THE VERDICT: Blackhawks Draft Familiar Face in an Unfamiliar Draft

Well, I finally made it to the gym on Tuesday.
Luckily, it was closed. Tuesday, you see, was the day for the annual, but delayed, National Hockey League Draft. Because it's 2020, a year that cannot end fast enough, the Blackhawks converted the second level of their spiffy practice facility at Fifth Third Arena into a war room where they would select a future star who soon will use those barbells, treadmills, exercise bikes and other annoying machines.

This event was supposed to be staged in magnificent Montreal during the summer, but then 2020 happened. We've all gone crazy, and then we've gone virtual. Not much pomp this time, but such is the circumstance. Fifth Third Arena is a spectacular practice facility, but it ain't Montreal.
2020 NHL Draft
DRAFT CENTRAL: Blackhawks' 2020 NHL Draft
BLOG: Blackhawks Select Lukas Reichel at No. 17 Overall
WHAT THEY'RE SAYING: Experts Weigh in on Lukas Reichel
At the artfully decorated and carpeted war room, the command central featured a U-shaped table with spaced seating for 12.
Danny Wirtz
, the Blackhawks' Interim President, faced nine high-definition television monitors, next to
Stan Bowman
, Senior Vice President/General Manager, and
Mark Kelley
, Vice President of Amateur Scouting.
Jay Blunk
, Executive Vice President, was there, along with
Al MacIsaac
, Senior Vice President of Hockey Operations. Two scouts based in the United States were present: Mike Doneghey, Director of Player Evaluation/Recruitment, and Rob Facca, Head USA Scout. Several other members of the brain trust, important individuals to the process, joined the gathering. I was quarantined in another area. I wouldn't call it a war room. I would call it a room near a table of snacks, heavy on apples and oranges. Remember, in real life, this is a gym.
Among those Zooming in and being zoomed upon Tuesday evening was head coach Jeremy Colliton, home in Calgary. Hudson Chodos, scouting manager, supplied a list of 16 scouts plugged in around the world, none more distant than Andrei Nikolishin, stationed in Chelyabinsk, Russia. When the New York Rangers went on the clock with their first selection shortly after 6 p.m. in Chicago, his clock was 10 hours ahead, as in wee Wednesday morning.
At about 8 p.m., Fifth Third Arena war room time, the Blackhawks were prompted by National Hockey League Commissioner Gary Bettman to announce their pick, No. 17 overall. Bowman turned the honor over to a special guest: Jamyle Cannon, inaugural grant recipient of the Blackhawks'
One West Side
initiative.
And the envelope, please.
Lukas Reichel
, a left winger from Germany. Kelley described Reichel as a fabulously gifted boy playing among men. The Blackhawks remember him from an exhibition game in Berlin last autumn. But their European scouts had been touting Reichel before then, although it couldn't have been too long before. He's 18. He was born in 2002. How many people do you know who were born in 2002?

In June 2019, the Blackhawks packed their bags and a coveted No. 3 overall draft choice for Vancouver, a beautiful city where prospects were treated to, among other perks, a boat ride. A wiry lad, Kirby Dach, said seaside that he had talked to the Blackhawks, along with other teams.
The Blackhawks talked to other players but knew their ship had landed long before they arrived in British Columbia. It was Dach all along. Almost every expert had the choice wrong, but there was no doubt. The Blackhawks can keep a secret. Also, they hit a home run in Dach, a man-child with many tools.
"We couldn't zero in on someone like that now," said Kelley. "Not where we're picking. But we're very excited about Reichel. He's quick, he has a great shot, and he's starting to develop into a complete player.
As Kelley said, it is what it is now, or it was what it was when hockey, in concert with the rest of the planet, shut down because of COVID-19. No more junior games, no more playoffs, no more get acquainted dinners, no more combines. If you wanted information on a kid, you had to look back, not ahead. You could talk with his coach, and hope for an honest appraisal, but shaking hands with either was not only discouraged by science, it was impossible on Zoom sessions.
Of course, it is the same for all NHL franchises. However,
Kelley told Blackhawks.com
that the pandemic allowed for creative - and in certain instances - relaxed conversations. If he spotted a piano in the background of a young man's home, Kelley might inquire whether that particular lad multitasked. Back in the day, the Blackhawks drafted some great pool sharks and scratch handicappers. Occasionally, the Blackhawks had a better golf team than hockey team, and they couldn't blame a virus. Regrettably, it was discovered, too late, that a few draftees skated with that piano on their backs.

One October ago, the Blackhawks had just returned from opening their regular season in Prague. The NHL season turned highly irregular in mid-March, and just ended a few days ago. Whether this season begins this year is uncertain, because it might begin next year, which would allow us to refer to it as next season, no?
The Tampa Bay Lightning won the 2020 Stanley Cup, five years after their last trip to the Final. The Lightning beat the Dallas Stars, coached by Rick Bowness, an assistant on the 2015 Lightning squad vanquished by the Blackhawks.
"Chicago was the better team then," reflected Bowness. "We weren't quite ready."
Somehow, the NHL was ready for the pandemic. There was no way 24 teams could be assigned to two different bubbles in Canada, but the ambitious league found a way. Normal people don't want to hear how professional athletes sacrificed much of their summer sequestered in luxury hotels, but they played and played hard. It was a job well done by all involved. As long as it's a one-timer.
No sport is better in person than hockey, but despite vacant seats, the result is not empty. From a zany situation, some good emerged. Management and labor extended a Collective Bargaining Agreement, evidence that in an emergency, these two factions can collaborate. Nobody knows what is ahead, but at least they'll approach it together.