DRAFT PROSPECTS HOCKEY

Author: Jerry Grojec

  • Rookie vs The System – How Luke Richardon Failed Kevin Korchinski

    Many Blackhawks fans still remember the infamous “Kevin Korchinski Practice” on
    March 20 th , 2024 when coach Luke Richardson decided to “teach” a 19-year-old Kevin
    how to be stronger and box out NHL superstars, often 10 years older than him and
    almost always much heavier than him.


    It was a strange practice that had Kevin participating in one-on-one puck battles in front
    of the goal against the likes of Nick Foligno.


    “Korch definitely has got to get bigger and stronger at the net, boxing out, and that was
    seen on a couple of the goals,” Richardson said after arguably Korchinski’s worst game
    of the season against the LA Kings the night before where he recorded an assist but
    was a -4 and directly responsible for at least a couple of goals.


    Was this the right approach to take with the undersized rookie, playing in his first NHL
    season on a really bad team or did Luke Richardson fail to develop a system of play
    that prioritized his players’ attributes and compensated for their weaknesses?


    Luke Richardson came into the Blackhawks organization as a respected assistant
    coach that prioritized a conservative defensive approach that minimized the defenders’
    involvement in offensive play and made sure the box near the goalie was protected at
    all costs. This system was designed for big and strong defenders to limit high danger
    chances in front of the net and challenging the opposing teams to beat the goalie with
    long range shots. Meanwhile, the three forwards were tasked with generating all the
    offense with limited involvement from defenders that were expected to sit on the blue
    line.


    It was a system in which big and strong shut-down defenders like Alex Vlasic and
    Connor Murphy thrived in, while offensively minded puck movers like Seth Jones and
    Kevin Korchinski struggled in. Many fans lamented Seth Jones play in front of his net as
    he often got beaten while skating backwards in order to get in position to protect his net.
    It was even worse for a rookie defender like Korchinski.


    Furthermore, it also forced Connor Bedard to generate offense by himself with his line,
    often without help from defenders, while being pushed off the puck and even hit as he
    was often crowded and double-teamed, which in part led to his injury that kept him
    sidelined for 14 games. Additionally, it most likely led Bedard to put on too much muscle
    during the Summer of 2024 which in turn slowed him down as he lost his jump and
    explosiveness. Something he worked on to remedy last Summer.

    As such, under Luke Richardson’s system the Blackhawks became a somewhat solid
    defensive team, but one-dimensional in the offensive zone and unable to score goals.
    The team often gave up few but simply could not put the puck in the back of the net.
    Worst of all, it looked like Luke Richardson’s system was not designed to take
    advantage of the attributes of players like Connor Bedard and Kevin Korchinski but
    rather favored the older guard that was tasked with teaching the young core how to get
    stronger and get tougher.


    Unfortunately, Kevin Korchinski was the biggest casualty of Luke Richardson’s stubborn
    approach where he was unable or unwilling to adapt his team to the way his young
    players needed to play to develop.


    Many point to the fact that while Kevin Korchinski must indeed get bigger and stronger
    eventually to compete with the Blackhawks in the playoffs, he was not the first or the
    last undersized defender to enter the NHL.


    One can look to Montreal to see how Lane Hutson, an even smaller player than
    Korchinski, was put in a situation to become an asset to his team and became an
    eventual Calder Trophy winner. While Hutson struggled defensively against big forwards
    just like Korchinski, coach Martin St Louis did not try to force him to box out large
    players in his own zone but instead got him more involved in the offensive zone, to a
    point where Hutson ended the year with 6 goals and 60 assists.


    While Hutson was no doubt a beneficiary of playing on a more talented team than the
    2023-24 Chicago Blackhawks, his coach put him into a system that magnified his
    strengths instead of trying to mold him into a player that he was not.


    Kevin Korchinski made the 2023-24 Chicago Blackhawks roster partly because he was
    only 19 years old and the NHL rules prevented him from being sent to the AHL, but
    mostly for his elite skating ability to get out of his defensive zone and get involved in
    offense.


