Colton Dach has recorded 12 hits and one fight in his first two preseason games, leaning into his status as the toughest and most physical Blackhawks forward prospect.
“He has played to an identity,” coach Jeff Blashill said Sunday.
It could be a while, though, before Dach delivers a hit that more directly impacts a game than his demolition of Blues forward Oscar Sundqvist on Saturday.
The legal hit as Sundqvist skated through the neutral zone, which Dach avoided being knee-on-knee, incited a scrum that occupied all but one Blues player. That allowed Hawks speedster Oliver Moore to skate the other way and discreetly score the eventual game-winning goal with 3:01 left in regulation.
“I just saw [Sundqvist] try to cut to the middle, and I tried to hold my ground and make a hit,” Dach said. “I didn’t know Moore scored until he came up to me and told me he ‘went roof.’”
Said Moore: “I didn’t even know what was going on behind me. I shot the puck, I scored, then I looked back — waiting for my teammates to come celebrate with me — and they were all in a brawl. Nothing like that has ever happened, but we’ll take it.”
Dach’s decision to drop his gloves against Blues defenseman Logan Mailloux in the second period, when the Hawks trailed 2-0, marked another positive turning point in the game.
There’s only so much to be gleaned from two exhibitions. But an opening-night NHL roster spot seems virtually locked up for Dach now, considering the 22-year-old was already penciled into one before camp began.
He’ll likely begin in a bottom-six role, but the Hawks aren’t ruling out anything.
“It wouldn’t surprise me at all if he ended up in a top-six spot [as] a guy who goes out and helps a couple of other really good players, because he’s got enough skill,” Blashill said earlier in camp.