Today’s News Clips May 22, 2018

Chicago Tribune

IceHogs forward Victor Ejdsell willing, ready to answer the call

Jimmy Greenfield May 21, 2018

It isn't very easy getting Victor Ejdsell on the phone, not that he isn't willing to talk. It's just that the Swedish forward wasn’t sure how much time he would be spending in North America and hasn’t upgraded his cell phone plan.

“It has been stupid,” he said with a laugh.

Nearly two months after arriving in Chicago from Stockholm and making his debut with the Blackhawks, Ejdsell’s return home has been put on hiatus because of the success the Rockford IceHogs are having in the Calder Cup playoffs. They swept their first two series with seven straight victories, in large part because of Ejdsell’s three game-winning goals that included a series-clinching overtime score in the first round to eliminate the Wolves.

The IceHogs dropped the first two games of their best-of-seven conference final against the Texas Stars that picks up again Tuesday night with Game 3 in Rockford.

The whirlwind for Ejdsell began last May when he agreed to an NHL entry-level contract with the Predators and, by virtue of that decision, rejected the Blackhawks, one of three teams he was considering that also included the Red Wings.

Having apparently decided on his own short-term future, Ejdsell went to training camp in July to prepare for the upcoming season with his Swedish Hockey League team. But on Feb. 26, while in the process of leading the league in scoring, he received word the Blackhawks hadn’t quite given up on him.

The Hawks had acquired Ejdsell, who turns 23 next month, and the Predators’ first- and fourth-round picks in this year’s draft for forward Ryan Hartman and a fifth-rounder. It was a trade that surprised Ejdsell but also gave him plenty to smile about.

“I turned them down and they still tried to get me and wanted me,” he said. “You get a good feeling from that. It makes you feel like you're important.”

After playing in the Blackhawks’ final six games of the season and tallying one assist, Ejdsell joined the IceHogs for the tail end of their regular season. First-year IceHogs coach Jeremy Colliton, who coached against Ejdsell in the SHL last season, sees Ejdsell as a difference-maker who draws in defenders and can score from all over the ice. Ejdsell’s 11 shots on goal in the playoffs are far off the team lead but he scored on a ridiculous five of his first seven shots.

It has been an adjustment for Ejdsell playing on the narrower North American rinks, just as it is for many European players who grow up accustomed to playing on 100-foot wide rinks. Losing 15 feet means there’s less room to play with the puck and decisions have to be made faster.

“He’s still young and he’s a big boy (6-foot-5, 214 pounds) so sometimes those guys take a little more time to grow into their body,” Colliton said. “When you look at him in five years his body will look a little bit different. So that will help.

“The other part of it is how you play, thinking quicker, responding quicker, reaction when the puck turns over from offense to defense or defense to offense. That can allow you to be quicker to loose pucks and get to battles on time and then you start winning a few more and then you have the puck more and the game becomes easier.”

Ejdsell's girlfriend came over with him when he first arrived but she returned to Sweden a month ago. Living on his own in a hotel has been made much more palatable with the help of teammates like John Hayden and Lance Bouma, who he said have been taking really good care of him and give him rides to the rink and back each day.

Being on a winning team has helped, too.

“We have speed, we have skill and everything you need to be a winning team,” Ejdsell said. “The group is very close to each other. It's like coming to the rink every day and everybody has a smile on their face happy to be there and enjoying the time we had. Everything has just been clicking for us.”

Daily Herald

Rozner: Vegas Golden Knights' trip to Cup Final no miracle

Barry Rozner May 21, 2018

It's good to have stars. Even better to have superstars. Any sport, any time, and no one in their right mind would argue otherwise.

But you have to hand it to the Vegas Golden Knights. Unless you count goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury -- who has played like the star he once was this postseason -- the Golden Knights have reached the Stanley Cup Final in their first year of existence and they have done it with a roster filled to the top with role players.

Perhaps a better way to phrase it would be that the Knights have stunned the hockey world this season with players who fully understand and embrace their roles.

Do not confuse the two properties.

