Should the Hawks Have Passed on Dach in 2019 Draft?
Jack Hughes and Kaapo Kakko were the consensus top two players of the 2019 draft. After that, it was anyone's best guess what Stan Bowman was going to do at pick 3. He opted for Kirby Dach, a 6'4", 198 lb center from Saskatoon. Dach has recorded only 59 points in three seasons with just a 35% faceoff percentage. His wrist injury before the 2020-21 season has really derailed his development. It's probably fair to say the 18-year-old could have used more seasoning at Rockford.
But was Dach the right choice for Chicago? They had a surplus of top defensive prospects at the time so it's not too surprising they passed on Bowen Byram and Moritz Seider, a Calder Trophy finalist this year. They got a center in Dach, which was a huge area of organizational need. Chicago needed any forward, really. Dach projected as a Ryan Getzlaf or Rick Nash type of player.
Let's look at a few players the Hawks could have selected and how they're faring compared to Dach. We'll start with center Dylan Cozens who went seventh overall to Buffalo. Cozens has played 120 games over two seasons and has scored 51 points with a faceoff percentage of 46%.
Unlike Dach, he returned to the Western Hockey League after being drafted and put up 85 points in only 51 games. Cozens has embraced a patient approach to his development and Sabres coach Don Granato has been impressed with his competitiveness and leadership, something the Hawks could definitely use.
Trevor Zegras went ninth overall to Anaheim and has lit the league on fire since his arrival with 74 points in 99 games, producing highlight reel plays night in and night out. Zegras, a Calder Trophy finalist, played in 17 games for the AHL's San Diego Gulls in 2020-21, scoring 21 points. He also appeared in 24 NHL games that year, scoring a modest 13 points. Zegras has elite skills. He's a really creative, exciting, modern-day player who models his game after Patrick Kane. A much younger version of Kane? Yeah he'd look great in a red sweater.
Other notable later first round picks: Matt Boldy (12th, Minnesota), Spencer Knight (13th, Florida) and Cole Caufield (15th, Montreal). Looking back, Zegras was probably the pick at three and who knows how things would have changed.
| POLL | ||
Who should the Hawks have taken at three? | ||
| Dach | 30 | 16.9 % |
| Cozens | 20 | 11.2 % |
| Zegras | 94 | 52.8 % |
| Byram | 34 | 19.1 % |
| List of polls | ||
