The Blackhawks held their development camp over the first week of July, with several members of the 2024 draft class in attendance. Players that attended are listed below:
This was the second straight year that the Blackhawks held their prospect training camp off-ice with “a greater emphasis on team building than on hockey mechanics.” One of those team focused activities even included a twist on Capture the Flag where groups of players were in charge of protecting or stealing tennis balls throughout the camp.
However, there was a lot of focus on the typical exercises and other training, as well as classes that catered to things to hockey life, like nutritional cooking classes.
The Blackhawks also brought back two-time Cup champion defenseman Johnny Oduya, who taught a class about breathing techniques that was quite the hit last year. More about that program is available in this Blackhawks Blog from last year.
Many of the prospects also met with the media to give an update on where they are developmentally and discuss what they’re looking forward to at camp.
For more about the development camp activities, especially the perspective from the IceHogs, see the IceHogs article below:
On Wednesday, newly drafted — and now newly signed — Artyom Levshunov took a moment to talk about his draft experience and how comfortable he is with speaking English. He also shared that a former teammate of his — a now fellow prospect in goaltender Adam Gajan — reached out to congratulate the defenseman on joining the Blackhawks organization:
Prior to signing his ELC with the Blackhawks, there was still some question on whether Levshunov would go back to the NCAA to play at Michigan State, but the preference from the Blackhawks was always that he go pro this season:
And honestly, it sounds like that was always the preference for Levshunov, at least according to an interview he did with The Athletic‘s Scott Powers last month, where he seemed less fond of the college-part of the college experience and just wanted to focus on hockey:
Since Levshunov played in the NCAA last season, it’s only fitting that a few of the other Blackhawks prospects had their own scouting reports on the No. 2 pick, like Oliver Moore (2023, first-round) below:
Sacha Boisvert, another 2024 first-round pick, also met with the media ahead of camp, mentioning how he’s looking forward to learning ways the Blackhawks will help him improve as a player so he can work on those things next season:
Apparently Connor Bedard and Nick Foligno were the main Blackhawks players reaching out to recent draftees to welcome them to the organization:
Blackhawks coach Luke Richardson was asked specifically about Boisvert and, although he hadn’t seen the first-rounder play that much, Richardson said he’s heard great things about him from scouts, describing him as a big forward who’s “tough as nails” with a scoring touch:
The third and final 2024 first-round pick, forward Marek Vanacker, spoke about how he was aware the Blackhawks were interested in him as a player, but not to the degree in which they were willing to go to pick him:
Vanacker also discussed the recent start of his rehab from shoulder surgery that he had in June, with the recovery timeline set at 4-6 months. The Brantford Bulldogs winger played almost the entirety of the OHL season — including those playoffs and for Canada at the IIHF U18 Men’s World Championship, where he won gold — with the injury. As a result of the rehab, Vancker is a bit more limited in what he can do at camp, so he said he’s looking forward to building relationships with other prospects and the Blackhawks staff at camp:
His Bulldog teammate and fellow Blackhawks prospect, forward Nick Lardis (2023, third-round), gave the skinny on Vanacker, emphasizing how hard he works to improve — even off the ice:
Speaking of Lardis, he also touched on (second video below) how motivated he was to get back to hockey after he suffered a wrist injury that kept him from playing for nearly two months. Despite the time off from injury, he was third on his team with 29 goals, a testament to his goal scoring ability. Despite signing an NHL deal this past April, Lardis is expected to return to the OHL this upcoming season.
Forward prospect Oliver Moore described his freshman year at University of Minnesota as having a slow start offensively, but that adversity was good because it allowed him to learn and grow, and the confidence after winning gold with USA at gold at the U18 Men’s World Championships helped him end his season on a strong note. He also believes the longer summer will allow him to have an even better sophomore season.
Moore’s Gopher teammate, defenseman Sam Rinzel (2022, first-round), joined him to talk about how they leaned on each other as prospects in the same organization and roommates to navigate through the highs and lows of their freshman seasons:
Blackhawks Assistant GM in charge of Development Mark Eaton spoke highly of Rinzel’s process this season:
“He had a tremendous year. [It’s] really evident that he has put in a lot of work so far this summer. He’s filling out and looks great in the gym. From a confidence standpoint, the great year he had at Minnesota gives him momentum and has helped set him up for having a great summer.”