No disrespect intended. In fact, it's precisely the opposite. But their top line would be a good second line on a good team, and their next three lines are filled with third- and fourth-line players.

What makes it all work is they get a fourth-line effort from all four lines, and that's the difference between Vegas and most every NHL team.

Yes, they are fast. In a league where speed matters more than ever, the Knights are the fastest team, 1 through 18. They are fast in all three zones, and their backpressure is unmatched.

That's just effort. And it quickly became the identity of a group that had few players who had ever been together before training camp nine months ago.

They catch you from behind and it makes you feel slow, especially when you're getting that effort not just from their fourth line, but from all four lines.

Their forwards support their defense better than any team in the league, which allows the defense to be involved in the offense, knowing the forwards will backcheck like madmen.

That allows the Golden Knights to play fast in transition, turning defense into offense better than any team in the NHL.

And when they make a mistake, they get great goaltending from Fleury.

It's an amazing combination for a team that was 500-1 to win the Stanley Cup before the season.

But it's not an accident and it's not a miracle. Sure, they got some breaks because of the expansion rules this time around, but when you pay $500 million for a franchise you probably deserve to be something better than a doormat the first 10 years.

When the Wild and Jackets had their first chance in 2000 -- after an $80 million fee -- teams were allowed to protect up to 15 players. This time, it was only 11 and the Golden Knights were not drafting against another expansion team.

Vegas also had months to negotiate with NHL teams, while the Wild and Jackets had 5 minutes to make a selection.

All the extra time gave Vegas a chance to deal with teams afraid of losing players. Just one example is Vegas promising not to take Minnesota's Jonas Brodin, instead trading for former first-rounder Alex Tuch and then drafting Erik Haula.

They got two good players in Florida's Reilly Smith and Jonathan Marchessault, got William Karlsson from Columbus and there's your top line.

Yes, they have some good players and they got some breaks along the way, but the key is that motivated players with a chip on their shoulders believed in coach Gerard Gallant, who stressed that they all mattered and then proved it by consistently rolling four lines.

This generation of players will play hard for you if you are consistent with your message and your actions.

So if you ask players to play fast, not only do you have to give them meaningful minutes throughout the season and playoffs. You also can't play fast if you're not playing, and the top lines can't play fast every shift if they're playing 25 minutes.

That balance has made the difference in close games.

What you also have here is GM George McPhee hiring good people and letting them do their jobs, which is not always the case in the NHL.

He brought in assistant GM Kelly McCrimmon, VP Murray Craven, player personnel director Vaughn Karpen and pro scout Kelly Kisio -- all highly respected in the game -- and they went out and found these players.

When asked about the Golden Knights' success a few days ago, McPhee deflected the credit and said it was his staff that did the traveling and scouting and is the reason for the current roster.

Now these players, coaches and front office members from all these different corners of North America and beyond have come together in a single season and gone further than some teams go in decades.

The result is "The Misfits" are in the Stanley Cup Final. It's an incredible story.

But it's no miracle.

The Athletic

Behind the Save: Blackhawks goalie prospect Collin Delia becoming a commanding presence

Cat Silverman May 21, 2018

At one point this year, Collin Delia didn’t play a game for an entire month – at any level.

It’s hard to imagine, given where he is now. And that is he’s sitting pretty as the consensus starter for the Rockford IceHogs in the Western Conference final. The IceHogs didn’t qualify for the postseason until the final games of the year and managed to steamroll through both the Chicago Wolves and the Manitoba Moose for consecutive sweeps before now meeting the Texas Stars.

Sure enough, though, looking back at Delia’s game log, it shows absolutely nothing for 32 consecutive days. The Rancho Cucamonga, California native found himself floating around in minor league goaltender limbo from Nov. 25 until his start for Rockford on Dec. 28, getting brief recalls to Rockford at just the wrong time to actually draw into a game and floating around too much to get a ton of ice time with the Indy Fuel in the ECHL.

That kind of start to a pro hockey career can sometimes make or break a goaltender. It requires patience, understanding of the way things go, and plenty of confidence that things will finally bounce their way when they draw into the game. For plenty of guys at the lower levels, it can be an exercise in frustration and futility.

