CHICAGO — Wyatt Kaiser’s eyes didn’t glaze over. The sound of Luke Richardson’s voice wasn’t overwhelmed by a heavy droning sound in his brain. Kaiser’s world wasn’t crumbling around him.
The kid’s not dumb. He knew what was coming even before Richardson summoned him into the coach’s office last December. He was being demoted.
“You can be realistic with yourself,” Kaiser said. “You see your game dropping a little bit. So you think in the back of your head, ‘There’s a chance I go down. I’m young, and I’m not playing great.’”
So Kaiser walked into Winnipeg’s Canada Life Centre that morning as a National Hockey League player, a Chicago Blackhawk preparing to play the Winnipeg Jets. When he returned the next morning, it was as an American Hockey Leaguer, a Rockford IceHog preparing to play the Manitoba Moose.
That meeting with the coach is a crushing blow for any NHL player but particularly for a young guy trying to establish himself in the NHL. Never mind that Kaiser’s biweekly paycheck had just dropped from $71,153 to $6,153. Never mind the fact he had already gotten his housing letter and had a lease on Collin Delia’s apartment along with teammate Kevin Korchinski. Never mind all those long bus rides and three-star hotels in his future.
Kaiser had achieved his dream and lost it. After all, how many players have gotten a shot in the NHL and briefly popped before being sent back down, never to be heard from again? Jakub Galvas, anyone? Nicolas Beaudin? Josiah Slavin? The list is endless.
Ah, but Kaiser knew better. He lost a little heart with the demotion, but he didn’t lose any hope. Because if there’s one good thing about those interminable bus rides (or the sleepy Rockford social life, for that matter), it’s that there’s plenty of time to catch up on your reading.
“I’m an avid reader. I like to read,” Kaiser said. “So I was reading some John Wooden, one of the greatest coaches of all time. And he’s big on the idea that good things take time. You have to trust the process. You can’t compare yourself to other people; you’re just building your own ladder, right? So I took that into consideration. Like: ‘You’re fine. Just keep working on your game. And if you believe in yourself, the sky’s the limit.’”
Sure enough, Kaiser returned to the NHL in mid-March, and he looked like a new man. More comfortable with the puck on his stick, more aggressive without it. His confidence was back, and with it, his game. Now, as the Blackhawks enter the second week of training camp, Kaiser is all but a lock to be in the opening-night lineup Oct. 8 in Salt Lake City.
Call it the Alex Vlasic model. Rockford is no longer a death sentence for Blackhawks prospects; it’s a crucial step on the journey. And after years of rushing prospects into the NHL with mostly poor results, that extra year of seasoning is now baked into the recipe. It worked on Vlasic, who played 15 capable games in the NHL in 2021-22 and then spent nearly the entire 2022-23 season in Rockford before his stellar breakout season last year. It worked on Kaiser, who benefited greatly from his 37-game stint in Rockford last year. And it’s likely the plan for Korchinski, who was too young for the AHL last year but is likely to spend much of this season there.
It took nearly 15 years for the Blackhawks to develop a true homegrown NHL defenseman after Niklas Hjalmarsson established himself in the league during the 2008-09 season. But suddenly Rockford is churning them out. Isaak Phillips, Louis Crevier, Nolan Allan, Ethan Del Mastro and No. 2 pick Artyom Levshunov will likely be manning the IceHogs blue line along with Korchinski this season. All of those players could play in the NHL right now. Ideally, none of them will have to.
“A lot of credit goes to the personnel down there. (We have) all the confidence in Anders Sorensen and his staff and Mark Eaton and our development staff,” Blackhawks general manager Kyle Davidson said. “We have a group of people there that are focused on these players basically 24/7. … I’ve been really, really happy with the growth that a lot of those players made over the last couple of years.
“(We have) tons of confidence in sending players down there, knowing they’re going to be competitive.”
Vlasic is the idealized version of this process. He left the Blackhawks a middling third-pairing defenseman, yet returned from Rockford a fully formed, shutdown blueliner with sneaky offensive skill. He spent the entire season on the top pairing with Seth Jones and earned himself a six-year contract in the process. Vlasic is now a franchise pillar, a critical part of the long-term picture along with Connor Bedard, Levshunov and Korchinski.
It’s unreasonable to expect every young defenseman to make such a massive leap with one year of over-ripening in the minors. But the Blackhawks are darn sure going to try.
“When I talk to some older guys, they always harp on the importance of playing (in the AHL) and going through the grind,” Vlasic said. “It’s mentally a lot more satisfying when you get there because you have that drive a little bit more than if you come right out of juniors or college and go right to the NHL. It’s not the glamorous life of playing in the NHL. But more than that, it’s just huge in terms of your play. You gain so much confidence, and it’s a good way to step up your competition and keep building off it.”
It’s more than just getting more minutes in high-leverage situations and on special teams than a young player would in the NHL, though that certainly helps. It’s simply harder for a young defenseman to develop in the NHL, particularly on a struggling team with poor defensive habits like the Blackhawks the past couple of seasons. Getting run out of the rink night after night by the best players in the world can sap any player of his confidence.
The IceHogs have been far more competitive, and the competition is far less daunting. It’s a combination much more conducive to development.
“I’m not a GM and I’m not that smart, but Rockford is a great spot,” Kaiser said. “There’s not a ton of pressure. If you’re a little off, you can work on your game down there. I think it’s very good to let guys mature a little bit down there. I just turned 21 last year; I’m young. I know everybody in this society wants it to be like you get in there and be the best right away, but some things take time, right? It’s a good path for a lot of guys.”
Vlasic is entrenched now, and Kaiser is a safe bet to make the team. Vlasic has been skating with veteran T.J. Brodie in camp, and Kaiser has been with Connor Murphy. Korchinski, meanwhile, was paired with Crevier on Monday. The No. 7 pick in the 2022 NHL Draft spent the whole season in the NHL last year and held his own as well as could be expected as the youngest defenseman in the league. But at times he looked overwhelmed by the pace of the game, and he was manhandled a bit by opposing forwards in front of the net. And being so young, he was so concerned with his defense that he rarely showed the skating and offensive gifts that made him such a high draft pick in the first place. Rockford could allow him to feel what it’s like to dominate again, the way he did in the Western Hockey League.
So Korchinski will have to do something spectacular over the next two weeks to earn an NHL job out of camp.
“We want the players to show us who’s going to fit in where,” Richardson said. “(But) I don’t think it’s very good for a young defenseman to make the team but then just sit as a seventh guy. This is an imperative time for them to be skating in a game situation, playing as many games as possible.”
In other words, Korchinski is a perfect candidate to follow the Vlasic model and hopefully return to the NHL either later this season or next season as a more confident, aggressive and well-rounded player.
“Every year, you’ve got to compete, whether you’re a veteran or a first-year guy,” Korchinski said. “That’s what everybody here is doing. I just want to put my best foot forward and show the Hawks what I am.”
What he is, is still all potential, all promise, all raw. Korchinski can play in the NHL, yes. But should he? Is that what’s best for him now and in the long term? Because the Blackhawks fervently hope there’s a great player to be unlocked in Korchinski. And for the first time in a long time, they think they have the key.
And it’s not in Chicago.
“It’s a great culture in Rockford,” Vlasic said. “Anders does a great job. You learn what it’s like to play for your brothers, to play for your teammates. I know everybody’s dream is to just go right to the NHL and hold your position, but very few people can do that. It’s tough when you first get sent down, when you hear them tell you that. But now, I look back on my time in Rockford and I loved it. It’s part of the process, and you just have to embrace it.”
(Top photo: Jamie Sabau / Getty Images)
