These 2 Chicago Blackhawks rookies impressed on Monday

The Chicago Blackhawks played in the biggest hockey media market in the NHL on Monday night. They took on the Toronto Maple Leafs who are one of the most highly skilled teams in the league right now. With hat tricks in the first two games of the season, Auston Matthews and his team are on a mission.

Chicago Blackhawks rookie Connor Bedard is going to get a lot of attention no matter where he goes. The hype is real and he has lived up to it at this point in time. When in Toronto, the attention is only going to be heightened.

Despite having four shots on goal, this was the first game that Bedard did not collect at least one point. Instead, two other rookies showed up big in the 4-1 win. Those two rookies are Kevin Korchinski and Alex Vlasic.

Korchinski was the seventh overall pick in the 2022 NHL Draft and he has become a great player. The Hawks have been developing him the right way and now he looks like someone who deserves to stick with the team beyond the 9-game threshold. He is an NHL player and should remain that way.

Kevin Korchinski and Alex Vlasic are key pieces for the Chicago Blackhawks.

On Monday, Korchinski earned his first career NHL point in his first career NHL game. He made a nice play to break out a power play rush and Tyler Johnson scored. It was also Chicago’s first power-play goal of the season.

It is important that Korchinksi continues to work on his game as a two-way defenseman. He has a lot of great skills and they have been on display through the first four games of the season. It is becoming more and more clear that it was smart to draft him every day. He is a big part of the plan.

As for Vlasic, he was a second-round pick in 2019. After a really good career at Boston University, he was ready to continue his development as a pro. Now, here we are in 2023 and he looks like he is going to also be a major piece to the puzzle.

On Monday in the win, he made a stretch pass to Corey Perry who scored his first goal as a member of the Chicago Blackhawks on a breakaway. It is good to see Perry on the board but it is even better to see Vlasic have that type of awareness.

To be able to act on that awareness with your skill is equally as impressive. These are the types of skills on the back end that Chicago will need once they are ready to start competing for the postseason.

Vlasic made his NHL debut in 2021-22 when he played 15 games for Chicago. Since then, outside of a handful of games, he has spent time developing in the AHL with the Rockford Ice Hogs. Now, two seasons later, that was clearly an outstanding decision.

He scored his first career NHL goal during that 2021-22 season but he is still looking for his first this season. It should come in short order with the way he is playing.

Korchinski is still looking for his first career goal. That, like Vlasic’s first of this season, is coming. He will be in a prime position to score a lot and he deserves it. Hopefully, he starts seeing more power play time with the big boys soon as well.

Yes, Bedard is the most important player in the organization. However, as we see with other superstars around the league, they can’t win without a great team.

Having two stud defensemen like Alex Vlasic and Kevin Korchinski to build around is very important. This win against the Maple Leafs was just a sample of what’s to come with them.