WINNIPEG, Manitoba — The man who tied for the Blackhawks‘ team lead in goals last season is nowhere to be seen on the Hawks’ power-play units to start this season.
That’s because that man is Jason Dickinson, whose forte is unquestionably defense despite his out-of-the-blue 22-goal eruption, and the Hawks want him focusing on penalty-killing instead within the special teams realm.
And that’s because the Hawks intend to keep most of their players within more specific roles this season, ideally allowing them to focus specifically on the main tasks they’re being asked to do, rather than constantly jumbling them around in unpredictable ways like in years past.
That’s something general manager Kyle Davidson and coach Luke Richardson have been talking about since the spring, and we’re now seeing that change in roster-building philosophy in action.
“I’m hoping the depth that we acquired through our summer activity does give us the opportunity to play players in situations that play to their strengths and their roles,” Davidson said at the start of training camp. “Hopefully we’ve done that and it’ll make [player] evaluation a little easier, if we’re evaluating them against the role they’re best suited for.”
In terms of Dickinson and his absence from the power play, Richardson passed along that message directly.
“I told him, ‘We’re looking for some roles for people,'” Richardson said. “He’s got a big role, checking top lines when we can and penalty-killing and [being a] faceoff man. Right now, we’re going to try some other guys, but [I told him], ‘Keep listening in the meetings and being around, and we may call on you.'”
In the season opener against Utah, the Hawks’ second power-play unit was basically their fourth line — Craig Smith, Pat Maroon and Ryan Donato — plus Philipp Kurashev and Alec Martinez, which was a rather inexplicable and ineffective approach.
Entering Friday’s matchup against the Jets, Richardson made some modifications, putting Nick Foligno with Connor Bedard, Teuvo Teravainen, Tyler Bertuzzi and Seth Jones on the top unit.
That allowed Hall to move to the second unit with Kurashev, with whom he’s building chemistry during five-on-five play. Maroon kept his net-front role, but the Hawks also switched to using two defensemen on the second unit, putting Alex Vlasic next to Martinez.
Hurricane watch
Maroon, who won a Stanley Cup with the Lightning and still lives in Tampa during the summer, tweeted Wednesday — ahead of Hurricane Milton’s landfall — that he was “thinking about my Tampa family.”
Fortunately, Maroon said his friends and family there were spared from major damage, besides a few trees falling in the front yard of his house. The Lightning’s scheduled home opener Saturday, coincidentally against the Hurricanes, was postponed by the NHL.
Where are they now?
The Hawks let a lot of players walk away as free agents this summer, and very few of them managed to land NHL jobs elsewhere.
Colin Blackwell earned a spot on the Stars’ fourth line and Taylor Raddysh earned a spot on the Capitals’ fourth line, but this fall has brought bad news for just about everyone else.
Tyler Johnson was theoretically the Hawks’ highest-profile free agent, but he waited all summer without signing before attending Bruins training camp on a PTO. He hasn’t received a contract yet, but he’s reportedly still skating with the Bruins in anticipation of one.
MacKenzie Entwistle and Jaycob Megna (Panthers), Reese Johnson (Wild) and Jarred Tinordi (Flames) will all start the season in the AHL. Boris Katchouk signed an AHL-only contract in the Penguins organization and Nikita Zaitsev signed in Russia.