When talking to the Blackhawks developmental goalie coach, Peter Aubry, it appears the situation almost had the opposite effect. Aubry summed up Delia’s rookie pro season in one near-perfect phrase: “continual progression.”

“It wasn’t all smooth sailing,” Aubry explained. “There were some road bumps along the way, but he’s handled it all incredibly well.”

The start

Delia found himself in the Blackhawks’ system through both hard work and a little bit of luck.

The Blackhawks had drafted goaltender Matt Tomkins a few years prior, but he’d had a lackluster college career before signing an AHL deal with the club. Delia, on the other hand, had impressed enough at the team’s 2016 and 2017 development camps to earn an entry-level deal following his college career at Merrimack. He wasn’t a sure shot – and with Jeff Glass, Antoine Forsberg, and J-F Berube all in front of him, he was a ways down the depth chart – but he had his foot in the door.

Using that foot, he nudged the door open and walked right in over the course of his rookie campaign.

Delia was in the process of getting his feet wet with the ECHL’s Fuel when he got his first recall to see AHL action in early November. His first appearance with the IceHogs didn’t go quite as planned. He faced just 16 shots over a full game, and it threw him off-kilter just enough that he allowed four goals for a .750 save percentage in his AHL debut.

From there, he was shuffled up and down a bit over the course of the next month. There was an injury to Corey Crawford, then another, and he found himself a bit lost in the fray until the Christmas break.

At that point, though, his season really got started.

The call-up

Crawford was on injured reserve, but the team’s No. 3, Berube, was out with an injury of his own. That meant that Jeff Glass was up in the NHL, and no one was left in Rockford. Delia became a tandem with Tomkins, bringing less than a year’s pro hockey experience between the two to keep things afloat for IceHogs coach Jeremy Colliton’s enthusiastic group.

For Aubry, this is when Delia’s road to where he is right now really began.

A week after his AHL call-up, we took a look at him for The Athletic Chicago to see what the team was working with.

Delia’s edges were crisp and his foot speed was excellent, but his timing was still a little off at times and he defaulted to stereotypical goaltender “techniques”, hovering on the posts in reverse-VH and making fancy, sharp t-pushes almost just to do them whenever it seemed like the play might possibly call for it. He was getting ahead of himself without settling in to really watch the play, and even unintentionally moved out of the way of a shot a few times.

The talent was there, the poise was there, but the comfort level was missing.

The uncertainty that characterized his first few months of pro hockey slowly vanished as winter turned to spring, though. It would take Berube another month and a half to get back on the ice after Glass’ recall to the Blackhawks, leaving just Delia and Tomkins to run the show. And once Berube came back, the Blackhawks quickly swapped him for Glass at the United Center to give the veteran journeyman a bit of a break. Things were going increasingly poorly for the NHL club, and Crawford was showing no signs of coming back. The weeks turned to months, and yet Delia was still up with the IceHogs.

By early March, we took a second look at Delia’s game and saw nothing but improvement. His overuse of flashy moves and quick transitions had been toned down a bit. He’d started to move with the puck, rather than reacting to it, and it was showing in his climbing stats.

As a reward for his persistence in an incredibly difficult year for the organization, the Blackhawks brought him up to the NHL to give him a start before the regular season was over. Even that didn’t go as planned: Anton Forsberg got hurt in warmups the day before Delia’s slated start, leaving him to start against Patrik Laine and the Winnipeg Jets. (No pressure, of course.) Late in that game, Delia had to leave with cramps, and his own NHL debut was overshadowed by the debut of 36-year-old accountant Scott Foster. Delia won the game, but Foster’s seven saves as an emergency backup stole the show. Delia had little choice but to start the next game as well, playing in back-to-backs at the NHL level with the second game up in the high altitude against the Colorado Avalanche.

“It really was every imaginable situation,” Aubry noted, pointing out just how much Delia went through in the course of a single season. “It was only maybe five months in the AHL, but he got to experience pretty much everything.”

Still, the way he handled it all impressed his coach. “He really stayed with it,” Aubry said.

