‘I want to come into my own.’ Kirby Dach finally gets continuity – and a chance to break out

Kirby Dach has learned a lot on the water at the family Lake House in Northern Alberta. It’s his sanctuary, his weekend hangout to get a break from training sessions during the offseason, a place to catch up with his parents and brother and sister.

It’s also where he developed his passion for water sports, recently lake surfing but especially water skiing, which he picked up from his mother Hilary, who did it avidly growing up.

When Dach first tried it, he would attack the skis and try to get up instantly instead of letting the boat and water do the work.

“I’d try to stand up quicker, and I’d just end up putting my boot into the water and falling over face first,” he said. “So I learned to lean back. You get dragged through the water a little bit, but you just suck it up for a couple seconds, and once you’re up, you’re up.”

Can you feel the metaphor coming like a wave on the horizon? It’s too easy, right?

Here’s a promising young center, drafted third overall by the Chicago Blackhawks in 2019, experiencing unusually choppy waters so far in his career, yet to realize all the potential oozing from his 6-foot-4, 197-pound frame. But with a little perspective, hard work and positivity, rolling with the change around him, he could finally stand tall.

No one could blame Dach if he threw up his hands and said, “Are you kidding me?” when assessing the first three years of his NHL career. They have, to say the least, been star-crossed.

Piling up assists with the WHL’s Saskatoon Blades in the seasons leading up to his draft year, Dach earned obvious comparisons to Joe Thornton thanks to a rangy frame, excellent hockey sense and passing skills and the ability to make others around him better. With an NHL body even at 18, Dach jumped right to the NHL in 2019-20 as a teenager.

A concussion in training camp delayed the start of his season, but he managed to play 64 games as a rookie, averaging 14:23 of ice time and picking up 23 points. Then? The COVID-19 pandemic hit, shutting down the NHL season before its completion in March 2020. When the bubble tournament arrived, Dach amassed six points in nine postseason games, entrusted with more than 19 minutes a night and helping the Hawks upset the Edmonton Oilers in the play-in round. Right before the following season, which didn’t begin until January 2021? A broken wrist for Dach at the World Junior Championship, costing him the tournament and 34 NHL games, halting the momentum he generated as a rookie, limiting him to 10 games of the 48-game schedule after he aggravated the injury again at the end of the campaign. He also missed out on having crucial on-ice mentor and Blackhawks captain Jonathan Toews to work with in 2020-21, as Toews missed the entire season with a mysterious illness known as chronic immune response syndrome.

In the off-season following 2020-21 and leading into 2021-22? Chaos in the Blackhawks organization in the wake of news breaking about Kyle Beach’s claims he was sexually assaulted by video coach Brad Aldrich. The coverup cost GM Stan Bowman his job. Early in the 2021-22 season, the struggling Blackhawks, who had spent massively to upgrade in the summer with defenseman Seth Jones and goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury, fired coach Jeremy Colliton and replaced him with interim bench boss Derek King. To top it off, Dach missed time in 2021-22 by landing in COVID protocol and, later, spraining his shoulder.

Sheesh. If you’re keeping score: Concussion, broken wrist, sprained shoulder, new coach, new GM, pandemic. It’s no wonder Dach, three seasons into his career, has only logged 152 games and has yet to top nine goals or 26 points in a season. He has endured constant turbulence around him.

Speaking to Daily Faceoff this week, Dach downplayed the bad luck and turmoil, said it was his job as an athlete to avoid fixating on organizational changes, but almost anyone viewing the situation from afar would agree he’s been dealt multiple bad hands so far in his career. We have barely gotten a sense to see who he is as an NHL player yet.

Which is why the trade to the Montreal Canadiens, made shortly before the opening pick of the 2022 NHL Draft and influencing GM Kent Hughes’ decision to pass on center Shane Wright for left winger Juraj Slafkovsky, is so exciting for Dach. It’s a chance to reset a career that still carries a ton of promise given he’s just 21.

“I was actually on my way to the rink, I was just pulling in and about to take my hockey bag out when I got a call from (Blackhawks GM Kyle Davidson), and he pretty much said, ‘We’re moving you to Montreal, it’s going to be a good opportunity for you,’ ” Dach said. “I talked to him for a little bit, and the first feeling is shell shock. But it’s a good change. I’m excited for the change. Obviously it’s sad leaving Chicago. I have a house there. I feel confident and like the city, but I’m excited for Montreal. I’d love to play in that rink. They’ve got so much history there in the team, and the coaching staff, the management, the overall direction of the team, it’s quite exciting.”

Dach, currently a restricted free agent but expected to sign in the coming days or weeks, gets to join the Habs fresh off the third-worst finish of their 104-season history, with their rebuild still at the ground floor. He’s expected to be a crucial part of it, eventually centering a line in the top six to complement Nick Suzuki. Dach can’t wait to get started and, more specifically, to start working closer with head coach Martin St. Louis, who made the team more competitive down the stretch in 2021-22 as the interim replacement for Dominique Ducharme and earned the full-time gig this offseason.

“I’ve talked to him a few times, and it’s nothing but positive stuff coming from Marty,” Dach said. “He’s super enthusiastic and I’m definitely looking forward to meeting him at camp, getting down there and getting to work with him 1-on-1. It will be a treat for sure. He played a lot of games in the NHL and has a ton of experience, so to get to learn from a guy like that every day is going to be awesome.”

We already saw the night-and-day change in 2019 first-rounder Cole Caufield’s game from the moment St. Louis took over. Caufield had one goal and 15 points in 30 games under Ducharme and had 22 goals and 35 points in 37 games under St. Louis. Suzuki’s play took off under St. Louis, too. Will he have the same effect on Dach? It’s too soon to know, but Dach knows exactly which part of his game he wants to improve.

“Just my shot, my shooting, my goal-scoring,” he said. “I feel like I have the chances but sometimes I might not take them. But I’ve been working on it a lot. I want to hopefully implement it into my game and become more of a dual-threat player.”

So with a little luck – and more importantly, some continuity for a change – we might finally get to see Dach rise up in 2021-22, like he’s done so many times skiing on the lake.

“I just want to get better, improve each and every day, take that next step in that development in my play, really come into my own as a pro hockey player.”

_____

POINTSBET CANADA IS LIVE IN ONTARIO

PointsBet Canada has officially launched in Ontario! Get more details right here!

_____

‘I want to come into my own.’ Kirby Dach finally gets continuity – and a chance to break out

POINTSBET CANADA IS LIVE IN ONTARIO

Recently by Matt Larkin