The University of Michigan was shut out 4-0 by Boston College last night at the Frozen Four, which means Frank Nazar‘s season is over. Nazar put two shots on net and won 8 of 12 faceoffs against a very good BC group. He was also credited with one blocked shot. I wrote his future this morning; I’ve seen enough that I would like him to turn pro.
In the first game at the Frozen Four last night, Blackhawks prospect Aidan Thompson and the University of Denver won a thrilling game that needed 11 minutes of overtime to decide. DU beat Boston University 2-1 and will now face BC on Saturday for the national championship.
That, of course, also means that the college season of Blackhawks prospect Ryan Greene has come to a close. I’m interested to see if the Hawks made a push to sign him after a solid sophomore season. I would love to get him into the organization full-time and give him a year in Rockford to develop. He has decent size and is a responsible center who I think could benefit tremendously from playing alongside a guy like Jason Dickinson as a center.
Ryan Donato celebrated his 28th birthday earlier this week (April 9). And he’s celebrated with all three Blackhawks rookies who have scored their first career NHL goals this season; Donato as an assist on all three! On Friday night with Nashville in town for the Blackhawks’ penultimate home game of the 2023-24 season, Donato will skate in his 400th career regular-season game. Congrats on the milestone!
The Blackhawks called up defenseman Ethan Del Mastro on Thursday, which was a bit of a surprise to everyone — including Del Mastro. When he got into the room after practice yesterday, Kevin Korchinski started busting his chops about the WHL being better than the OHL. The two, who were teammates on Canada’s gold medal-winning World Juniors team last year, are a couple of the young skaters on the blue line who could be big factors in the Blackhawks’ rebuild. And they have a fun relationship.
It sounds like the plan is for Del Mastro, who was the IceHogs’ all-star this year, to skate in the final two home games this weekend and then go back to Rockford for their playoff run. I’m excited to see him skate against NHL players.
The Blackhawks officially activated Connor Murphy off IR on Thursday afternoon. It looks like he’ll play tonight against Nashville, which is great for the blue line. He skated with Del Mastro during practice on Thursday.
Let’s stay on the blue line for a moment and shift our focus back to Alex Vlasic, who has been one of the guys lots of people have talked about a lot as the season winds down. First, because he’s been the Blackhawks’ best defenseman all year in his first full NHL season. And, second, because he’s an RFA this summer and this is the first significant contract that GM Kyle Davidson is going to have to get done in the rebuild.
Interesting nugget in here from Ben Pope: Vlasic and Seth Jones will both play for the United States in the 2024 IIHF World Championships. Jones had been mentioned previously but Vlasic going is a great sign that he’s getting the recognition he’s earned.
Finally, speaking of guys (like Vlasic) who might be better than you think… let’s talk about Christopher Morel for a moment.
NEWSLETTER