    Those traits were almost instantly buried as the season started as Kevin was asked not
    to skate out of his zone but quickly dump the puck out to his forwards. This caused a lot
    of turnovers as he was struggling to adjust to the speed of the game and to find open
    forwards to pass to, as opposing teams covered breakout passes. In the offensive zone,
    he was forced to stand by the blue line and not get too involved in the offense as
    Richardson’s system almost made the two defenders into cones that forwards only used
    to bounce puck off.

    While initially Kevin still found ways to use his elite skating to get into the neutral and
    offensive zones in dangerous ways, as the season dragged on and the Blackhawks
    struggled, his small size and inexperience were exposed against tougher teams.
    Meanwhile, Luke Richardson was so rigid in his ways, he did not change his system or
    make adjustments to empower his young players to thrive. Instead, tough and
    experienced veterans like Alec Martinez and T.J. Brodie were brough in over the
    Summer to fill in for Korchinski as he was sent down to the AHL for his second season
    in pro hockey.


    While Bedard struggled in the NHL with seemingly different linemates in each game,
    Korchinski began to slowly regain his confidence under Anders Sorensen who was also
    given Frank Nazar, who failed to make Luke Richardson’s team as well.
    Luke Richardson’s system, that did not benefit most of the young players, and his
    inability to change it eventually cost him his job while Chicago hired Jeff Blashill for the
    2025-26 campaign.


    So far, it seems Blashill designed his system with his players in mind. He knows he has
    a lot of young defenders on his roster, so he is playing with seven of them to limit their
    minutes and to play them situationally where they can use their strengths. They are also
    involved in offensive play, bringing pucks out instead of dumping them out, which is
    benefiting players like Sam Rinzel who are elite skaters. A system that will also benefit
    the likes of Kevin Korchinski.


    Blashill is also using other tricks to help his young players, like having all five players in
    the defensive zone build a box in the area that the puck is in. Such a strategy does not
    put pressure on young, undersized defenders to play man-on-man and to be physical,
    but rather to take away space to operate from the opposition.


    While Kevin Korchinski did not make Jeff Blashill’s team out of camp, mostly due to the
    fact that Sam Rinzel and Wyatt Kaiser had such good training camps, it seems like the
    new coach at least knows how Kevin can become an elite NHL defender.


    “Korch has to utilize his best assets. If part of that best asset is being offensive, you
    can’t lose that as you’re getting good defensively. But everybody has to be good
    defensively in order to play in this league. It’s almost impossible to outscore your
    mistakes. One thing is, when I talk to him about his strengths, he talks about his skating.
    I think he can use that skating offensively in a sense of beating people up the ice but he
    can also use his skating defensively to shut downplays and gap up. And if you do that,
    you spend more time in the ‘O’ zone.” Jeff Blashill said.

    It looks like Blashill sees Kevin for the player he is and gave him specific instructions on
    how to play to his strengths in Rockford. As of now, Korchinski seems to be taking his
    new coach’s advice, already excelling in Rockford with three assists in four games while
    being a +2 in his own zone.


    He will get tougher as he gets older, but Korchinski will never be a bulky shut-down
    defender that boxes out players in front of goal. He will use his skating and speed to get
    to pucks early and get out of trouble, while joining players like Connor Bedard and
    Frank Nazar in the offensive zone.

    Jeff Blashill sees that, and his system is designed to empower young players to thrive,
    while Luke Richardson’s never was.

  • Re-Signing Connor Bedard in the Wild West Salary Cap Era

    As Charles Dickens once wrote “It was the best of contracts, it was the worst of
    contracts, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of
    belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of
    darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.”
    Nobody expected that Charles Dickens will accurately predicted the 2025 NHL
    salary market. All jokes aside, on August 21 st , 2025 Frank Nazar signed a seven-year,
    $46.13 million contract with the Chicago Blackhawks at a $6,599,991 AAV. While the
    contract didn’t have the same shock as Kaprizov’s $17 million monstrosity or McDavid’s
    ridiculous $12.5 million “Win-Now-Or-Else” deal with the Oilers, it still sent ripples
    through the NHL.


    The Blackhawks fans almost immediately started celebrations on social media,
    both because of the length of the deal but also because it looked like a steal for a player
    of Frank’s caliber.


