The Blackhawks are back to work Saturday for the second day of the NHL draft, which they entered owning six more picks.
They’ll add to their draft class that already consists of No. 3 overall pick Anton Frondell and late first-round selections Vaclav Nestrasil and Mason West.
Here’s a running analysis of their Saturday selections:
No. 66: Nathan Behm, right wing, Kamloops (WHL)
Based on Behm’s place in public rankings, landing him at the beginning of the third round represented good value for the Hawks, even though general manager Kyle Davidson loves to mention that public and private rankings can differ tremendously.
“[The Hawks] were pretty high on my list, so I think it was something I was kind of expecting,” Behm said.
The 6-2, 198-pound forward has good size and good skill. He’s considered a player whose style should translate relatively smoothly to the pro game, which is something the Hawks have often targeted with mid-round picks.
He led Kamloops with 66 points in 59 games last season and plans to return there next season. He said he’s working on his explosiveness, but his skating overall is perfectly fine.
“[I’m] being more dominant every shift and using my size a little bit more,” he said. “Being a power forward and being skilled, I’m just trying to blend into all roles.”
No. 98: Julius Sumpf, center, Moncton (QMJHL)
While scouting top prospect Caleb Desnoyers, who eventually went No. 4 overall to the Mammoth, the Hawks surely also saw Sumpf, a center for Desnoyers’ Moncton Wildcats in Quebec.
Sumpf, a 6-2 native of Germany, is an overage prospect at age 20. He went undrafted each of the past two seasons but attended the Avalanche and Sharks’ development camps as an invitee.
He tallied 65 points in 58 regular-season games and added 16 points in 19 games during Moncton’s lengthy playoff run. He’s considered a very smart player, even though anyone in the fourth round and later is inevitably an NHL longshot.
No. 107: Parker Holmes, forward, Brantford (OHL)
Like Sumpf, the Hawks also surely saw Holmes while watching current prospects Nick Lardis and Marek Vanacker in Brantford.
The selling point on Holmes is his size: he’s already 6-4, 214 pounds at age 18. He’s a late bloomer who was playing lower-tier junior hockey until this past season, and he has so far tallied just one point in 21 OHL games.
This story will be updated.
