This former Blackhawks draft pick has his first goal of the year

A lot of big moves were made by the Chicago Blackhawks during the off-season. One of them included their former third-overall pick (2019 NHL draft) Kirby Dach. He is a kid that had ups and downs to start his career but the team did him no favors in his development.

Now, he is with a new young team that is going to use him properly. The Blackhawks traded him to the Montreal Canadiens at the 2022 NHL Draft in exchange for a first-round pick in the same draft.

He came into Monday night’s game against the Pittsburgh Penguins looking for his first goal of the 2022-23 season which would also be his first in a Habs uniform. He had one assist in the prior three games before this one. Well, he waited until the perfect time for his first goal.

The Pittsburgh Penguins got out to a hot 2-0 lead thanks to two goals by Evgeni Malkin. Trailing by two going into the third, they needed a big effort in order to come back. Nick Suzuki scored just 1:10 into the period to set the tone.

Then, late in the period and regulation, Cole Caufield scored to make it 2-2. That is the Canadiens getting big goals from two of their best players. In overtime while on the power play, Dach scored a very nice tip-in goal that was set up by Sean Monahan. Suzuki also grabbed an assist.

Former Chicago Blackhawks player Kirby Dach has his first goal of the season.

Dach scored by being parked right in front of the goaltender on the power play. He can make a lot of money in this league if he continues to use his size, strength, and skill to get the job done as he did on this goal. This was a nice way for him to get on the board.

Montreal probably isn’t going to have a banner year as they are still developing guys and trying to get better. They are farther along in the rebuild than the Blackhawks are but it is going to be a while before they are contenders again too.

Hopefully, for Dach’s sake, they continue to develop him properly as he is a very good player. It isn’t his fault that the team he was drafted by handled his development very poorly.

It would also be nice to see Frank Nazar turn into a great defenseman as he is the selection that Chicago made with the pick that Montreal gave them (it originally belonged to the New York Islanders). It should be interesting to see how this plays out in the coming years.