Top 3 Blackhawks prospects who are ready for the NHL

Top 3 Chicago Blackhawks Prospects Who Are Ready For The NHL

by John Aubert

https://blackhawkup.com/2018/05/31/top-3-blackhawk-prospects-who-are-ready-for-the-nhl/


There’s no doubt that the Chicago Blackhawks have a sturdy prospect camp on the rise. With plenty of names — ranging from kids who can play as shutdown defensemen to high-scoring wingers to versatile forwards — the future looks bright. With that, we’re bringing you the top three Blackhawks prospects who are ready for the NHL.

3. Ivan Nalimov
Ivan Nalimov, a goaltender who was selected in 2014 as a sixth-round pick, looks promising for a Blackhawks team desperate of relief goaltenders. Nalimov plays on Salavat Yulaev Ufa in the KHL, for whom he sported a 2.59 goals-allowed average and a .927 save percentage. Prior to being traded to Salavat, Nalimov played for the Vladivostok Admiral, where he contributed a 1.98 GAA and a .942 save percentage.

With a contract in mind, we probably won’t be seeing Nalimov in the NHL for a good year, maybe even two. However, as a 23-year-old, we could be looking at the team’s next backup goaltender. Who knows, maybe he can eventually become the team’s starting goalie if we keep the rights to him down the line.

2. Tim Soderlund
It’s not easy being a 5-foot-9 winger who only weighs 163 pounds, but when you have talent like Tim Soderlund, it becomes bearable. Soderlund was selected in the fourth round by the Blackhawks in 2017. He’s a flexible option who can be used as either a center or a winger, which can work wonders for coach Joel Quenneville and his lust for line adjustments.

Soderlund most recently had nine goals and four assists in 43 games with Skelleftea AIK, in Sweden’s Elite League. As a 19-year-old in that nation’s top league, those are some promising numbers for a kid his age. Just imagine how he would do versus the 19-year-olds in the NHL right now.

1. Henri Jokiharju
This pick was easily foreshadowed. The 18-year-old star of the WHL’s Portland Winterhawks has been admired and impatiently called out by fans who are dying to see him in a familiar uniform. Jokiharju was selected first overall in 2017, and has a very promising future with the Blackhawks.

The Finnish star had 12 goals and 59 assists as a defenseman on the Winterhawks this past year, locking in 71 points in 63 games. The defenseman even got to play for the Finland men’s national team at the World Championship this past month, scoring two goals.

Out of any Blackhawks prospect, Jokiharju is by far the most promising. He has the highest chance of cracking the Blackhawks’ roster this upcoming season, and they definitely need it.

59 assists!! wtf is that? !! mother of hayseus.

I think we have found a nice 4-5 man defensive rotation selected above the level of Kempny who is proving to be an asset on a top 6 championship team.

Is Crow healthy or did we trade Toews + Crow for Price? ? For me if we don't have a healthy Crow or Price we don't have a chance in the playoffs anyway. Crow belongs in Montreal if he is near the end of career, so I believe that smoke a litttle, but I doubt the numbers work for both teams and we are unfortunately tied to Crawfords head.

Small small chance a freak young goaltender steps up in this window and saves the day, but barring that event I don't see how we can compete for cups without a healthy Crow or trade for Price.

With Rask, Bobrovsky, Quick, Price, Vaselesky, Bishop, Jones, Allen, Dubnyik, and a couple others beyond Crowy I think it takes a top 10 goalie to win it all.

Rinne almost got it done but that team is kinda ridiculous and he is the exception. You almost alwyas need a top 10 goalie to get it done. So Price or Crow is ok as a move for me.

I'd trust it.

You gotta swing for that top 10, and if you can get one at 6.5 I consider it a win.

If soemone wants to pay a Toews price, I'm fine with it. If we have to pay his salary, I'm fine with it. He brings 3 way value in faceoffs, defense, and offense. Even in his down years he is almost worth it. HIs experienee is worth it to me.

He is a hockey legend with about 4 gold medlas and 3 names eteched on Stanley. lay the fuck off him.

I don't caree if he is 1500/1500 the rest of his career he earned and paid for every penny right?

Yep!!


Every penny!!!

Raskolnikov said:

59 assists!! wtf is that? !! mother of hayseus.

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And was +47!

If Ivan is not going to play in the nhl for a year or two, why is he even on the list of hawk players ready for the nhl? Pretty sad if they could not find someone else that might play next year as 3.

Edjsell, Fortin never found the north american game?

Thing about the Joker is the system he plays. Mike Johnston plays the Joker correctly, where at this point I feel Q won't (being *in* Portland and having a ST pack with the Winterhawks, yes, I see him often):

The Joker is lethal on the PP. Unlike Keith, he can hit a 4x6 from the blueline. Further, his game is similar to Leddy's--he carries the mail from the back-end in the rush, rather than forcing an outlet pass which is as widely read as a John Steinbeck novel in middle school. This could be an issue, since when he has been forced into an outlet pass, the results have been similar to 2011 Keith - NHL 11 Pass-to-Nowhere.

