As we move closer to the start of the 2024/25 NHL season, opening night rosters are starting to come into focus as teams trim down to 23. The Hawks today announced some of the bigger moves by assigning Kevin Korchinski, Frank Nazar, and Louis Crevier to the Rockford Ice Hogs and sending training camp breakout AJ Spellacy to his junior team, the Windsor Spitfires. While those outside of the Hawks fan base and some casual finds might see this as a step back for the young players, the truth of the matter is all part of the plan.
Kevin Korchinski
Last year, Korchinski played in 76 games with the Hawks, and after starting out well, as the season went on, he started to hit that rookie wall a bit. He wasn’t by any means doing a bad job, but as expected, there were growing pains and mistakes 19-year-olds were going to make. He came into last season in a tough spot as he almost had outgrown playing junior hockey, so going back to Seattle wasn’t a good option. However, because of the agreement with the CHL, he was not eligible to be sent to Rockford. Korchinski was tossed in the deep end, and luckily, he did just enough to keep float, but continuing that path is not going to help his development, and we will just see a rerun of Adam Boqvist time in Chicago. By getting sent down, he is going to get to play top pairing minutes and get to play in situations that he more than likely wouldn’t get to in Chicago. Not only that, but he is also going to get to play with Levshunov and develop chemistry and hopefully become a dynamic duo to carry this d-core for years to come. Starting the season in Rockford is going to be good for the kid and is going to benefit much more than it's going to harm.
Frank Nazar
Frank Nazar was in an interesting position heading into this year’s training camp. He is viewed as a key piece for this offensive core going forward and had a good showing at the prospect tournament and start to training camp. While I thought out of all the bubble players on this team, he had the best chance to make the team out of camp, it was going to require an almost perfect training camp. Ultimately, the team decided that starting off in Rockford was the better path for him, and again, much like Korchinski, this is the right move for the future of Nazar and the Blackhawks. With the Hawks, he would be playing third-line minutes and would more than likely spend a decent amount of time in the press box. Normally that’s good, but Nazar is not a bottom-six type player. Again, just like Korchinski, by going to Rockford he is going to get to play important situations and get the minutes that he needs to help grow his game. The kid got his cup of coffee last year, and it is obvious that he has the talent to make an impact. It’s just a matter of putting all the pieces together so when he gets the call there is no looking back. He wasted little time making an impact with the Ice Hogs as he scored his first goal of the preseason this morning:
🚨WE COULD GET USED TO THIS!🚨
Frank Nazar (CHI) ties things up for the @goicehogs against the @IAWild in this morning's #AHL preseason matchup!
AJ Spellacy
One of the better stories this training camp has been AJ Spellacy, the Hawks 3rd round draft pick in this past draft. He had a great showing in the prospect tournament and impressed all the right people in training camp that he was rewarded with one more game against a more NHL full roster before being sent back to juniors. The more I watch this kid, the more I get excited to see what’s next, and what is so crazy about his story is that he only committed to hockey full time two years ago. He has the size and he has the speed now; it's just about putting it all together and continuing to grow his game, and I will definitely be keeping tabs on him this year.
The Hawks have two more preseason games left before they hit the road and kick things off for real. They will play the Wild in Chicago on Friday, and then the Hawks and Blues will battle on Saturday in Milwaukee. Expect line-ups to be close to what will hit the ice on Tuesday when they welcome the Utah Hockey Club to the NHL. As always, Let's Go Hawks!
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