Blackhawks: Kirby Dach should stick with team this season
The Chicago Blackhawks have been using Kirby Dach since he has come back from injury and he has been worthy of a roster spot since making his NHL debut.
The Chicago Blackhawks have a pretty big decision to make over the next couple of weeks. Kirby Dach has five games under his belt in the National Hockey League and has been one of the best players on the team since joining it. He was the third overall pick in the 2019 NHL Draft and the Blackhawks obviously have very high hopes for what he will become.
There is little doubt that he has been good enough to play beyond nine games and be a member of the Chicago Blackhawks for the entire season. The issue is that if he struggles then he can’t go anywhere besides the Saskatoon Blades, his junior team. There is no Rockford Ice Hogs for him as it is either his junior team or the NHL because of his situation. The Blackhawks don’t want to burn a year of his contract for him to play in junior so if he goes beyond nine games he is staying.
With five games played already in the books, that means he has four left before the management team needs to make a decision. In those five games, he has one goal and one assist for two points. That is decent for an 18-year-old trying to make his way in the league. The assist he had was a particularly nice play, as he won a 50-50 puck that led to Brandon Saad being sprung in on a breakaway and he scored. This kid has good battle level and has what it takes to play the game needed to be a member of the National Hockey League.
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The other thing is his CorsiFor. He is currently at 56.2 percent which is really good, especially for a teenager with no experience playing pro. It is obviously a small sample size, but the Blackhawks control the puck when Kirby Dach is on the ice more than not. That is a really important statistic for a player that young because the offense will come, but the important thing is that he is a responsible player and not a liability defensively The conclusion is that there is probably nothing left for him to learn in juniors and he should stick in the NHL now.