A look at the top prospects of the Chicago Blackhawks in the National Hockey League
Without any doubt, Brandon Saad leads the list of Chicago Blackhawks prospects. The Syrian-American gave Blackhawks a set back in this year’s draft as he suffered an injury.
Saad was expected to be one of the top picks of the draft but he was selected at no. 43, something that was a very happy sight for Chicago Blackhawks.
Saad had showed a brilliant performance in 2010-2011 season and Blackhawks had a lot of hopes from and they would be happy even with the fact that he has got his fitness back. Blackhawks’ head coach Joel Quenneville had a lot of good things to say about
and as he thinks he is bigger, better, stronger and would be key among his prospects as he said,
"You've gotta earn that, but he's bigger, he's stronger, he's faster. He's a good hockey player. The puck just follows him around. He's the key (to our prospects)."
Here is the list of Chicago Blackhawks’ prospects.
Brandon Saad
The 19-year-old started his career in NAHL and then played in United States Hockey League (USHL). He had a great season with Saginaw Spirit in the Ontario Hockey League (OHL) as he scored 55 points, 27 goals, 28 assists in 59 games.
That performance earned him a three year, entry level contrat with Chicago on October 4th 2011. He made two appearances for them, but could not score any point so he was sent back to Spirit’s team in OHL, where he scored 76 points, 34 goals, 42
assists in 42 games.
Brandon Pirri
Brandon Pirri is a 21-year-old Canadian forward, who was selected 59th overall in the second round of the 2009 NHL draft by Blackhawks. Playing currently for Rockford IceHogs in the American Hockey League (AHL), Pirri made his NHL debut in 2010-2011
season but has not played more than one game.
Blackhawks’ director of Amateur scouting, Mark Kelley was impressed by the fact that Pirri was top scorer of his side, at the age of 21 and said,
"He was really just a 20-year-old and he led the team in scoring and probably one of the things we liked about him is he was a plus-player”.
Kevin Hayes
The 20-year-old was Blackhawks first round pick in the 2010 NHL draft. He is younger brother of Jimmy Hayes, Chicago’s forward. He is currently playing college hockey for Boston university but pretty much can be expected from him in years to come.
Kelly said about him,
“He is two years out of high school hockey in Boston and he's come a long ways. When we drafted him we knew he was going to be a little bit of a project, but just watching the way his body has developed, the way he has matured.”
Mark McNeill
Mark McNeill is also a very talented 18-year-old player from Canada. He was Blackhawks top pick in the 2011 NHL draft, selected at 18th overall.
The Langley, British Columbia born centre has been playing for Prince Albert Raiders in the Western Hockey League (WHL) and has been scoring at an average of over one point per game. He was a part of Team Canada in 2012 IIHF World Under-18 championships
and expected to go a long way.
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