When Dominik Kubalík signed a two-year, $7.4 million contract with the Chicago Blackhawks on Oct. 9, 2020 — a bridge deal on the heels of a 30-goal season — he knew the stakes.
“To be successful again is the first goal right now, to show that it wasn’t just one season,” Kubalík told NHL.com at the time. “You’re always going to face adversity. You just have to be ready for it, get through.
“Right now, everybody expects me to score 30 goals (again). I’d like to do it again, but we’ll see how it goes.”
It hasn’t gone well.
Kubalík followed up a 30-goal, 16-assist season in 68 games with 17 goals and 21 assists in 56 games last season. This season he has 13 goals and 14 assists in 71 games, three more than he played in 2019-20.
His shooting percentage has dropped from 19% to 11% to 8.8%.
“It’s just skating, get those chances and shoot the puck if I can, but sometimes you don’t get a chance to shoot,” Kubalík said before Monday’s 5-2 home loss to the Calgary Flames. “That’s obviously frustrating, but I try to battle through.”
Kubalik assisted on Tyler Johnson’s first-period goal against the Flames. Alec Regula scored his first NHL goal for the Hawks in the second period.
Even if Kubalík has an offensive spurt over the last seven games, those numbers aren’t likely to change how the Hawks feel about bringing back the arbitration-eligible restricted free agent.
He was a healthy scratch for three straight games last week.
“I’ve been healthy-scratched a couple times before, but not for a couple games in a row,” said Kubalík, who scored a goal in his return Saturday against the Nashville Predators. “So again, it’s a new experience.”
Coach Derek King has said before that Kubalík was “overthinking” his game, and he reiterated that position Monday.
“He needs to not think about it and just go play. That’s what I told him,” King said. “Mentally, he’s overthinking this. It’s a simple game. We’re the ones that make it difficult on ourselves.”
King suggested Kubalík has had difficulty handling the pressure of a contract year.
“I’m sure it has a little something to do with it,” King said. “He’s an NHL (player), he’s good enough to play in the NHL. He’s just having one of those years. It just happened to be bad timing.”
Back in October 2020, Kubalík preferred a long-term contract but opted to sign a two-year bridge deal that carried a $3.7 million annual salary-cap hit.
“It’s like every time, you’ve got to have a good year on your option year,” King said. “Showed his ace too early. Got to save those seasons for the option years.
“But he can play. I’m not sure what his deal’s going to be, if he’s back or if he’s going to go somewhere else. But he’ll eventually get out of it and he’ll put some numbers up. He’ll score some goals.”
General manager Kyle Davidson was noncommittal about Kubalík earlier this month and hinted that the 26-year-old left wing’s down year could be a factor.
“It’s a really complicated thing when players have salary arbitration and what that number might look like,” Davidson said when asked about Kubalík’s upcoming free agency. “And it’s even more complicated when that contract year was maybe not what it has been in the past.”
Kubalík said he doesn’t “really think about it.”
“Right now, my head is just about hockey, just to get back to my game because ... it was up and down,” he said. “It’s going to be obviously a conversation with my agent after the season.
“What does Chicago want or what do they expect or which way do I want to go? I can’t really handle it. I know all I can do is stick with it and do my best.”
Older brother Tomáš Kubalík, who plays for French team Brest, has given him advice about how to get through this adversity.
“It starts with those little details, the basic things like shooting, skating, like being at the right time at the right moment,” Dominik Kubalík said. “Obviously the head is probably 90 — maybe even more — percent of your performance on the ice. To kind of just refresh my mind was the bigger thing this year.”
However it shakes out, Kubalík said the experience “is going to help me to be a better player for sure.”
“I’ve never been in that situation like that for a whole year in my career,” he said. “I’m just trying to be positive, trying to take something out of it.”
