The Chicago Blackhawks’ Henri Jokiharju, Ian Mitchell, and Dylan Sikura made The Athletic’s midseason ranking of the top 50 prospects in the NHL. Corey Pronman, formerly of ESPN, compiled the list, which is topped by Sabres forward Casey Mittelstadt.
Jokiharju, who was recently named No. 1 on our updated Blackhawks prospect rankings, leads the way for Pronman, too, at No. 36 overall. He’s followed by Mitchell at No. 40 and Sikura at No. 42. Those two are swapped here compared to our rankings, which went Jokiharju-Sikura-Mitchell.
The most notable name here for Blackhawks fans is probably Mitchell. Everyone seems to know about Sikura, the Northeastern star who is expected to sign his NHL deal in March, and Jokiharju, the 2017 first-round pick who recently played a big role for Finland at World Juniors.
However, Mitchell seems to have fallen under the radar a tad. The 2017 second-round pick is playing a huge role for Denver, one of the top teams in college hockey, as a freshman. Pronman says that the defenseman “intrigued me last season as a draft-eligible player at various events, but this season he’s firmly established in my mind that he’s a top prospect.”
This is all encouraging after Jokiharju and Alex DeBrincat were the only Blackhawks named to Pronman’s offseason top 100. The team may not have an elite prospect, at least in his eyes, but it still has a solid trio of young players as the foundation of its farm system.