Chicago Blackhawks: Kirby Dach should stay in juniors
The Chicago Blackhawks third overall pick is developing nicely and looking like he is going to be a good NHL player one day, but it might be next year.
The Chicago Blackhawks are going to be a team that expects to be in the playoff hunt in 2019-20. They are going to do that with what they hope is better goaltending and defense than they had in 2018-19. Their forward group is solid and the bottom six was made even better over the course of the offseason.
That bottom-six being heavily improved is part of the reason that third overall pick Kirby Dach should probably be sent to juniors for one more year. He is 18 years old, so there is plenty of time for him to play in the NHL. The key is to make sure that he is ready once he gets there. You don’t want him to get to the show and struggle so much that he never gets it going.
He currently plays for the Saskatoon Blades of the Western Hockey League. He had 25 goals and 48 assists for 73 points in 62 games for them. There is a reason that he was taken third overall by Chicago, and they need to make sure that he reaches his potential. His skills largely come from using his size, speed, and skills to generate offense in the high danger areas. He has everything needed to be an NHL player and it is just going to take some fine-tuning.
There is a lot of center depth in the Blackhawks organization, and some of it was brought in over the summer. They extended David Kampf‘s contract, in addition to bringing in Ryan Carpenter and Andrew Shaw who can both also play center in the bottom six. Jonathan Toews and Dylan Strome are going to play center in the top six, so the Blackhawks have the depth to let Dach develop for another year if they chose.
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It is going to be an interesting story to follow all throughout training camp and the preseason. If he does in fact make the team, it is a good sign because that means the coaching staff and management team believe he is ready. They also have nine games to try him out before sending him to juniors if they so chose. We should be rooting for him to make it and stick with the team long term, but if that is not in his best interest then send him back to Saskatoon for one more season so he can play lots of big minutes and dominate.