After keeping him in the AHL for most of the past two years, the Chicago Blackhawks face a difficult scenario regarding Kevin Korchinski and his future. A restricted free agent this summer, Scott Powers of The Athletic believes they’ll retain Korchinski, while letting Ethan Del Mastro walk this offseason.
That’s not to say there was any indication the Blackhawks would let Korchinski head to a new team, but it’s still a question of where he fits. Powers rightly pointed out that Korchinski has little trade value (compared to his draft positioning) at the moment, is likely too good to return to the AHL, and not good enough to warrant consistent NHL playing time.
Hopefully, for Chicago’s sake, Korchinski has a big summer and comes into training camp like a bat out of hell. It wouldn’t do much for his development to keep him as the team’s seventh defenseman next season, but that’s the way things are headed unless he takes a major step forward.
Other notes from the Central Division:
- After spending the last three years with the AHL’s Rochester Americans, former player Václav Prospal may be headed to the NHL for the first time in his coaching career. On his 32 Thoughts podcast, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman indicated that Prospal may join the St. Louis Blues next season as an assistant coach. The last time we worked in the NHL was in the 2013-14 season when he served as a professional scout for the New York Rangers.
- According to a team announcement, the Minnesota Wild have named Sylvain Rodrigue as the team’s Director of Goaltending, a newly created post. Rodrigue will be tasked with working closely with Minnesota’s goaltending coaches at all levels of the organization and creating development plans for all of the team’s netminders. Rodrigue spent the last two years with the AHL’s Charlotte Checkers after spending nearly a decade in the Edmonton Oilers organization.
(scratches his head) Look, Korchinski hasn’t been BAD with Rockford, but he’s also been no threat to seize the Eddie Shore Trophy either. What makes him too good for the AHL? He’s still young, and still better off playing a regular shift in Rockford instead of sitting in the press box in the bigs.
Every once in awhile you see an article that makes you go huh? If the Hawks made an offer to Soderblom last year in the same situation why wouldn’t they with these 2 guys? Right now they are D men 6 and 7 so unless Davidson has 2 NHL ready trades to make this is folly. The only way these guys leave is if someone gets itchy and makes them an RFA offer which I see as very remote. And as far as they don’t have any trade value that is laughable because if Lukas Reichel was traded everybody has value. I know it’s slow news right now but at least be serious. I can’t see anyone making an offer the Hawks wouldn’t match.
Yea I don’t think the Hawks are letting EDM walk either. The pipeline on the back end is a little thin right now. Korch and Del Mastro are not going to cost a hell of lot to retain.
TJA- EDM is a leader type and was Captain of Canada’s IIHF junior team that won gold. He’s 6’4″ and 210 lbs where Korchinski is 6″2″ and 185 so he’s going to be here. In fact he’s way more likely to be here than Korchinski at this point so I think KK gets moved but to say he has NO trade value is just a bad position. Hawks could certainly use some more D men in the pipeline which is why I hope they keep 4 because there are some nice D men there. Unless they get an NHL young D man for it, Preferably do both in a perfect world. They aren’t really worried too much about Mikhayev because I think they see what I see in Nestrasil as being exactly what Mikhayev is and don’t want to block him long term. Nestarsil has been excelling against World Class talent where JP has been beating up smaller WHL and OHL talent. Doesn’t mean he’s not good, Just means Nestrasil has been better IMO. I’m pretty sure the Hawks fell in love with KK’s skating ability and thought they could beef him up but it looks like maybe it’s not to be. He’s going to have to be real smart in his positioning to succeed at his weight. Doesn’t mean he can’t, It’s just going to be harder. They’re getting a lot of flak for the way they’re treating Mikhayev and maybe they deserve it but I can see the big picture aspect of it and they don’t want to lose him for nothing either. Davidson seems to be good at pulling that off.