Like every season around this time, training camp has run its course for many of the prospects and tryouts.
Since the weekend, the Chicago Blackhawks cut ties or reassigned the bulk of players from camp, reducing the roster from 49 to 32.
“Training camp for some people is a stressful time and a bundle of nerves, but it’s professional sports,” coach Luke Richardson said. “Whoever performs the best when it’s on the line (are) the guys that deserve to be there. That’s just the way it is.
“There’s always a new kid on the block that’s going to take your position.”
Some players could return early in the season, while others might have said their final farewells to Chicago. A few, such as forward prospect (and this year’s camp darling) AJ Spellacy, have surprisingly stuck around.
They’ve all left impressions in different ways on this year’s camp, from their hockey journeys to colorful stories.
1. AJ Spellacy has been the surprise of camp.
The third-round pick in this year’s draft looks like a speedster and a thumper — and at times, a veteran — a combination that has opened some eyes.
“It’s good,” Spellacy said. “I’ve been learning a lot, so it’s good to stick around for however long they want to keep me. … I just had the mindset of put my best in and see where that takes me. I think I’ve done that.”
Normally, the 18-year-old would’ve been on the way back to his junior team (in his case, the OHL Windsor Spitfires) like a lot of other prospects, but the Hawks want to see more.
The Hawks play the Wild in Minnesota on Tuesday, and now’s the time in the preseason when teams start to field lineups that more closely resemble real NHL rosters.
“He’s had a great camp,” Richardson said. “Give him another look as we get closer to the real thing and bigger, fuller lineups and give him that experience before he heads back.
“He’s a big guy, skates well. He looks good here in the NHL. He’s probably got some things to work on, but we just thought he’s earned an opportunity to play in a game closer to the regular season.”
2. The defense rests, so to speak.
With more veteran blue-liners in the fold, Richardson could have tweaked the defensive scheme, but he’s keeping the same system and focusing on better execution.
“If we don’t have (the puck) and we’re tired, we have to be comfortable to stay on the inside. Maybe squeeze it tighter,” he said. “That’s somewhere we can get a little more patient at and realize that, if we’re a little tired, maybe let’s pull back, let them skate around the outside for a few seconds, take your breath and then when it’s time to strike again, that’s when we have to have hard, heavy sticks way more this year than we did last year and have that guy in behind come and scoop that loose puck and go.
“Sometimes be comfortable making strong plays — if it’s an icing, it’s an icing — and not get stuck in our D-zone for the long minute, minute and a half shifts. You lose momentum and you get your players tired.”
3. Kevin Korchinski “always liked” No. 14.
Since Boris Katchouk was claimed off waivers by the Ottawa Senators in March, that left his old jersey number for Korchinski, who wore No. 55 as a rookie last season.
“I was always 14 growing up, and then (head equipment manager Troy Parchman) texted me and said, ‘Hey, you want 14?’ because they knew that. And I’m like, ‘Yeah, I’d love it.’
“I just always liked it as a kid. I don’t know, I could pick, I always picked 14. I just liked the look, I guess.”
4. When it comes to cooking, Drew Commesso doesn’t get a sauce pass.
Off the ice, the goalie prospect has really dived into one pursuit: “I’ve become an excellent cook,” he said.
“Yeah, I don’t like to brag too much, but I think that’s an aspect where I’m pretty proud of myself. I’ve taken some good steps in the kitchen this summer,” he said.
Commesso said he shuts off his phone, turns up some music and works on perfecting new recipes.
“I want everything I do to be the best,” he said. “If I make something at dinner that’s not great or really good, I think the next night, I’m pretty eager to make it even better.”
He has cooked dishes such as salmon with asparagus and rice, as well as sirloin steak — “I’ve pretty much perfected those,” he said — for his hometown friends and defenseman Alex Vlasic, with whom he’s living during camp.
“He knows I’m a good cook. I’ve cooked for us,” Commesso said.
5. Playing your way out of a pickle.
Last season it was boxing lessons. One of this year’s favorite camp activities was pickleball.
During a tournament of sorts last week, defenseman Austin Strand and forward Philipp Kurashev matched up against forwards Taylor Hall and Tevuo Teräväinen in the finals.
“Hallsy and Tevuo won,” said Strand, who was released from his professional tryout and assigned to the IceHogs on Saturday. “I think Hallsy said he has one in his backyard, and then Teuvo just had that little bit of finesse on his touch.”