Continual progression, indeed.

The playoffs

With just a handful of games left league-wide, the IceHogs punched their playoff ticket on April 10 against the Iowa Wild. They had just one game left in their season when they snuck into the postseason, skating away from a divisional logjam that left the finalized playoff schedule to the last minute.

By that point, the Blackhawks were already finished with their own season, leaving Berube available to re-join the IceHogs if the team wished.

Delia’s presence from December to April, though, had been an integral part of what got the team to the playoffs. Colliton handed the reins to him and Glass, letting Berube go home for the summer a bit ahead of schedule.

At the start of the playoffs, Delia practically couldn’t be beat. By midway through the series against Manitoba in round two, he was playing the best hockey he had all year.

Take a look, for example, at this save from Game 3:

Although the IceHogs peppered Eric Comrie in the second period, Delia faced consistent but frequent pressure throughout the entire sixty minutes of play from Manitoba. His movements were a bit less smooth looking than they were earlier in the season, but the timing was far more controlled. He was hitting his edges as the puck was about to leave a stick, giving his opponent little time to change direction or alter his course of action to opt for a pass instead.

The game saw nearly all of the Blackhawks staff, including coach Joel Quenneville, show up to take a look at their successful minor league counterparts.

As you can see from the 6-on-5 save sequence above, though, Delia keeps himself in a good position to find the puck through traffic, identifying the side of the screen with more holes to check for the puck and center himself when he sees the shot coming. He collects himself and gets back, although doesn’t immediately default to reverse-VH like we’ve seen in the past. With an entire game of easy, simple execution like that, it was a fantastic example of how he looked completely at home in those first few rounds. The gap between the second and third rounds took a bit of steam away from the fast-tracked teams, though. The IceHogs and the Toronto Marlies both swept their second-round opponents, while the Stars needed an extra game to get it done against the Tucson Roadrunners and the Lehigh Valley Phantoms needed both an extra game and five overtime periods in one night to get it done against the Charlotte Checkers.

After a lengthy break, Delia’s return against the Stars saw him falter for the first time all postseason.

Part of it has been the experience across the ice from the 23-year-old Delia. Stars goalie Mike McKenna has been in the pros for 13 seasons, he has 24 games of NHL experience and nine separate playoff runs in which he’s stood in net at least once. He has a career .913 save percentage in 461 AHL regular season games, a career .914 save percentage in 56 AHL postseason games and has 29 playoff wins to boot. His extra pro experience has come in handy against some of the most talented young netminders in the Western Conference when it comes to overtime durability. In 11 games so far, the Stars have gone to overtime six times; he’s won every overtime game so far but one.

Aubry’s focus in the postseason has been on his own goaltender, whom he thinks has settled into the rhythm now that the third round is well under way.

Even the first two games, though? Continual progression. Everything has been moving forward.

The future

It truly does seem, at this point, like Delia has lived a lifetime of pro hockey in less than a full season.

Picking up steam as he goes along, the first team to give Delia trouble in the postseason has been the Stars, and they haven’t exactly been easy for any young goaltenders so far. They gave Adin Hill of Tucson his first “human” numbers of the postseason in the second round and edged rookie Cal Peterson in the first round.

If they make it to the championship round in a few games’ time, Delia will be the first goaltender to make it to a league final for the city of Rockford since the UHL’s IceHogs won the Colonial Cup in 2007. Even if he loses to Texas, he’s already the first goaltender to make it to the third round of the postseason in franchise history, including the team’s time in both Cincinnati and Baltimore.

As Scott Powers reported last week, Blackhawks senior director of minor league affiliations Mark Bernard hasn’t ruled out Delia earning a look as Crawford’s backup next year.

Realistically, I’d consider it nothing more than an opportunity to audition for the role in front of Stan Bowman and Quenneville. When it comes to the actual likelihood of Delia getting fast-tracked to the NHL in just a year it’s a bit of a long shot and for a myriad of reasons.

