Speed For Days, Superlatives, Grades, Skinner Available, Utah Yeti? and Other Blackhawks Bullets

Day Two of the 2024 NHL Draft is in the books, Blackhawks fans. Now we can turn our eyes to free agency opening on… Monday. Tomorrow. Because why sleep, right?

  • With the Blackhawks’ two picks in the third round — John Mustard and AJ Spellacy — Chicago landed two of the best skaters in the draft. Remember what I wrote about the Blackhawks have a type? Yeah. Speed for days. Spellacy had five D-1 football offers and told the media in Vegas he models his game after Washington’s Tom Wilson. Both players have room to grow, which should be expected from third-round picks, but they can fly and have high ceilings. If you wanted the Hawks to go for lottery tickets, they took two in the third.
  • The Blackhawks made a deal to add pick No. 92 from Carolina and drafted Jack Pridham, the son of Toronto’s cap czar, who’s headed to Boston University — eventually. He’ll spend one more season in the BCHL before heading to college.
  • After reading the tweet above, I went back to the pre-draft piece Scott Wheeler did at The Athletic in which he assigned superlatives to the prospects. And it shouldn’t surprise you where some new Blackhawks prospects showed up.
  • Best Skater:

  • Mustard and Spellacy ranked 1-2 with honorable mentions to Pridham and Artyom Levshunov.
  • Strongest:

  • Look! I found Levshunov at 2 and Spellacy at 4.
  • Most Well-Rounded Forward:

  • And there are Sacha Boisvert and Marek Vanacker among his top seven. When I wrote that the Blackhawks have a type, it should be absolutely clear that they’re drafting specific attributes. Their picks in the third round reinforced what I wrote before the second day of the draft began.
  • Ben Pope at the Chicago Sun-Times wrote a terrific piece on how the Blackhawks identified Vanacker as a guy. Sometimes we laugh when the people cite the most obvious reason a player might be on a team’s radar — he’s a teammate of an existing prospect — but, in this case, it clicked. And the Blackhawks got a good player when they traded back into the first round on Friday night.
  • In my Saturday bullets I cited that Scott Wheeler at The Athletic had the Blackhawks as one of his winners on Friday night. Corey Pronman listed his favorite (and questionable) picks from the first round and the Hawks taking a defenseman at No. 2 overall was his top favorite pick.
  • Pronman dropped grades for all 32 teams at the conclusion of the 2024 NHL Draft, and the Chicago Blackhawks received an A. In the team-specific analysis, Scott Powers wrote: “The Blackhawks definitely have a type.” Huh…
  • Jeff Skinner is 32 years old. The past three seasons, he has scored 33, 35 and 24 goals in 80, 79 and 74 games, respectively. He’s been productive and durable. And, now, he’s going to be available. The Buffalo Sabres are going to buy out the final three years of a contract that carried a $9M cap hit. He isn’t a big forward (5-11, 200) but he’s still good. Does he interest you as a potential Blackhawks target in free agency? I’m at least intrigued…
  • If they’re still taking bets on the future name of the Utah Hockey Club… I might recommend placing your wager on the Yeti.
  • Finally, Justin Steele absolutely lost his $#!+ during the game in Milwaukee after a bad inning. I loved it. Michael loved it. And you should love it, too.
  • written by

    Tab Bamford has been writing about the Chicago Blackhawks for almost two decades. He joined Bleacher Nation as the lead Blackhawks writer in May 2022. Tab is a member of the Professional Hockey Writers Association and is the author of two books about the Blackhawks: "100 Things Blackhawks Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die" (Triumph Books) and "Chicago Blackhawks: An Illustrated Timeline" (Reedy Press, 2021). Find him on Twitter/X/Instagram/Threads at @The1Tab

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