In 2006, the Chicago Blackhawks selected Jonathan Toews with the third overall pick in the NHL Draft. And the next year, they chose Patrick Kane with the first overall pick.
In three weeks, they get their chance to make another potential franchise-altering selection, but the parallels don’t stop there.
In the current salary cap era of the NHL, success comes and goes in waves. And the Blackhawks success from 2008 to 2017 has resonated with many of the top prospects available in the upcoming NHL Entry Draft. Just how the current crop of the league’s stars grew up with the NHL stars of the 1990’s, the next crop of future NHL stars grew up watching guys like Kane and Toews during the Blackhawks golden age.
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Alex Turcotte, one of the names most linked to the Blackhawks with the third overall pick, grew up in the Chicagoland area and cheered for Chicago.
“They were winning when I was growing up. There was a lot of excitement around hockey in Chicago at the time as there still is,” Turcotte told NBC Sports in an exclusive interview. “There’s guys like Patrick Kane, Jonathan Toews, [Duncan] Keith, [Brent] Seabrook, [Marian] Hossa. There’s a lot of excitement for sure. They’re guys that a lot of kids in Chicago look up to and made you excited about being a hockey player. It made it cool to be a hockey player.”
Turcotte’s father, Alfie, who was once an NHL first round pick himself, even pulled him from class back in 2010 to attend the Blackhawks’ Stanley Cup parade. But the Blackhawks impact wasn’t limited just to Chicago and surrounding areas.
Dylan Cozens, the fifth-ranked North American skater eligible for the draft according to NHL Central Scouting, grew up over 2,800 miles away in the town of Whitehorse, Yukon in Canada. And he, just like Turcotte, grew up a Blackhawks fan.
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“I started watching Jonathan Toews and then I started cheering for the Blackhawks as well,” said Cozens. “Growing up, I always saw Toews as my role model. Just the person he is on and off the ice and how great a player he is. I wanted to be like him. He’s such a great person and hockey guy.”
And even further than Yukon, draft-eligible Arthur Kaliyev, who was born in Uzbekistan and came to the United States at a young age, grew up cheering for the Blackhawks as well, even from Staten Island, New York.
With a number of highly-touted prospects at the center position at the top of this draft class, it’s no surprise that an accomplished veteran like Jonathan Toews would be a role model for so many kids. But Kane’s style of play has made an impact as well.
From his playmaking ability to the fancy stickhandling videos on YouTube, these 17 and 18 year-olds about to be drafted into the NHL grew up trying to emulate these players while playing street hockey or on makeshift backyard rinks.
Trevor Zegras, renowned as one of the best passers and playmakers in this draft class, admits to Kane being the player he strives to one day become.
“I’d probably say he was the guy I always watched. And obviously playing for Chicago, all the Cups runs, all the great goals he’s scored. He’s pretty influential in my hockey career,” said Zegras.
The consensus top prospect in the draft class is Jack Hughes, expected to be the top pick of the New Jersey Devils. Hughes got the chance to play with Kane at the IIHF World Championship in Slovakia earlier in May and his game has also received a lot of comparisons to Kane’s. To Hughes, those comparisons are an incredible honor.
“Yeah I mean we’re talking about a guy with three Stanley Cups, Conn Smythe, Art Ross trophies, Hart trophies. I think if you compare yourself to him it’s a pretty good comparison,” said Hughes. “He’s an unbelievable player, unbelievable person, so I’d love to be like him in both aspects of my life one day.”
The future elite of the NHL admiring the present elite of the NHL. And now the Blackhawks have the opportunity to pair the two together in an attempt to reignite the glory days. And for some of the youngsters who might soon get to play on a line with their role models, the feeling is nearly unimaginable.
“Surreal,” said Kirby Dach, who met with the Blackhawks multiple times this week. “Those are the kind of guys you grew up playing as in the old hockey rink, you’re pretending to be. So to be able to play on a line with Patrick Kane or guys like that on that team would be pretty special.”
So here we are in 2019, with Kane and Toews both coming off their best NHL seasons, being role models for a bunch of teenagers that sit in the same spot they once did – top draft prospects trying to make a name for themselves in the NHL. And if all goes well, it might just come full circle for both the Blackhawks and the kids that grew up cheering for them.