With the Hawks playing so well the future seems here already but I decided to take a look at how some other guys are doing.

First, the Fresno Falcons closed up shop on the 22nd. The Hawks ECHL affiliate is now the Gwinett Gladiators.

http://blackhawks.nhl.com/team/app?articleid=400236&page=NewsPage&service=page

Rockford stats are a pain because you have to go to the AHL site and its not user friendly. I'm not too sure on how the style of play compares in the AHL to NHL as in terms of how to specifically translate stats. It looks like around the league that about 3.2-3.6 goals a game per team is about average in the AHL and the average in the NHL is about 2.9 to 3.7 (I'd assume team philosphy is the reason for more fluctuations) As a team Rockford is about average so far. The AHL teams are real tightly bunched together, but Rockford is on the outside looking in so that is part of the reason for low +/- number.

Anyway here are some stats for players of note

Name GP G A PTS +/- PIM PPG SHG Pt/G PIMPG
20 Petri Kontiola C 31 8 23 31 +1 8 4 0 1.00 0.26
8 Tim Brent C 30 9 20 29 -5 31 3 2 0.97 1.03
9 Pascal Pelletier LW 31 14 12 26 -6 18 7 0 0.84 0.58
12 Jack Skille RW 26 10 14 24 +4 17 5 1 0.92 0.65
4 Danny Groulx D 31 2 15 17 +3 32 1 0 0.55 1.03
7 Evan Brophey C 30 6 10 16 +7 47 1 0 0.53 1.57
37 Rob Klinkhammer LW 28 4 7 11 +6 13 0 0 0.39 0.46
18 Tim Hambly D 31 2 7 9 0 19 0 0 0.29 0.61
26 Niklas Hjalmarsson D 23 1 8 9 +6 27 1 0 0.39 1.17
17 Bryan Bickell LW 27 4 4 8 +7 38 0 0 0.30 1.41
28 Jake Dowell C 28 0 8 8 +5 44 0 0 0.29 1.57
21 Michael Blunden RW 30 2 5 7 -3 40 2 0 0.23 1.33
6 Jordan Hendry D 24 3 1 4 +7 21 0 0 0.17 0.88

Kontiola leads the team in points and he's still young. His ETA is still of a bit and without too much of a high ceiling could be good trade deadline bait.

Pelletier leads the team in goals but as we saw in his 1 game this year he is a grinder and his age makes him not that appealing.

Don't know much about Brent. Statwise he's basically like Kontiola. Same age same height, similar weight. That's all I got to say about that.

Skille's a guy I like and he's been putting up good stats since his calldown. Brouwer is the only Hawk who's play has been disappointing to me. Brouwer was supposed to be a PP guy especially since when he was called up the Hawks were still in their early sturggles. But now he's basically off the PP line, I wouldn't mind seeing them switch places again. As for the negatives, he's supposed to be a good 2 way guy with some physicallity that makes sense on the shutdown line, but last year and the start of this year he was noticably lazy on defense. He's 21 so maybe he just needs to mature.

While Groulx is fifth on the team in pts as a D man he caught my interest but once I saw 1981 as DOb it was time to move on.

Brophey had 19 pts in 74 gms last year and 16 in 30 games this year. He is also one of the team's top +/- guys. He turned 22 this month so I'll keep my eye on him.

Hjalmarsson's numbers neither impress or disappoint. He's a 6-3 D who's only 21 and  was on the opening day roster until nagging rib injuries got him sent down. If somebody on the blueline gets hurt I hope he's the 6th D and not Sopel.

Bickell is 6-4 and used to be viewed as a future NHL'er but he just can't score or hit enought to warrant prospect status.

Hendry has a good +/- but he's the only player that I've heard constant criticism from by IceHog fans. Might as well let him stay there for awhile.

Name GP Mins GA Shutouts Avg. W L SOL SA SVS %
2 Corey Crawford 13 791 33 0 2.50 9 3 1 415 382 0.920
3 Antti Niemi 18 1056 45 1 2.56 7 9 2 489 444 0.908

Crawford is obviously the guy the Hawks call up for the next goaltender injury/trade as shown by Khabby's injury. Crawford just has a low ceiling and I don't think will ever be a starter. Niemi is the one with a brighter future, but it's going to be a few years before he's an NHL starter.

If there's anything of note it's that with Toews, Sharp, Bolland, Fraser, Brophey, Dowell, Kontiola, and Brent we have a lot of depth at center that could be valuable at the trade deadline.

Anyway the Bears play soon and I need to sleep so it's time to wrap it up.

As far as draft picks....

Akim Aliu is 6-3 averaging more than a point and PIM a game. I think he'll be the first Nigerian in the NHL.

This year's number 1 Kyle Beach has 8 goals nad 20 assists in 26 games along with 92 PIM. He and some other guy are the only one's averaging over a point a game and as long as he avoids concussions a line of Eager, Fraser, and Beach gets me excited for next year.