Forsberg wasn’t truly given an opportunity to get his feet under him with the Blackhawks, and one goaltending coach I spoke to from another organization suggested that even what they saw in his outings with the Blackhawks showed a lot of poise in a difficult situation.

Forsberg would have to clear waivers to spend time in the AHL, whereas Delia has far more mobility next year. He can float between Rockford and Chicago if needed, and it gives the younger netminder another extra year of pressure-free development to go with his five months of AHL ice time that he’s gotten this season before he’s given more consequential responsibility.

The adjustment isn’t easy, either, as Forsberg clearly showed this past year. Just two years ago, Forsberg himself backstopped an AHL team to a Calder Cup championship. After tandem prospect Joonas Korpisalo struggled in nine postseason games, Forsberg dominated in a relief performance of the ages. He took over for the current Columbus heir apparent in a Game 5, 6-1 loss to the Grand Rapids Griffins during the second round, staving off a comeback by the Lake Erie Monsters’ rival. From there, he clinched Game 6 to advance, then swept both the Western Conference final and the Calder Cup Championship round. He won nine straight games, posting two shutouts and a .949 save percentage to help his team win it all.

Even then, Forsberg’s next year for Cleveland was stellar, but his transition to the NHL took some time. A backslide without Crawford over the latter half of the season isn’t what Blackhawks fans should want from Delia, especially when there’s a chance to keep both young goaltenders in the system.

I didn’t want to put Aubry on the spot, so talk wasn’t about whether or not Delia should get promoted next year. Instead, we talked about what it means to have earned that chance to get a real look heading into training camp. For his coach, the primary takeaway should be that Delia earned the chance to get that look in the first place.

“Knowing he has that shot, he earned that,” Aubry said.

It’s a good point. Having an end goal to work towards, even if training camp sees Forsberg revitalized enough by his summer off to keep his spot as the No. 2, is a clear sign that the team noticed the hard work Delia put in this past season.

At the start of the year, he was behind Glass and Berube in the depth chart, without a question. If someone needed to take over for Forsberg, he wasn’t going to get the first call – or even the second.

Glass is getting older, though, and Berube’s year fell a little flat. He left the Islanders with trouble controlling his edge work, over-sliding when he needed to set for a carry-in and having to overcompensate when skaters took advantage. Berube’s game saw that cleaned up for stretches here and there, but his injury left him with less time to solidify better technique and his stint up with the Blackhawks saw a significant backslide. If Delia was continual progression, Berube looked like two steps forward and one step back.

A worst-case scenario would be another team claiming Forsberg, then Delia struggling behind a still- developing Blackhawks defensive corps or getting fewer games than a developing prospect deserves sitting behind Crawford. Instead, the entire depth chart could flourish if he gets another few months, even another full year, with Colliton and Aubry and the IceHogs. He’s not going anywhere, and with more development, he’s only going to get better.

It’s certainly not a bad problem for the Blackhawks to have. chicagoblackhawks.com

DRAFT: Previewing the top defensemen

Chris Wescott May 21, 2018

The NHL Draft is right around the corner as the 31 franchises will converge in Dallas June 22-23 to select the future of the sport. Get to know the top draft eligible prospects with our chicagoblackhawks.com positional previews. We begin with some of the top defensemen available, using scout rankings, mock drafts and information gathered from draft prognosticators.

RASMUS DAHLIN, FROLUNDA (SWEDEN) The defacto first-overall pick is Frolunda blueliner Rasmus Dahlin. When you research the draft and prospect rankings, his name will always be at the top. The franchise-altering defensemen is likely to go to the Buffalo Sabres, who won the NHL Draft Lottery in April.

Dahlin is described as an elite defender with high-end skating and skills with and without the puck.

Some of his career highlights are being named the U16 Swedish Men's Best Defenseman, as well as being named to the U20 World Juniors All-Star Team, winning the World Juniors Best Defenseman and helping Sweden capture a silver medal at the tournament.

At the youthful age of 17, Dahlin represented his home country at the 2018 Olympic Winter Games. He recorded 20 points (7 G, 13 A) in 41 games in the SHL this season.

