VANCOUVER, British Columbia — Entering this year’s NHL training camp, Matthew Highmore was a professional hockey player who had not played much hockey in a while.
“I had only played four games in nine months, 10 months,” he said Tuesday. “So I didn’t really have much of a measuring stick, and I didn’t think I was quite where I wanted to be.”
Six months later, Highmore has played a lot of hockey — and most of it at the NHL level.
The soon-to-be 24-year-old wing has now appeared in 23 games for the Hawks since his late November recall, bringing energy, grit and some deceptive speed to the fourth line.
Although he’s tallied just one goal and two assists in those 23 games, he’s become a valuable player in coach Jeremy Colliton’s eyes — so much so that, after Highmore was scratched for three straight games out of the bye week, Colliton scratched Alex Nylander in Winnipeg to get Highmore back into the lineup, then kept Highmore in while benching Dylan Strome in Edmonton.
After all, there’s good evidence that having Highmore around makes the Hawks better: they’ve won 13 of the 23 games in which he’s played, versus only 12 of the 33 he hasn’t.
“When I came here at the start of December, the team was really starting to find their groove,” he said. “So just to be a part of that has been exciting. I’ve been playing good hockey [but] I don’t think necessarily it’s been any of the reason.”
Highmore missed the vast majority of last season with a right shoulder injury, playing only nine games with the AHL’s Rockford IceHogs in October 2018 and four in April 2019 on the two ends of his lengthy recovery.
After his aforementioned time in Hawks training camp this past September, he returned to Rockford fully healthy and put up 12 points in 21 games, prompting his promotion.
Two and a half months later, he’s become an NHL regular.
“I’m getting better,” he said. “It’s a bit of an adjustment, and I feel like I have made that adjustment as of now. I’m starting to build on my game more and more and it’s certainly coming around. It’s been fun being a part of this. I hope I can continue to help any way I can.”
He added that he’s hoping to develop his patience and creativity in the offensive zone so that he can chip in more scoring-wise.
But he now has plenty of leash and time to do so.
Hawks walking into emotional night
The Hawks’ game Wednesday against the Canucks will be the secondary attraction on an emotional night in Vancouver.
Longtime franchise cornerstones Daniel and Henrik Sedin will have their signature No. 22 and No. 33 sweaters retired in a pregame ceremony featuring many of the Canucks’ all-time greats.
The Sedins spearheaded the talented Canucks teams that lost to the Hawks in the 2009 and 2010 playoffs, then beat the Hawks en route to their own Stanley Cup Final appearance in 2011.
The Canucks had asked the NHL to schedule the Hawks as their opponent for the ceremony day, per Sportsnet’s Dan Murphy.
The Hawks will try to play spoiler in much the same way that the Panthers did after Patrick Kane’s 1,000th point ceremony (and Joel Quenneville’s tribute video) last month in Chicago.
