Chicago Blackhawks NHL Draft guide: Picks, best fits and analysis
Chicago has had a lot of picks in recent years and drafted excellent young centers and defensemen. Connor Bedard is a game breaker, but otherwise, a lot of the centers the Blackhawks have picked have been similar with a focus on speed, compete and two-way ability. Center and defense are the hardest positions to find, so I don't fault this strategy, but eventually, they need to find some guys to put the puck in the net.
The Blackhawks are set to make their eighth and ninth first-round draft picks in the four years since Kyle Davidson took over as general manager.
With the No. 3 pick this year, Davidson is expected to take a forward with size to complement what he already has in his prospect pool. He went with defenseman Artyom Levshunov at No. 2 last year. If the two teams ahead of the Blackhawks pass on Michael Misa on Friday, he probably won't fall any further than the Blackhawks. If he's not there, it likely comes down to Anton Frondell, Caleb Desnoyers or Porter Martone.
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The Blackhawks also have four more picks between 25 and 66. If Chicago goes through with making all those selections, it'll have drafted 26 players in the first three rounds in the last four years. Davidson did use some capital last year to move around the draft and could do so again. The Blackhawks' priority has to be continuing to bolster their forward prospect pool, but it's likely they seek to diversify and add prospect depth at all positions throughout the draft. — Scott Powers, Blackhawks beat reporter
In recent mock drafts, Corey Pronman has projected the following picks:
3. Anton Frondell, C
25. Malcolm Spence, LW
34. Mason West, C
62. Stepan Hoch, LW
66. Gustav Hillstrom, C
98. Tomas Pobezal, C
107. Aleksei Medvedev, G
162. Alex Misiak, RW
194. Matthew Koprowski, G
197. Will Sharpe, D
(Photo of Blackhawks GM Kyle Davidson: Christopher Hanewinckel / USA Today)
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