ST. LOUIS — Isaak Phillips views himself differently than the Blackhawks do.
The 22-year-old defenseman entered training camp with the goal of making the Hawks’ roster. He believed wholeheartedly he was qualified to do so. Even after it didn’t happen, he continued to grind.
Now, thanks to the spate of injuries on the Hawks’ blue line, he’s not only back in the NHL but playing alongside Connor Murphy on what has become coach Luke Richardson’s shutdown pairing.
Phillips is convinced that, during this stint, he’s doing everything necessary to establish himself as a full-time NHL player.
“I think I’m proving myself every game,” Phillips said Friday. “I can’t control what they think or what anyone else thinks, but I can control how I feel and how I believe. And I think I’ve been solid and I can continue to get better.”
It’s easy to sympathize or even agree with his opinion.
Phillips has good size at 6-3, and he has improved his grittiness and physicality to take full advantage of that size. He breaks up plays regularly and is competent moving the puck. He has the confidence, poise and hockey IQ to handle this environment.
But the Hawks aren’t convinced he has done enough to establish himself as a full-time NHL player — at least not yet.
They see him as someone who performs better on some shifts than others, who still struggles with inconsistencies and who makes his share of mistakes, even if they’re usually not big enough to be obvious.
“He’s in a tough position right now because he’s trying to earn that consistency and trust from the coaching staff,” Richardson said Saturday. “He’s playing top minutes against teams’ best players. It’s hard to cultivate that while you go, and he’s doing a fine job with it. But there’s one or two times a game where he just bobbles a puck and it gets tangled up, and you can’t do that on the ice with those guys.”
Richardson mentioned a couple plays — both off defensive-zone faceoffs — in the Hawks’ loss Friday to the Canadiens. In the first period, Phillips reacted decisively to beat Juraj Slafkovsky in a puck battle, then fed Connor Bedard to jump-start the rush that led to Ryan Donato’s goal.
In the second period, however, Jason Dickinson won a draw back to Phillips, but he was indecisive about what to do and cut back along the wall. He bobbled the puck and eventually lost it, allowing the Canadiens to produce a dangerous shot attempt.
“You can’t be 50-50 in the NHL,” Richardson said. “You have to be close to 100% almost every night.”
For now, the Hawks’ injuries mean Phillips will hold down an NHL spot indefinitely, despite his inconsistencies. It’s unclear how long that will remain the case after the Christmas break. Seth Jones’ and Alex Vlasic’s return timelines are variables.
On one hand, the Hawks have stressed patience when it comes to judging their prospects’ ups and downs, and Phillips still falls into the prospect bucket given his age — even though he’s in his fourth pro season and eighth NHL stint.
On the other hand, Phillips’ entry-level contract expires after this season, and the Hawks employ a ton of other young defensemen who are — or soon will be — fighting for scarce NHL time. The competition is heated.
“The longer he’s here, the more information he’s getting,” Richardson said. “We just have to shrink down those little hiccups. Everybody has them, but if you can shrink them down to as minimal as everybody else or less, then you’re going to become an every-day NHLer.”
