MARYLAND HEIGHTS, Mo. — One year after an impressive performance in prospect camp, Blackhawks forward prospect Martin Misiak hopes one bright moment this weekend will help get his development back on track.
The 55th overall pick in the 2023 draft — who actually filled in for Connor Bedard as the prospect team’s first-line center in their second game last year in Minnesota — was far less noticeable this weekend in the St. Louis suburbs, struggling Friday against the Blues and struggling again early on in the Hawks’ 4-2 win Saturday against the Wild.
That was a concerning pattern on the heels of an up-and-down 2023-24 season with Erie in the OHL. Misiak, a Slovakia native, believed he improved as the year went on overall, but he still finished just sixth on the team in scoring with 47 points in 60 games.
In the second period Saturday, however, he finally stood out in a good way, perfectly directing and weighting a pass toward the crease to hit a charging Frank Nazar in stride. Nazar, the Hawks’ top forward prospect, knocked the puck in for his one goal of the weekend. Misiak later tallied the game-sealing empty-net goal.
“He tried to do a lot of little things right that not everyone else notices,” Rockford assistant coach Rob Klinkhammer said. “Some of the habits that we were showing this week he really tried to implement.”
Whether Misiak projects as a future NHL center or winger remains unclear, but he’s accustomed to flip-flopping positions. He spent all but two games with Erie as a center, but the Hawks used him as a winger this weekend.
The Hawks intend to send him back to Erie — rather than Rockford — this coming season, although he said he hadn’t been informed of that yet. At age 20, he’ll be one of the oldest players in the OHL this time around, so domination will be expected.
Healthy again
Defenseman Nolan Allan, 21, said his solid first pro season with Rockford last year was cut short by a torn MCL.
Fortunately, it felt stable again just a few weeks into the offseason. That allowed him to work on his mobility, particularly getting lower in his stride and building strength on his skate edges.
He struggled at times last season with retrieving dumped-in pucks and exiting the defensive zone successfully. The skating improvement should help him at least get to those pucks faster, giving him an extra half-second or so to find a target for a breakout pass.
Staff changes
Two former NHL defensemen joined the Hawks’ hockey operations this summer, headlining a modest array of staffing changes.
Michael Kostka, who briefly played for the Hawks in 2013-14, was hired as a mental performance coach. He joins AJ Sturges, Peter Kadushin and Samantha Leavens in the mental performance department.
Andy Delmore, who totaled 283 games for the Flyers, Predators, Sabres and Blue Jackets, was hired as a player development coach. He replaces Erik Condra, who left the Hawks this summer for a corporate job in Minneapolis. Will Moran was also hired as a coordinator within the player development department, which features Brian Keane and Kendall Coyne-Schofield as its most prominent faces.
The Hawks continued to expand their analytics department, which — with 12 employees — has grown into one of the league’s largest. Sam Forstner and Mark Weinstein were promoted to managers and Hassaan Inayatali was hired as a data scientist.