Blackhawks prospect updates: Nolan Allan united with Kevin Korchinski in Seattle

During the last 18 months, Seattle Thunderbirds basic supervisor Bil La Forge had recurrently referred to as Prince Albert Raiders GM Curtis Hunt about the potential for buying and selling for defenseman Nolan Allan.

On Wednesday, the 2 WHL organizations lastly agreed on a deal. The Thunderbirds packaged three gamers and 6 WHL draft picks to amass Allan, whom the Blackhawks chosen with their 2021 first-round choose. 

Unexpectedly, two of the Hawks’ prime prospects are teammates — and doubtlessly greater than that. There’s a superb probability that Allan and Kevin Korchinski, the Hawks’ seventh general choose in 2022, will play the vast majority of the season on a pairing collectively.

And that reality isn’t being missed by their new (shared) junior workforce. Through the negotiations, La Forge advised Hunt, “We’d as nicely get these guys collectively. They might play collectively for the following 15 years.”

Allan and Korchinski complement one another nicely.

The Hawks consider Korchinski could possibly be one of many NHL’s subsequent nice offensive defensemen primarily based on his elite skating, passing and reading-the-play talents. He regarded unbelievable in NHL improvement and coaching camp, and he has 21 factors in 14 video games for Seattle this season, upping his manufacturing charge from his already-impressive 65 factors in 67 video games final season. 

“Kevin has picked up proper the place he left off final yr,” La Forge stated. “He’s a dynamic offensive defenseman. He’s doing extra defensive-type stuff for us this season out of necessity. We didn’t have the identical defensive defensemen to start out this yr that we had final yr. So he’s killing extra penalties, he’s taking part in in additional defensive conditions and he’s dealt with it very nicely. We’re actually completely happy along with his improvement.”

Allan will assist fill that defensive-defenseman void created by Blue Jackets prospect Samuel Knazko and Jets prospect Ty Bauer leaving the Thunderbirds to show professional over the summer time.

His NHL upside isn’t as excessive as Korchinski’s, however he’s huge, bodily, accountable and is aware of precisely find out how to shut down performs. He has discovered find out how to contribute offensively, too, notching 41 factors in 65 video games final season and 11 in 16 video games this season for Prince Albert earlier than the commerce.

“In our league, [Nolan] can perform a little little bit of every thing,” La Forge stated. “He’s an ideal defender. He’s proven the power to play all particular groups and eat a ton of minutes, particularly late within the recreation.

“I’ve seen him rating some good objectives, particularly recently. That a part of his recreation is creating. At this degree, you have got a calling card, after which your job to be able to get to the NHL is to enhance the opposite elements of your recreation. He has positively executed that.”

The Hawks have already got despatched improvement coaches to Seattle this fall to work with Korchinski, they usually’ll presumably set up much more of a frequent-flier route now. Korchinski and Allan discovering success collectively might present a tantalizing glimpse into what the Hawks’ future defensive corps may appear to be.

Extra prospect updates

Sam Rinzel, the opposite defenseman the Hawks picked within the first spherical in 2022, is on a a lot slower path towards the NHL — which the workforce knew can be the case when selecting him. He has recorded 9 factors in 14 video games with Waterloo of the USHL, which is the place he completed final season. He’ll enroll at Minnesota in 2023.

Whereas Arvid Soderblom impresses in his ahead-of-schedule NHL stint this fall, Drew Commesso — the Hawks’ different prime goalie prospect — has received 4 of six begins thus far in his junior yr at Boston College. He did enable six objectives in an unpleasant 9-2 defeat towards Michigan on Oct. 14, nevertheless. He has a .914 save share for the time being, precisely the identical as final season.

Arguably the extra thrilling Hawks-related information at BU thus far pertains to Ryan Greene, a second-round choose this previous summer time. The 19-year-old middle has already boosted his prospect inventory considerably and began his freshman season with a bang. He has recorded 11 factors in his first 10 collegiate video games, together with six factors in two matchups towards UMass final weekend.

Frank Nazar and Colton Dach, arguably the Hawks’ prime two ahead prospects, have each run into damage points. Nazar underwent surgical procedure; he hasn’t but performed a recreation as a freshman at Michigan and certain received’t for some time. Dach suffered his second concussion in a short while span (the primary coming in improvement camp) quickly after rejoining Kelowna of the WHL, however he returned Nov. 5 and has now tallied six factors in his first six appearances.

A pair hours west of Chicago, the Rockford IceHogs are 6-6-1. Lukas Reichel continues to rack up factors, tallying 14 in his first 13 video games, however his general recreation hasn’t been good and he’s not on the verge of a call-up but. Cole Guttman, the undrafted signing out of Denver who stood out throughout Hawks camp, missed time with a concussion however tallied three factors in his first 4 video games again.

Defensively, Jakub Galvas has performed very nicely — he ranked sixth amongst all AHL defensemen coming into Friday with 11 factors in 12 video games — however Alex Vlasic and Isaak Phillips seemingly stay forward of him within the prospect hierarchy.

Gavin Hayes (18 factors in 20 video games for OHL Flint), Samuel Savoie (19 factors in 18 video games for QMJHL Gatineau) and Ethan Del Mastro (16 factors in 16 video games for OHL Mississauga) are chugging alongside roughly as anticipated.