Patrick Williams, TheAHL.com Options Author
The Chicago Blackhawks gained three Stanley Cup championships final decade, however they’ve since been mired in years of setbacks. Connor Bedard, the primary total draft choose in 2023, has given the Blackhawks a basis to construct on, however it takes extra than simply prime picks to construct a championship membership.
It’s a robust supporting forged that steers a group from regular-season success to an annual Stanley Cup contender, and that’s the place the Rockford IceHogs are available.
Going the AHL growth route has labored for Chicago earlier than. Their Stanley Cup groups of 2010, 2013 and 2015 had been constructed closely from inside, as gamers like Duncan Keith, Corey Crawford, Troy Brouwer, Niklas Hjalmarsson, Dustin Byfuglien, Colin Fraser and Kris Versteeg got here out of the Blackhawks’ AHL system.
Now the same constructing plan is in place as administration takes on one other long-term undertaking. Scouting and drafting nicely are the primary steps. Then comes growth, the place all of that expertise will get refined. And that’s the place Rockford issues.
A lot of Chicago’s younger core – together with Frank Nazar, Colton Dach, Alex Vlasic, Wyatt Kaiser, Louis Crevier and Arvid Soderblom – have already come by way of Rockford. In the meantime, the IceHogs are being led by the following wave in profitable 4 of their first 5 video games this season.
Ahead Oliver Moore, taken nineteenth total within the 2023 draft, is out of the College of Minnesota and has 4 targets and 6 factors by way of his first 5 AHL video games. Nick Lardis, one other 20-year-old rookie, simply gained the Howies Hockey Tape/AHL Participant of the Week award after posting seven factors in three video games final weekend; he put up 71 targets within the Ontario Hockey League in 2024-25. Martin Misiak had a pair of 23-goal seasons for the OHL’s Erie Otters earlier than transferring on to Rockford this fall. Forwards Gavin Hayes and Samuel Savoie are a pair of third-round choices looking for their approach as professionals.
Defensively, there may be 2021 first-round choose Nolan Allan, who performed 43 NHL video games a 12 months in the past, together with 2002 seventh-overall choose Kevin Korchinski. Rookie Taige Harding is coming off 4 years at Windfall Faculty, and Ethan Del Mastro is on the verge of breaking by way of to the NHL.
Goaltending prospect Drew Commesso’s third professional season is underway, and he’s joined by Stanislav Berezhnoy, a 22-year-old free agent signing out of Russia who’s off to a sizzling begin with Rockford; time could present that there’s something there to offer additional inner competitors for the Hawks group.
Not all the pieces goes to plan with this course of, in fact. Chicago introduced this week {that a} knee harm signifies that second-year Rockford ahead Paul Ludwinski’s season is over after simply three video games.
There shall be ups and downs in any growth plan. Introduced in to handle all of it is Jared Nightingale, Rockford’s new head coach. Nightingale, a former Rockford assistant and long-time AHL defenseman, got here again to the IceHogs to appreciable optimism. In his first season as head coach and director of hockey operations for the ECHL’s South Carolina Stingrays, he set franchise information with 52 wins and 109 factors and gained ECHL coach of the 12 months honors.
The IceHogs’ 4-1-0-0 begin contains three extra time wins – yet another than that they had all of final season. They dropped a 6-5 resolution to Chicago on Sunday, however have allowed simply seven targets of their 4 victories. The group is in Colorado for a two-game set with the Eagles this weekend earlier than returning to Rosemont to face the Wolves once more on Tuesday morning.
Final Sunday’s loss confirmed each the expertise and the inexperience that the IceHogs have. They fell behind 3-0 within the opening 6:40 of regulation earlier than pushing again to construct two separate leads, solely to lose in the long run.
“Happy with the fellows, how we responded and form of slowly seeing the make-up of our group and our id,” Nightingale said this week.
“Tons to love, tons to work on nonetheless, however it was undoubtedly a constructive step.”
On the American Hockey League beat for twenty years, TheAHL.com options author Patrick Williams additionally at present covers the league for NHL.com and FloSports and is a daily contributor on SiriusXM NHL Community Radio. He was the recipient of the AHL’s James H. Ellery Memorial Award for his excellent protection of the league in 2016.