6. Austin Strand also played a little Tazer tag.
Strand had an encounter this summer with Jonathan Toews — in Arizona of all places.
Strand usually spends his offseason training in Calgary, but he tried EVO Ultrafit gym in the Phoenix area on the recommendation of Matthew Barzal, who Strand played with in juniors.
“I saw (Toews) there a couple times, even though he’s ‘retired,’ he was coming in,” Strand said. “It was cool to meet Toews, he was a really nice guy.
“He was talking to me about training, it’s a really different kind of training. You wear this machine that stimulates our muscles. You don’t lift heavy but you do a lot of explosive stuff with this machine on. … It just helps you with longevity.”
Strand tried to get Toews to reveal whether he plans to return to the NHL, but the former Hawks captain was (surprise!) cryptic about it.
“I was talking to him about that and he just said he loved Chicago. I was asking him if he was going to come back (since he was training), … he just said, ‘I’m just enjoying it.’”
7. Call them the Gen-Z Bruise Brothers?
Paul Ludwinski and Samuel Savoie were assigned to Rockford this weekend, where they’ll continue to battle opposing forward lines — and occasionally each other.
“You can say anything to him,” Ludwinski said. “He’s really good guy, just like a brother. He’ll do anything for you. You can do anything for him.”
On the other hand, “We’ll go on the ice and battle it out, too,” Ludwinski said. “But it’s just always smiles with him.”
Savoie added, “Ludsy plays the same way. We have that grit and that respect for each other on the ice.”
They both made strong impressions during camp, particularly playing on a line with Joey Anderson.
Richardson said, “They just played a simple game, and they chip pucks behind the defense. … That’s usually the way you play in the playoffs … But that’s the way they play. They just execute every time or close to it.”
8. Savoie remains “fearless” about his leg.
Maybe it’s a good thing Savoie isn’t playing in Tuesday’s game in Minnesota. Last year, he slid into the board and broke his right femur during a game against the Wild, requiring surgery that kept him shelved until February.
To hear Savoie talk, his leg is farthest from his mind.
“Last year was kind of unlucky,” he said. “We talk about, in hockey, ‘Control your controllables.’”
One of his “controllables” was rehabbing.
“I think the hardest part for me, I’d say, is when I came back, kind of adjusting to reading pressure and all that. That was kind of more tough than playing my identity.”
Savoie has played rough-and-tumble during camp as well as the prospect tournament that preceded it.
“When I’m out there, look, if another injury happens, it happens,” he said. “I’m not too worried about that, so I just try to play my best game and go out there fearless.”
9. Hawks are calling for more shots.
Luke Richardson has been beating the drum for his players to shoot more, but it’s the same song he was singing last season, when the Hawks finished second to last in shots per game average (26.3), ahead of the San Jose Sharks (25.2).
He had better hope the preseason isn’t an indicator of what’s to come.
Of the 11 NHL teams that played three preseason games through Sunday, the Hawks (72) and Sharks (70) have once again bottomed out that list in shots on goal.
Before the weekend’s game, Richardson was at a loss to explain the Hawks’ reluctance to put more pucks on net.
“I don’t know, I think they come in, hockey’s about everybody making passes and touching the puck in summer hockey and all the drills, and then you get in a game and we’re like, ‘Straight line, shoot the puck,’ and it’s very simple,” he said. “… I hopefully say it enough that they get sick of it and just start doing it.”
10. Getting to know the Hawks.
Several players have had children in recent months, including defenseman Connor Murphy.
“June 30, we had Tucker, a boy,” said a beaming Murphy. “Yeah, he’s been awesome. Tucker Wayne. He’s three months now, and he’s been like an angel. He sleeps well, he’s smiling, he’s happy and healthy, so we’re happy.”
Tucker will get his own hockey stick “as soon as he can walk, probably,” Murphy laughed.
Murphy has company, Richardson said.
“(Goalie Laurent Brossoit’s) wife is expecting a baby and then Ryan Donato and his wife just welcomed their daughter to the family and the team.”
Richardson joked, “Lots of babies probably at Christmas skate this year, so that’ll be fun.”
He also learned one other nugget about Brossoit.
“Everybody thought Laurent Brossoit was from Quebec but he’s a Western Canadian guy,” Richardson said. Brossoit is from Port Alberni on Vancouver Island. “I don’t know if he does (speak French). That was neat.”
