Blackhawks will be holding back on two top prospects to open season

Recent first-round picks Kevin Korchinski and Frank Nazar won’t make the Blackhawks’ opening-night roster. They were both part of roster cuts the team announced Wednesday and will begin the 2024-25 season on assignment to the AHL’s Rockford IceHogs.

The 20-year-old Korchinski is coming off his first professional season, all of which he spent on the NHL roster. The 2022 seventh-overall pick made the Hawks out of camp last year and logged top-four minutes on a paper-thin Chicago defense. However, it wasn’t the best move for the puck-moving defender’s development. He logged 15 points and a -39 rating in 76 games, posting the worst possession quality metrics of any Blackhawks skater. He’s looked over-matched at times in preseason play this year, too, posting a -3 rating in Tuesday’s 7-2 loss to the Wild.

Korchinski starting the season in Rockford is far from unexpected, even after logging so much NHL ice last season. The Chicago Sun-Times’ Ben Pope reported in August that the organization envisioned Korchinski getting a breather in the minors, and line rushes early on in training camp indicated he was likely on the outside looking in. He’s only a year removed from a prolific junior career with the WHL’s Seattle Thunderbirds, where he totaled 133 assists and 148 points in 145 games across four seasons.

Nazar, 20, was taken six spots after Korchinski in 2022 and made his pro debut just a few months back at the tail end of the 2023-24 season. He signed his entry-level contract following an electric sophomore season at the University of Michigan, rebounding for 41 points in 41 games after missing most of his freshman year due to injury. He scored once but had a -4 rating in three NHL contests to end the season with the Hawks.

When both players suit up for the IceHogs later this month, it’ll be their respective AHL debuts. They’ll likely get a longer runway in the minors to get re-acclimated (or straight-up acclimated, in Nazar’s case) to the pro game before being considered for a recall.

With Wyatt Kaiser’s availability for the start of the regular season uncertain after only recently returning to on-ice activities, Nolan Allan and Isaak Phillips have likely won out the two defense spots up for grabs with Korchinski headed to the minors, Pope points out. They’re among the seven healthy defensemen left on the Hawks’ training-camp roster. Opening night against Utah on Oct. 8 could mark an NHL debut for Allan, who had 17 points and a +2 rating in 60 games for Rockford last year after going No. 32 overall in the 2021 draft.