Chicago Blackhawks: Top 6 players they should target in 2020 NHL Draft
By Kyle Pereira
The suspension of the NHL season amid the COVID-19 pandemic has shifted hockey fans’ attention towards what is next, which is the 2020 NHL Draft. Let’s take a look at who the Chicago Blackhawks should go after.
The Chicago Blackhawks, entering 2019-20, had some people projecting them as a playoff team, while others had them remain in the basement of the league. Though they haven’t been bad, they’re still not quite a playoff team, heading into the season’s pause with a 32-30-8 record. Because of that record, the Blackhawks are projected to land the ninth overall pick.
The Blackhawks have recently developed a really nice pool of prospects. At the forward positions, they have young NHLers in Kirby Dach, Dominik Kubalik, Alex Nylander, Dylan Strome, and Alex DeBrincat. In their pipeline, they have Michal Teply, Andrei Altybarmakyan, and Philipp Kurashev.
Meanwhile, on defense, they employ Adam Boqvist and Nicolas Beaudin on the NHL, while also having Alec Regula in the pipeline. The Blackhawks have Corey Crawford as their starting goalie, and he’s 35 with a long injury list, with no future starter waiting in the shadows. Unless, of course, Malcolm Subban breaks out if and when he ends up as the starter.
Their current general manager Stan Bowman has been in office since the 2009 NHL Draft. That being said, there is a strong sample size of Blackhawks draftees that I was able to look at. Using every Blackhawks draft pick from 2009, I gathered their heights, weights and nationalities to see if there were any patterns that developed over time, in terms of whether they have preferences in the aforementioned categories.
Since 2009, Bowman has drafted 48 forwards, 33 defensemen, and nine goalies, for a grand total of 90 selections. Let’s start with the forwards.