    Meanwhile, fans of other teams said “who?” some half-jokingly but others really
    not knowing who Frank was, while pundits across the league questioned Kyle
    Davidson’s decision to give out nearly $50 million for a player that didn’t make the team
    last year, had to go to the AHL and as of contract signing this Summer only played 56
    games in the NHL, wile registering 13 goals and 14 assists for 27 total points.
    However, as often is the case, the stats don’t tell the whole picture and those
    who watched Frank play last Spring saw a confident player that grew well into his NHL
    responsibilities and helped Connor Bedard shoulder the team’s offensive load down the
    stretch posting eight points in the final seven games of the season, then went on to lead
    team USA to a gold medal at the 2025 IIHF World Championship with a team-leading
    six goals and six assists in 10 games.


    Frank’s contract perfectly encapsulates the confusion, questions and
    celebrations that are now commonplace during the new wild west era of re-signing
    players when the NHL’s salary cap is moving up quickly after years of stagnation and a
    Covid-induced freeze.


    These feelings are exacerbated when teams sign unproven elite prospects out of
    their entry level contracts in the hope they will one day become the next superstars of
    the league. Logan Stankoven, Luke Hughes and Lane Hutson, just to name a few, were
    among contracts that were signed and followed by mixed emotions throughout the
    league about how underpaid or overpaid the players will now become. As GMs fear a

    rapid salary appreciation, they are signing players to large deals in the hope that
    eventually they will look like bargains.
    Which finally leads us to re-signing Connar Bedard. Over the Summer, a
    common consensus was that Connor will sign for somewhere around $10.5 AAV when
    factoring in percent-of-cap calculations and compared to similar forwards that signed in
    the past such as Jack Hughes.


    Then several things happened.


    Connor Bedard decided to bet on himself this year and earn a big contract after a
    re-worked Summer training routine that returned him to a player resembling his rookie
    self, when he was fast and explosive. Not an uncommon plan for elite prospects, if not
    for the fact that Frank Nazar decided to take the opposite route and sign for $6.59
    million AAV this Summer while at the same time starting to look like a more complete
    player than Connor Bedard himself, which would have been unthinkable just 12 months
    ago when he didn’t make the opening night roster.


    Nazar had an extremely impressive pre-season, netting four goals and adding an
    assist for a total of five points, while Connor Bedard ended the exhibition calendar with
    one goal and an assist for two points. As of this writing, through four regular season
    games, Frank Nazar is the team’s leading scorer with five points, while Bedard sits with
    three. Frank’s defensive game is also slightly more advanced than Bedard’s and he
    often plays on the penalty kill.

    Therefore, while Connor Bedard will still most likely end up being the team’s
    highest paid player when he eventually signs with the team, him being the first overall
    pick, the face of the franchise and still arguably with one of the highest ceilings in the
    league among young players, Frank Nazar’s performances and what starts to look like a
    team-friendly contract opens up a number of interesting questions.


    If Connor Bedard bet on himself to earn a contract well north of $10 million AAV,
    what happens if Frank Nazar outperforms him this year? Will it matter? Should it
    matter? Will Kyle Davidson use Frank Nazar’s contract and performances to negotiate
    with Connor Bedard’s representatives? Can he justify giving Connor a contract worth
    almost double against the player that just outperformed him over 82 games?
    Connor Bedard surely put himself in an interesting position.


    It would be unthinkable for Connor Bedard, a Calder Trophy winner, and his
    team’s leading scorer for two years in a row as an 18 and 19-year-old to sign for less

    than $10 million AAV, especially when players like Luke Hughes and Lane Hutson
    recently inked deals close to that number.


    Furthermore, every player’s situation is different and there are other intangibles
    that boost a player’s value such as name recognition throughout the league and in
    Canada, jersey sales and marketing potential. Also, as a first line center, Connor is
    often faced with the opposing team’s best centers, which influences his point production
    while Frank can benefit from slightly easier matchups.


    At the end of the day, no matter what happens, the Blackhawks are better off
    having two elite prospects that seem to be trending into becoming the next NHL
    superstars. They have recently become off-ice friends as well, attending Bears and
    Cubs games together. Their on-ice competition will make them better as players and
    make the team better moving forward.


    Whatever contract Connor ends up signing, it should not cause any problems in
    the dressing room or friction with Frank. However, it will be interesting to watch these
    two future franchise cornerstones over the course of the season.