Being a RHD, I'd expect Q to do something dumb like paring Joker and Keith. Again, big mistake. Joker would thive more with a stay-at-home guy. Now true, the Joker (unlike Leddy) has D-upside, but is not a back-end stalwart like Hjammer was. Couple him with Keith--who just recently recorded the worst +/- by a 'hawk defenseman in over 40 years and it's going to be a disaster waiting to happen. Unfortunately, we lost Kempny--who would have been ideal. Too bad we couldn't clone Sopel as a partner for him since that would have been ideal. Keith could be a fine mentor, but just not on Joker's pairing--their games are too similar to effectively compliment each other--it would be like the clusterfuck that was Keith/Leddy.

That being said I think Joker gets his 10 games. Maybe he sticks, maybe he goes back to PDX--I don't know. But I still think he's about a season or two away from becoming a force--especially under Q's archaic system.

Saying Jokiharju is "ready for the NHL" seems awfully premature to me, and this list ignores a lot of guys who've been playing in the AHL already.

Fortin. Forsling. Sakura. makes me happy enough near the spout of the pipe.

Sakura. Debricat. Kane. Soderlund. Sakura. Hinostroza.

I mean its a bit overkill no? Literally never draft one of those for 5 years. please. You got it covered. Let it simmer. A soup needs to be blended together. Time to ad the celery and carrots, mute the pepper a bit.

(Knott, Bondra, Edjdesel) need to get on the juice and get here. I hear deer antleer tea is the shit.

I can not see Jokiharju being NHL ready just yet. Still only 18 and undersized (listed at 180), I would hate to see him rushed into the NHL.

Ditka1985 said:

I can not see Jokiharju being NHL ready just yet. Still only 18 and undersized (listed at 180), I would hate to see him rushed into the NHL.

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it seems like when he wants to come over he will play. He is good enough to demand a no Ice Hogs clause/promise.

It sounds like its going to be the season following this one which would seem about right for him. I don't think we can keep him off the ice if he is that skilled, and we will want to get him around Keith as much as possible to learn.

Thanks for the detailed info Clyde!! Q has too much fun rotating guys into the hot combo, I'm sure we will see all of the above you talked about.

The current log jam at depth Defenders doesn't need an 18 year old next season, imo. Let him ferment one more year with the Swedish D game.

Perhaps he will pair well with Forsling in time, or the plan is one of the many swedes in the system at first.

DMelt36 said:

Saying Jokiharju is "ready for the NHL" seems awfully premature to me, and this list ignores a lot of guys who've been playing in the AHL already.

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Well big Sved, Clendening, Dahlstrom are probably career AHLers. I liked what I saw out of Kampf, seemed like he over took Kero taking Kruegers spot. Edjsell is a copy of AA. I also really thought Sikura was young too, but he is 26.

Now Bowmans have a cool 5 million burning a hole in their pocket to even block these guys.

I just want Joker to play his position, dont get forced to play his opposite side so he an be in the ice with one of our dinosaurs to get experience.

I view Rutta as a godsend, along with Forsling if he takes a small step. Then Oesterle/Gus give you some flavors to replace Rozy officially at the very back.

Rutta/Forsling/Jokr give me hope things are going to be ok. Keith can't play worse than Rozy's corpse again. Can he? Can a person actually take more mindless slap shots and have worse luck? Is either feat possible? What the fuck happened to him...maybe he can learn from Gus how to pass the puck to Kane or Kanes area at every single opportunity no matter the situation or defense...at least that way the guy will score a few points. My god..he was a god still 4 years ago. They got to his brain stem man...I guess he is finished.

Well fuck.

Raskolnikov said:

I view Rutta as a godsend, along with Forsling if he takes a small step. Then Oesterle/Gus give you some flavors to replace Rozy officially at the very back.

Rutta/Forsling/Jokr give me hope things are going to be ok. Keith can't play worse than Rozy's corpse again. Can he? Can a person actually take more mindless slap shots and have worse luck? Is either feat possible? What the fuck happened to him...maybe he can learn from Gus how to pass the puck to Kane or Kanes area at every single opportunity no matter the situation or defense...at least that way the guy will score a few points. My god..he was a god still 4 years ago. They got to his brain stem man...I guess he is finished.

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Joker and Rutta give us two strong righty d men. I am really not sure about Forsling. He and Rutta were our top two d men the beginning of last year, as far as how they performed, but when they gave the puck away like Keith and Seabs did to the power of 10, Forsling took most of the blame.

The thing about Joker is Q already said he will give him every chance to make the jump next year and wont push him to Rockford if he can play here. He will be 19 in a couple weeks.

that seems to be where the team is at, guys like Saad, Cat, Panarin made it straight, so if Joker performs, he will too. We just see how many different partners he gets stuck playing with.