For more about the development and timeline for Rinzel, check out this article from the Chicago Sun-Times‘ Ben Pope:
Forward Gavin Hayes, a 2022 third-rounder, went into some depth about his recent OHL season as one of the older players on the team, which was part of the reason why he was skating in all situations for during the playoffs. That was his last season in juniors as he’s making the transition to the AHL next season.
Although the Blackhawks were interested in having Ryan Greene — a 2022 second-round pick — sign his ELC this season and turn pro, the young forward opted to go back to the NCAA for his junior season. He said that how close BU came to winning a national championship last year and hoping for another shot was a factor in the decision, but also added that another year in college would help round out his game.
One last prospect that didn’t meet with the press but was mentioned was Colton Dach (2021, second-round) who had an injury-riddled first professional season with the IceHogs last year. Specifically, Rockford head coach Anders Sorensen thinks the last injury basically derailed Dach’s season and he never recovered, but that there’s a lot of growth potential for Dach.
Sorensen has had some success in recent years building decently strong IceHogs teams (at least in the regular season), and he joked about how that chemistry is achieved:
In other non-development camp news, a few of the the newly acquired players also spoke to the media this past week about joining the the Blackhawks organization. Defenseman Alec Martinez said he was looking for an opportunity like what the Blackhawks provided: a chance to become a mentor to younger players and pass on some of his knowledge, and how he thinks the Blackhawks, in particular, are building their current team in the right way.
And, of course, someone had to ask him about his Game 7 goal in the 2014 Western Conference Final that may have been the reason those Blackhawks team were not a 3-peat:
In an interesting twist, Foligno is also apparently more than just the welcoming committee for the Blackhawks new prospects — he also is an active recruiter when it comes to free agents, or at least he was with forward Tyler Bertuzzi:
Bertuzzi also talked about how he views his skillset fitting in with the current Blackhawks roster — specifically alongside Connor Bedard — and that he’s excited to play and win with Chicago.
Although Teuvo Teräväinen didn’t speak to the media yet (he’s scheduled to do so on Tuesday), Davidson had a neat tidbit to share about how he basically was Teräväinen’s chauffeur at times when he was first brought to Chicago in 2014:
In general, the Blackhawks front office sounded really happy with the way their free agent signings went, both bringing in legitimate NHL quality players — something missing in key areas last season — and guys they feel can help take the team to the next level in this transitional part of the rebuilding phase.
Blackhawks head coach Luke Richardson also chimed in about how he feels that teams need veteran depth to both be competitive in the NHL and allow for roster flexibility in case of injuries instead of bringing up young players when they’re not necessarily ready for the NHL:
Eaton went into more depth about how the free-agent signings might block prospects from playing in the NHL, basically sayingg that the organization is not worried about that at all, and that a prospect’s play will dictate graduation to the NHL. It sounds like the Blackhawks are willing to make room for prospects if and when they’re ready but won’t force it.
Davidson seconded those thoughts, adding that the Blackhawks need to make sure whatever situation the young players are put into — whether that’s the AHL or NHL — is somewhere they can thrive rather than just “tread water”:
“Young guys will have to be convincing in doing so. What we don’t want is to give them a spot and then, after a month or so, it’s just not working out and we had to clear someone out to clear a spot for them and then we can’t get that player back. We want to be sure they’re going to come in, elevate the whole group through their play and be able to sustain that.
If young players are ready to come in and elevate the group more so than a player who’s in a spot, then we’ll make the decision on how to best find a role for them. But what we couldn’t do is what I believe happened a little last year — where we had spots for young players and then maybe they’re ready, maybe they were not quite thriving.
It’s a tough league for young guys to thrive in, and we want our players to thrive. The one thing we’ve got at our disposal is Rockford. I don’t know if we’ve had a player that’s gone down and come back up that hasn’t gotten better in Rockford.”
This shouldn’t be surprising as Davidson has mentioned in the past he’s admired the ultra patient approaching to developing their young players:
Lastly, Davidson said the expectation is all Blackhawks players under contract will be healthy for training camp. That’s good news, considering forward Taylor Hall missed most of last season after having ACL surgery, while forward Andreas Athanasiou and and defenseman Connor Murphy were also out for long periods with groin strains.