Blackhawks Prospects to Watch Out For..

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Sam Walker
March 24, 2022 (11:08)

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With the NHL's recent Trade Deadline having come and gone, Kyle Davidson has made his vision for this franchise crystal clear. They are not in a position to win now or in the near future, and need to hit the reset button. Losing players like Marc-Andre Fleury, Brandon Hagel and Ryan Carpenter are never easy. With everything that transpired at the beginning of the year from the lawsuit to the 1-9-2 start, guys like Hagel and Fleury were always bright spots to think about when things weren't going well. Now you got assets for these guys, mainly 2 first round picks and a conditional second round pick that could become a first depending on how Fleury does with the Wild.

At first glance this looks great, a bunch of picks to start the rebuild, especially a couple firsts! Not so fast. Yes it is nice to get a bunch of picks and young assets when you're in a rebuild, it all comes down to how you manage those picks and young prospects. When Wayne Gretzky was traded from the Edmonton Oilers to the Los Angeles Kings, the Kings sent 3 first round picks as a part of the deal. Those 3 picks wound up playing a combined 4 games for the Oilers total, and they were traded for the greatest hockey player ever.

How an organization develops their prospects is very telling as to how their future will play out. When Stan was running the show, young promising prospects would come into the organization, only to be thrown to the lions and mess up their development. Someone like Kirby Dach probably could have used more time to develop whether that was in the WHL or the AHL. Unfortunately, Stan brought him up to the NHL way too early, messing up his development to the point where he is putting up almost identical numbers to his rookie season this year.

Now it's not all doom and gloom. You could develop a prospect perfectly and they may not perform at the NHL level. You could develop them poorly and they never pan out. Then there are the ones that come out of nowhere and surprise everyone with how comfortable they are at the NHL level. A guy like Brandon Hagel would fall into that category. A sixth round pick by Buffalo in 2016, never signed with the Sabres and signed with Chicago as a free agent, comes out of nowhere and dominates the past year and a half with the Hawks and is traded for valuable assets.

With the Hawks not in a position to make the playoffs this year, we can take a look ahead towards stuff like the draft, free agency and even next season. Or, maybe something more appealing to Hawks fans is sooner than we think. The NCAA's Frozen Four is set to take place this week where one of Chicago's more underrated prospects will look to lead his school to a National Championship

Wyatt Kaiser/Defencemen - University of Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs

The Hawks have had a bunch of young and talented defencemen come up these past couple years with the likes of Adam Boqvist, Ian Mitchell, Nicolas Beaudin, Wyatt Kalynuk and even Alec Regula has gotten into some games recently. One name that Hawks fans should be excited for coming up through the college ranks is Wyatt Kaiser.

Kaiser was a third round pick in the 2020 draft and has spent the last two seasons in the NCAA with the Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs. Transitioning from junior hockey to college hockey is never easy for any player, add on top of that playing your first season of college hockey in the first season after Covid-19 disrupted the entire world isn't going to make things any easier. It helped a lot that Kaiser was joining a powerhouse program at Duluth that had been to the National Championship 3 years and was back-to-back winners of the big game. Kaiser has spent this past year mainly on the Bulldogs second defense pairing and has looked really solid.

Through his first 2 seasons of his collegiate career have for the most part been pretty solid. Through 60 career games he's put up 29 points which may not be eye popping. Yes, he may have just 2 goals in those 60 games. However, after seeing his goal versus Western Michigan in the Frozen Faceoff championship game, you can tell this kid has a bunch of skill and when he wants to use it, it's going to be very scary for the opposing team.

There is still a bunch of room for development in Kaiser's game, whether that be becoming a bigger offensive presence, maturing more physically or even more as a leader in the locker room. Duluth is going to be a great place for him to develop and get the needed ice time. Playing out his full 4 years in college might be the best thing for his development in the long run. With all the young defenseman still in the pipeline between Chicago and Rockford, as well as guys signed long term like Seth Jones, Jake McCabe and Connor Murphy, playing it out in college seems like the right fit for Wyatt Kaiser.

With all the changes coming in Chicago over the next few seasons, someone like Wyatt Kaiser is definitely someone who you should keep an eye out for. Luckily, Kaiser and Minnesota-Duluth are still in the Frozen Four tournament and play Michigan Tech on thursday if you want to take a look at Kaiser for yourself.