This is a weird line to include, I mean I guess I get what they are saying but that's not how i would phrase it.

Jokiharju was selected first overall in 2017, and has a very promising future with the Blackhawks.

Agreed. He was the 1st pick by the 'hawks, not 1st overall.

In the short term the defense is the biggest 'hawk issue. Even if Rutta/Gus make some progress and Murph gets comfortable, we still have Keith and Seabs as defensive ballast under Q's system. I think Seabs is what Seabs is at this point, and even though Keith by all rights damn well better improve, given his age and whatnot I doubt he improves back to Norris/Conn Smythe quality. That's still a very significant drop-off since the 2013/2014 heyday of the 'hawks D. Even if the D improves to a 2015 standard, the team is still going to be leaning on Crawford and the O bigtime (at least until Keith woke up after Darling was pulled in Game 6 vs. Nashville).

Gus/Rutta/Mirph are not panaceas to that. Joker is probably the closest we got long term, and that's if he pans out.

The other aspect on this is that, to my knowledge, Joker likely can't be AHL'ed this year. I don't quite know the rules but Sweden may not be an option, either. It might be that he either plays for the Winterhawks, or the Blackhawks. Personally, he might be close to tapped out at the WHL level even though his growth wouldn't be stunted by another full year in Portland. Or, he sinks/swims with the big boys in Chicago and risks Q misusing him.

Because I think Joker should be long-term, and not short term, I think he gets his 10 and we go from there. Either Portland or Chicago shouldn't hurt his development long-term, and it's not like he'll be the panacea right out of the gate in his 1st year.

you can eventually consider that Muprhy might be like Trevor Daly and just never fit in this system. I sure thought Kempny did more but maybe it was just that nobody wanted any of our other d men.

John Hayden signed for two years for $1.5M ($750 per).

anotheridiot said:

you can eventually consider that Muprhy might be like Trevor Daly and just never fit in this system. I sure thought Kempny did more but maybe it was just that nobody wanted any of our other d men.

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True, but I think right now the problem is the system, not the players. The players we got simply can't play the system anymore and I feel it's to the point where we can't change the players anytime soon. The smart move is to adapt the system but I don't think Q is willing; thus, he'll likely be gone before the end of the year IMHO.

LordKOTL said:

True, but I think right now the problem is the system, not the players. The players we got simply can't play the system anymore and I feel it's to the point where we can't change the players anytime soon. The smart move is to adapt the system but I don't think Q is willing; thus, he'll likely be gone before the end of the year IMHO.

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I dont know about the "system" any more. The head coach in the wings, Ulf Samuelsson was in charge of the defense and pk. Maybe the deal that we are not considering was that our Q system guys could not change into Ulfs system. Our ex stud dmen were still clearing pucks to the blue paint and nobody was there. Did that mean they were doing it the old way and expected a forward to be there or were the forwards darting up the ice expecting a dman to carry the puck?

To me its video of how the hawks clear pucks and how keith and seabrook will always choose the "open" middle of the ice, which used to be a quick clear, but every team that plays against our hawks leaves a forechecker in the blue paint to take that pass away and make it a turnover.

When Ulf was brought in without Q's blessing and his buddy was replaced, we knew it was a bad thing. Its just an opportunity to guess if Ulf was running the D like he expects it because he had some guarantee Q would be gone and he is getting a head start on his reign here.

anotheridiot said:

I dont know about the "system" any more. The head coach in the wings, Ulf Samuelsson was in charge of the defense and pk. Maybe the deal that we are not considering was that our Q system guys could not change into Ulfs system. Our ex stud dmen were still clearing pucks to the blue paint and nobody was there. Did that mean they were doing it the old way and expected a forward to be there or were the forwards darting up the ice expecting a dman to carry the puck?

To me its video of how the hawks clear pucks and how keith and seabrook will always choose the "open" middle of the ice, which used to be a quick clear, but every team that plays against our hawks leaves a forechecker in the blue paint to take that pass away and make it a turnover.

When Ulf was brought in without Q's blessing and his buddy was replaced, we knew it was a bad thing. Its just an opportunity to guess if Ulf was running the D like he expects it because he had some guarantee Q would be gone and he is getting a head start on his reign here.

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The system looked the same since 2015. The D-scheme of the outlet pass and not letting the D carry the mail? Check. The Static and immobile PP relying on Keith to hit the shins in front of him? Check. The overuse of the core players in *all* situations? Check. Goaltending bailing out the defense instead of vice-versa? Check.

If Ulf was controlling anything he hid it well.

In 2015 Toews, Kane, Keith, Seabrook, Saad, Hossa, Sharp, etc. had enough left to play that system. Now, those who remain don't and Q's not altering it in spite of all evidence to the contrary.