What Does the Selection of Kevin Hayes Reveal about the Blackhawks?

Jim Neveau, PIB Co-conspirator

The pieces were all falling into place for the Blackhawks to make a big splash when the clock started for them with the 24th overall pick in Friday’s NHL Entry Draft.

Emerson Etem, a young center with wicked puck handling skills and a smooth scoring touch, had fallen into the Hawks’ laps. He was projected as a mid-first rounder, and scouts were impressed with his offensive abilities.

Everything was set up perfectly for the Hawks to make a pick that not only pleased the crowd inside Staples Center (Etem is a California native), but a pick that would also bolster their minor league system and set them up with yet another quality centerman in their stable. It was not meant to be, however, as Stan Bowman strode to the podium for the first time as General Manager of the Hawks, and announced that Chicago was selecting Kevin Hayes, a 6′2″ 200 pound left winger out of Noble & Greenough High School in Massachusetts.

Immediately, fans were abuzz about who exactly this kid was. The big names that were left on the draft board at the time fell by the wayside, and everyone had the same simultaneous thought: who is this kid?

After some research on the youngster, the player that the Hawks drafted doesn’t seem all bad. NHL Central Scouting ranked him as the 26th player available in this year’s draft class (only two spots behind where the Hawks took him), and they had nothing but positive things to say about him:

“Kevin is a skilled power forward who plays with enthusiasm and drive. He has very good hands and is an excellent play maker. He is a strong skater with a long stride, and uses his long reach and puck protection to beat defenders. He has an excellent wrist shot with a sneaky quick release, and will shoot from any angle. He controls the puck very well in traffic, sees the ice very well, and finds the open man. He has a very good knack of playing the puck in his skates for a big player, often moving the puck from skates to stick without losing speed.”

From that scouting report, it sounds like the Hawks knew exactly what they were getting into when they drafted him. The surprise factor is still there, as PIB Co-conspirator Chris Ralph had Hayes ranked 48th among the available prospects heading into the draft, and had him going 49th in the draft. He also complimented Hayes’ hockey IQ.  TSN had Hayes ranked 49th on their draft board, and The Hockey News put him in the number 44 slot on their ranking.

So with the numbers seemingly indicating that the Hawks reached a bit on the youngster, what exactly does his selection tell us about what Chicago is trying to do in this draft?

The statement that Hayes’ selection makes is that the Hawks aren’t concerned about drafting a player who will be NHL ready in a year or two. Hayes is a kid coming out of high school, and he will be going to Boston College in the fall. He is nowhere near ready to play at the highest level yet, and the Blackhawks are okay with that.

As evidenced when they took back Nick Leddy in the Cam Barker trade earlier this season, Chicago doesn’t have a problem bringing talented high schoolers into their prospect pool, and they are content to let them develop at their own pace. This kind of far-sighted selection might strike some as odd when compared to the immediate impact that Patrick Kane had, but when you are picking this late in the first round, you aren’t looking for a player who is ready to make the jump into the league immediately anyway.

The other statement that Stan Bowman made with this selection was that he isn’t going to be a slave to whichever player is the best one available on the board. In the cases of the Anaheim Ducks with the appropriately named Cam Fowler and the Phoenix Coyotes’ selection of Brandon Gormley, they both went with the best player on the board because they didn’t have the luxury of merely restocking their farm system, and instead had to pick guys who will be ready relatively quickly.

The Blackhawks, on the other hand, can just pick and choose, and don’t feel compelled to take a guy just because he’s the best player available and they need to make a splash.

The Hawks continued to show a penchant for going for “project players” (guys who will take time to develop rather than quick studies) when they dealt their number 30 overall pick to the New York Islanders for two second round selections. This move gave them a whopping FIVE picks in the second round. They now have the 35th pick (courtesy of the Islanders), the 43rd pick (from the Flames), the 54th pick (thank you Thrashers), the 58th pick (again courtesy of the Isles), and the 60th pick (their own).

With all of this ammo to work with, Bowman now not only has a total of 12 draft picks (most in the league), but also has plenty of power to make more moves on the draft’s second day. He now has the flexibility to package picks together in order to move up in the draft if he wants to, or (more likely), he can trade a single pick for more picks either in this draft or next year’s draft. This ability to move up and down the board at will is a hallmark of teams like the New England Patriots in the NFL, and Bowman really seems to be taking a page out of their book with the way he is hoarding picks.

While Day Two will offer a clearer picture of the direction that the Blackhawks are headed, one thing is abundantly clear after the first day of the Draft: Stan Bowman is pretty good at keeping all of us guessing.

Tags: 2010 NHL Draft, Anaheim Ducks, Atlanta Thrashers, Brandon Gormley, Calgary Flames, cam barker, Cam Fowler, Chicago Blackhawks, Emerson Etem, Kevin Hayes, New York Islanders, Nick Leddy, Patrick Kane, Phoenix Coyotes, stan bowman