The Chicago Blackhawks are looking like a franchise that has a bright future. Everything starts and ends with Connor Bedard who they selected with the number one overall pick in the 2023 NHL Draft. He has lived up to all of the hype that followed him from junior hockey. But Bedard needs building blocks around him–and one such building block has emerged in Philipp Kurashev.
The 24-year-old Swiss forward was a fourth-round pick in the 2017 NHL Draft. He is turning out to be a good player for this team that has the ceiling of a great player. He reminded of his production by scoring a goal against the St. Louis Blues on Wednesday night. The team was down 4-0 at the time but he got them on the board with some smart hockey.
The goal was his 17th of the season. He also has 35 assists on the year which has his points total at 52. For being a young player on a bad team, those are great numbers for him. Over his career, he has 39 goals and 74 assists for 113 points in 261 games. With his production increasing year over year, the sky seemingly is the limit for him.
A Blackhawks Building Block in Philipp Kurashev
Philipp Kurashev has now more than doubled his previous career highs this season which shows that the developmental process is working. General manager Kyle Davidson should be seeing how hard he’s working in these games and use that to his advantage.
Kurashev playing like this now should earn him a middle-six role on the team when they are ready to win. It is hard to find a team in the NHL in which he couldn’t be playing in that spot of their lineup. He may even end up remaining a good piece to keep with Bedard for a while which speaks to his intelligence as a player.
With 17 goals, he has an outside chance at 20 goals with four games remaining on the schedule. It would be cool to see him reach that milestone but he would need at least one huge game. You can bet that if he doesn’t do it this year, he will blow past it next year. There is no reason to think he can’t challenge for 30 goals at some point.
This season hasn’t been about winning for Chicago. It has been all about seeing which players deserve to be in the lineup long-term. Kurashev has once again shown the world that he belongs in the NHL. This game against the Blues reminded us that he will be a solid contributor if they continue putting him in a good situation.
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