Friday’s NHL Draft was more Congressional subcommittee meeting than party, just as it is every year. Attire? Various shades of dark. Attitude? Muted. Celebrations? Not frowned upon, but eyed closely for immoderate amounts of emotion.
Watching NHL commissioner Gary Bettman attempt to hug each first-round pick, the way his counterparts in the NFL and the NBA do during their drafts, was like watching a germophobe beholding a bathroom hand towel. I am now convinced of two things: that Bettman was born without the need-for-human-contact gene and that the genes he does possess are each dressed in a tiny suit and wingtips.
Everybody at the draft acts like he’s been there before. No one emotes. It’s one of the things hockey people love about hockey.
Into this culture steps 18-year-old Kirby Dach, the Blackhawks’ first-round pick and the third player chosen overall in the draft. The team introduced him at a press conference Monday morning at the United Center, and he was exactly what you’d expect. Polite. Earnest. Single-minded.
Asked for his early impressions of Chicago, a city he hadn’t visited before, Dach said he had seen little of it but was impressed with “how well-kept the rinks are.’’ That might be the hockey-est statement ever. Perfect.
Public response to the Hawks’ drafting of Dach has been mixed. Some fans were upset that the team didn’t go with blueliner Bowen Byram, given the wobbly state of its defense. Others wanted more of a brand name like center Alex Turcotte.
But nobody really knows, or will know anytime soon, given the lack of familiarity and immediacy when it comes to the draft and its aftermath. The prospects come from all over the world, and even the ones who are from Canada and the United States haven’t been eyeballed to within an inch of their lives by fans, the way NBA and NFL prospects have. Bulls fans had the opportunity to see a lot of North Carolina’s Coby White before the team took him in the first round of Thursday’s draft. Hawks fans would have had to work to see Dach, a center who has played two full junior seasons with the Saskatoon Blades of the Western Hockey League.
Bulls fans can expect to see White on the floor during the 2019-20 season. Blackhawks fans have no idea when Dach will get to the United Center. He hopes to impress the coaching staff enough to make an impact right away, but it’s more likely that he’s a couple seasons away. He needs to add bulk and strength. And the NHL, in general, isn’t about instant gratification.
It’s about work, for a lot of people. Dach went out of his way to thank his family for the sacrifices it had made for him. That’s not how his dad, Dale, looked at it.
“People call them sacrifices, but I find that they’re more growing moments,’’ he said. “Instead of doing a few more holidays, we did more holidays at a hockey rink or a tournament in spring hockey. Instead of going away at Christmas, we spent it at home going to one of the kids’ tournaments. It’s all part of growing up and getting experiences. It didn’t matter where we were. We just made the best of it.’’
He said his son “has been really grounded his whole life,’’ which seems to be the standard factory setting for hockey players. For his part, Kirby Dach says he’s going to be “the best me I can possibly be at all times.’’ If you were looking for bravado, folks, that will have to suffice.
He said he hopes to soak in everything he can from Hawks center Jonathan Toews, but I hope he understands that the nickname “Captain Serious’’ is already taken. You get the distinct sense that the only thing Dach has stolen in his life is a puck.
“I think we have a special player here,’’ Hawks general manager Stan Bowman said.
Just to be clear: Bowman said it. Not the kid.
