BUFFALO, N.Y. — The Blackhawks didn’t take any prospects out to dinner during NHL scouting combine week, continuing the pattern they established last year.
So it was extremely interesting when top defensive prospect Chase Reid admitted Saturday the Hawks previously visited him at his home outside Detroit and took him out to dinner there.
The Hawks were one of 12 teams to hold daytime interviews with Reid during combine week, although that’s less notable.
Reid looks like a serious candidate for the Hawks’ fourth overall pick, particularly if none of the top three forwards — Gavin McKenna, Ivar Stenberg and Caleb Malhotra — remain available. He’s probably the favorite among the group of top defensemen (which also includes Carson Carels, Keaton Verhoeff and Alberts Smits).
It’s even possible the Hawks could choose Reid over one of the forwards, since their draft rankings haven’t been publicly nailed down.
Reid has enjoyed a meteoric rise over the last two seasons from the second tier of U.S. junior hockey to the top tier of Canadian junior hockey, becoming the best defenseman in that tier. He will play at Michigan State next season.
“Not getting everything that I’ve always wished for in life made me the more resilient person I am today,” Reid said.
He measured 6-2 and 190 pounds. He said his long-term target weight is around 210.
Malhotra’s case
The Canucks are widely expected to pick Caleb Malhotra third overall. But if they don’t, he would then suddenly become a strong candidate for the Hawks’ pick.
The hyper-competitive center surged up rankings with an excellent second half of the season. Although the Hawks are theoretically stacked with centers, it’s easy to convert centers into wingers if need be.
The Canucks’ hiring of longtime NHL forward Manny Malhotra, Caleb’s dad, as their new coach might make them less likely to select him. Caleb said many of the Canucks’ questions during their combine interview explored that possibly awkward dynamic.
“We’re both very detail-oriented and professional about everything we do, especially inside of hockey,” Caleb told them. “He would just be ‘coach’ at the rink. It’s as simple as that. I’d be his player, and he’d be my coach. It would be regular interactions.”
The Hawks have recently drafted Nick Lardis, Marek Vanacker and Parker Holmes out of Brantford, Malhotra’s OHL club, so they surely watched him often this season. Malhotra, a Boston University commit, has talked to Vanacker and Holmes about their experiences in Chicago.
Vanacker led the OHL in goals (and Malhotra raved about Vanacker’s engine), but Malhotra — despite being more than two years younger — bested him in points.
“You never know what [Malhotra is] going to do,” Reid said. “He’s a very unpredictable player — not to his teammates, but to the other team. He does tremendous things with the puck.”
Bedard name-drops
Hawks star Connor Bedard was mentioned a couple times at the combine. Once was by McKenna, actually a distant cousin of Bedard, who said he asked Bedard for advice on handling the pressure of being a potential first overall pick.
“He’s always a brain I like to go to,” McKenna said. “He’s always been open to advice, and he’s always given it to me. He just tells me to trust the process and stay confident. Sometimes it’s hard, but hockey is a big confidence game.”
Tynan Lawrence, once considered a top-10 prospect who has now fallen into the teens, said he would take Bedard’s shot if he could add any one skill from one NHL player into his game. He admires how Bedard can unleash shots in traffic or while off-balance.
“[Bedard can] find that perfect pocket to get it off, which would be a cool thing to learn,” Lawrence said.