Blackhawks lose Dach in Prospect Showcase game vs Wild

The Chicago Blackhawks are in the midst of their 2022 Tom Kurvers Prospect Showcase. They have a lot of their best prospects out there practicing and showing off what they can do. All of them have high hopes of being in the NHL one day.

This 2022 showcase features the Blackhawks along with the Minnesota Wild. They played in their first game on Friday night. The Blackhawks went up 2-0 early in the game but the Wild scored five unanswered goals to take it by a final score of 5-2.

The Blackhawks dealt with the misfortune of some injuries during this game as well. For one, top prospect Lukas Reichel was hit by the boards. He took his helmet off upon reaching the bench and then went to the locker room. Of course, that is a terrible sign.

Luckily, he missed the rest of the second period but he returned in time for the third. Obviously, he is a highly touted player for them that they must keep healthy as much as they can. There is a good chance that he will play in the NHL a lot this season.

The Chicago Blackhawks lost more than just this Prospect Showcase game.

Unfortunately, there is another great prospect that went down. After scoring the first goal of the game just 23 seconds in, Colton Dach went out in an injury himself. Unlike Reichel, Dach didn’t come back in the game.

The Hawks did say that they will know more about his status on Saturday. He has a long way to go before he has a chance t be an NHL player but the Hawks certainly want him to be healthy enough to develop so they can see what they have in him.

There is a rematch between these two groups of prospects on Sunday so we will see if Dach is good enough to participate in that. Either way, he will use 2022-23 as a year to get better so he can take a run at a roster spot one day.

Although the game didn’t go the way that you wanted in terms of the score and there were some injuries, it is nice to have hockey back. Developing these kids (in addition to adding more of them) is the key to this team getting back into the playoffs.

Both the Wild and the Hawks clearly have a lot of players to be excited about going forward. With other notable prospects there trying to make an impact, the rest of the event should surely be fun.

We can only hope that this is all helping them get better and it seems like it is. Once the event is over, it will be even easier to evaluate what we just witnessed as there will be more practice and another game to see how they are doing. The Hawks are in “prospect mode” more than they have been in a long time.