The Blackhawks’ forward corps is still almost entirely filled with placeholders, but the Hawks’ defensive corps is starting to slightly resemble its post-rebuild form.
With Alex Vlasic called up and Wyatt Kaiser two weeks into his NHL career — plus Seth Jones, of course, wrapping up year one of his eight-year contract — the Hawks dressed at three defensemen Tuesday against the Stars who will likely remain in Chicago for years to come.
There’s also a significant possibility that Connor Murphy — with three years left on his own contract — might be retained as the other post-rebuild veteran pillar next to Seth Jones. Caleb Jones has an outside chance to stick around for several more years, too.
So even though this Hawks’ season has felt irrelevant in terms of long-term meaning, the final stretch might actually yield a few more significant future-looking takeaways.
Vlasic and Kaiser are the key young blueliners to watch. The fact Tuesday marked Vlasic’s first NHL appearance of the season isn’t an indictment on him. Instead, the Hawks simply wanted him to build experience in a steady role as Rockford’s No. 1 defenseman.
“He’s going to be a big defenseman with a big reach — a shut-down type of guy,” coach Luke Richardson said. “To be ‘the guy’ and [handle] all the important situations down there [in Rockford] this year, it was really important for him to go through the process all year, not being up-and-down or in-and-out of [the Hawks’] lineup.”
IceHogs coach Anders Sorensen gave Vlasic, 21, a green light to experiment more offensively and expand his comfort zone, and the 6-6, 218-pound Wilmette native embraced that freedom.
His length makes it easy for him to break up passes and grab loose pucks in the defensive zone, but he became more physically aggressive in board battles, more accurate with his breakout passes and more active joining the rush. His AHL scoring stats (17 points in 52 games) don’t pop off the page, but he nonetheless continued the high rate of growth that began at Boston University last season.
On Tuesday, he made one obvious mistake when he got caught too high up the ice on a stalled Hawks rush, leading to a three-on-one Stars counterattack the other direction. But Hawks management would rather see his errors stem from overaggressive than passiveness.
And other than that, he looked fine. He noted that the NHL doesn’t feel “as scary” as it did during his solid 15-game debut stint last spring.
“[I’ve built] confidence with the puck but also playing defense, playing that shutdown role,” Vlasic said Tuesday. “I did a pretty good job with that tonight, making stands where I could and breaking [plays] up with my long reach.”
Added Richardson: “You saw it a couple of times when he stripped pucks, took off with it and made that first pass — that’s what he’s been doing well [in Rockford] all year.”
Vlasic is expected to spend roughly five more games with the Hawks before returning to Rockford for their final regular-season contests and playoff run.
Kaiser, meanwhile, earned his first NHL point with an assist Tuesday and has now logged action in four games since signing his contract March 14.
The 20-year-old Minnesota native employs a completely different style than Vlasic. He’s 6-0, 190 pounds, and leans toward the offensive defenseman mold, having emerged as a top prospect due to his elite and puck-moving abilities.
His analytics through these four games are poor, but that may largely stem from being paired with Nikita Zaitsev. Richardson has liked what he has seen.
“[Kaiser has] great footwork out there [and he’s] not afraid to compete,” Richardson said. “He’ll get to know the league and feel a little bit more comfortable positionally, [learning] when to join the rush and all kinds of things his skating ability will let him do.”
