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A year ago, Blackhawks prospect Colton Dach <\/b>was on the verge of an NHL call-up.<\/p>\n
Then inconsistency and injuries disrupted his rhythm, forcing him to \u2014 in the words of Rockford coach Anders Sorensen <\/b>\u2014 \u201cstart over a little bit\u201d this season.<\/p>\n
After more ups and downs this fall, Sorensen, who always seems more critical of Dach than the Hawks\u2019 other AHL prospects, sat down with him Tuesday morning for a serious chat. That night against Texas, Dach was denied on two golden scoring chances in the first period, which might have rattled him in the past.<\/p>\n
But he stuck with it and broke through with two goals less than a minute apart in the second period of Rockford\u2019s eventual win. Sorensen described it as Dach\u2019s \u201cmost complete game\u201d of the season, a rare instance of praise.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not going to lie: I was definitely a little bit frustrated when I couldn\u2019t put one in [early on],\u201d Dach said. \u201cBut when I scored that first one, I let it all out and calmed myself down, and we went to work after that.<\/p>\n
\u201cI need to play with confidence. When I\u2019m doing that, I\u2019m moving my feet, getting into guys, being physical and winning a lot of stick battles. That\u2019s something I\u2019ve got to keep doing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dach entered Saturday with 11 points in 14 games, trailing only top prospect Frank Nazar<\/b> for the team lead.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s [about] the work off the puck,\u201d Sorensen said. \u201cWe\u2019ve talked a lot about the first four strides in transition, whether it\u2019s one way or the other \u2014 similar to Frank, although they\u2019re different body types obviously. [Dach is working on] getting his feet going early to get to spots or get in on the forecheck. When he does that, he\u2019s really effective.\u201d<\/p>\n
In his pursuit of an NHL call-up, Dach is mostly competing against Nazar, Landon Slaggert<\/b> and Cole Guttman<\/b>. The race could get more crowded soon if Boston University junior Ryan Greene<\/b> and Minnesota sophomore Oliver Moore<\/b> sign entry-level contracts in March or April after their college seasons end.<\/p>\n
Dach needs to maintain this inkling of momentum to have a chance to break through. He needs his December 2024 performance to be just as impressive as his December 2023 performance \u2014 and his January 2025 performance to greatly exceed his January 2024 performance.<\/p>\n
Waivers looming<\/b><\/p>\n
When the Hawks signed goaltender Laurent Brossoit<\/b> in the summer, they knew they could send Arvid Soderblom<\/b> to Rockford without the risk of losing him on waivers.<\/p>\n
If Brossoit misses much more time, however, that no longer may be the case. Soderblom\u2019s six appearances this season have him up to 56 career NHL appearances; once he gets to 60, he\u2019ll require waivers.<\/p>\n
Considering how much Soderblom has increased his stock \u2014 he has a .926 save percentage compared to .879 last season \u2014 that\u2019s a risk the Hawks would be reluctant to take. Instead, they would be stuck with a logjam of three NHL goalies.<\/p>\n
For now, it\u2019s only an academic concern because Brossoit seemingly has made no progress toward a return after his meniscus surgery.<\/p>\n
Weird stats<\/b><\/p>\n
After their 3-2 overtime loss to the Flyers, the Hawks have gone five games with only one power-play opportunity in each game. That\u2019s a franchise record and the longest such streak by any team since 2019.<\/p>\n
Forward Lukas Reichel<\/b>, on the other hand, seems to love Philadelphia. He has three multipoint games since the start of last season, and two have happened in Philly.<\/p>\n
He scored the Hawks\u2019 first goal and assisted on the second.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dach’s development “started over” this season in Rockford, and the 21-year-old forward needs to maintain an inkling of growing momentum to have a chance of breaking through into the NHL.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4123,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,10,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chicago-blackhawks","category-nfl","category-san-francisco-49ers"],"yoast_head":"\n