula could be ready to move up as well. Demin and possibly Jakub Galvas and Cole Moberg could be starting their rookie pro years in the AHL by then, too.
The problem, though, is opening up roster spots. As it stands today -- and assuming full health -- the 2020-21 blueline has zero openings:
Keith - Boqvist
de Haan - Murphy
Maatta - Seabrook
If Koekkoek is re-signed, then even the 7th spot is taken.
Keith and Boqvist aren’t going anywhere but a trade is possible for any of the others.
Seabrook has expressed that he wants to play and seems poised to have a clean bill of health by training camp. However, he has also alluded to not being sure where he’ll be playing which seemed to question whether that would be in Chicago.
Murphy is entering his prime and really starting to play well which makes him the one who likely nets the biggest return in a trade.
de Haan has injury concerns but is rather effective when healthy. Although not impossible, it would be tough to trade him.
Maatta could be bought out but his strong postseason performance may have opened the door to a trade instead for a team looking for a two-way defender who is a veteran yet still young.
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NEWS & UPDATES
Several prospects as well as Dominik Kubalik will be with teams in Europe this fall for the purpose of providing more opportunities to practice and play games until NHL training camps open on November 17. Loaned players include:
* Dominik Kubalik, HC Plzen (Czech Republic), practicing only
* Matej Chalupa, Mountfield HK (Czech Republic), loaned
* Michal Teply, BK Mlada Boleslav (Czech Republic), loaned
* Philipp Kurashev, HC Lugano (Switzerland), loaned
* Tim Soderlund, Almtuna IS (Sweden), loaned
* Joni Tuulola, KooKoo (Finland), signed one-year contract
All but Tuulola are expected to return for Blackhawks training camp, then play in Chicago or Rockford. Teply could also return to his Winnipeg Ice junior team in the WHL.
Tuulola is a pending RFA so he would need to receive a qualifying offer from Chicago or a new contract with another team in order to exercise the out clause in his Liiga contract that allows him to return to an NHL organization.
There is no news yet on whether other prospects -- namely Andrei Altybarmakyan, Mikael Hakkarainen, Pius Suter, and Kevin Lankinen -- will be loaned. All are expected to be at Blackhawks training camp, too.
For 2020-21, Maxim Shalunov, Artur Kayumov, and Ivan Nalimov will play with KHL teams while Victor Ejdsell, Niklas Nordgren, Antti Saarela, Jakub Galvas, and Roope Laavainen will remain playing in Europe with their respective clubs.
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See you on the boards!
Chicago Blackhawks Blogger • 
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