NHL Central Scouting: "Dahlin has the skating, skills and elite hockey sense that can dictate the style of play and the pace of a game with or without the puck. He finds ways to contribute in all situations, is ultra- competitive and a high-character person who leads by example."

Rankings:

CSS: 1st among European Skaters ISS: 1st Red Line Report: 1st

With Dahlin likely off the board at first overall, there are several other defensemen in competition to be chosen next. Should the Blackhawks be focused on selecting a blueliner, one of these prospects could be there at eight.

ADAM BOQVIST, BRYNAS JR (SWEDEN JR) Adam Boqvist earned the respect of talent evaluators enough this season to be named NHL Central Scouting's second-ranked European Skater.

The blueliner is a dynamic offensive defenseman with a full resume of awards and accomplishments, including being named the U18 World Juniors Best Defenseman, while scoring the most goals and points by a defender in that tournament.

For Brynas Jr. this season, Boqvist scored 14 goals and added 10 assists for 24 points in 25 games. Like Hughes, Boqvist has hockey in his blood with his brother being drafted 36th overall by New Jersey in 2017.

NHL Central Scouting: "Boqvist is a finesse defenseman who is very skilled, possesses excellent vision and tons of talent. He is fun to watch and full of surprises on the ice. He often plays bigger than his size and skated in his first games with Sweden's Senior National Team in April."

Rankings:

CSS: 2nd among European Skaters ISS: 8th Red Line Report: 10th

EVAN BOUCHARD, LONDON (OHL) Evan Bouchard is NHL Central Scouting's fourth-ranked North American Skater heading into the draft. He's lauded for his intelligence and all-around game, making him an intriguing asset for any team looking to bolster their blueline. His smooth skating and offensive ability helped him rack up an impressive 25 goals and 62 assists in 67 games for the OHL's London Knights, with whom he wore the captain's "C."

Bouchard ranked first among the league's defenders and eighth overall in scoring.

He was an OHL champion in 2015-16, after being drafted in the first round, 17th overall, by the Knights in the 2015 OHL Draft.

NHL Central Scouting: "A highly intelligent defenseman with exceptional vision and offensive instincts. He reads the play very well and his passing ability allows him to be a constant threat in his team's transition game. He's one of the top offensive defensemen in the Canadian Hockey League and magician-like when quarterbacking the power play."

Rankings:

CSS: 4th among North American Skaters ISS: 6th Red Line Report: 4th

NOAH DOBSON, ACADIE-BATHURST (QMJHL) Sitting in the fifth spot among North American Skaters on NHL Central Scouting's final draft rankings, Noah Dobson is a defender with size and the skill to match. The 6-foot-3 blueliner finished the season tied for second among QMJHL defensemen in scoring with 69 points (17-52-69) in 67 games for Acadie-Bathurst.

Dobson is described as a two-way defender who is reliable in all situations. He's been recognized since a young age for his talent, earning the nod as the Atlantic Canada Peewee AAA Championship Top Defenseman twice. He also helped Canada secure gold at the 2017 Ivan Hlinka tournament and was named a QMJHL First Team All-Star.

NHL Central Scouting: "A very effective two-way defenseman with good puck distribution and a strong shot from the point on the power play. He is a point-producer with size who defends well and utilizes strong positioning and a good stick in the defensive zone."

Rankings:

CSS: 5th among North American Skaters ISS: 9th Red Line Report: 6th

QUINTIN HUGHES, MICHIGAN (NCAA) University of Michigan defenceman Quintin Hughes has quite the pedigree. His mother played soccer and ice hockey at the University of New Hampshire and was a member of the U.S. Women's National Hockey Team.

His father was a member of the American team that won the 1988 Spengler Cup. His brother is projected to be a top prospect in next year's draft. His uncle and cousin also played for Boston College.

Those hockey bloodlines and good genes have undoubtedly helped Hughes become one of 2018's top blueliners. Described as a fast and decisive, elite defender, His creativity and vision set him apart from other prospects.

He finished 2017-18 with 29 points (5 G, 24 A) in 37 games for the Wolverines.

NHL Central Scouting: "Quintin is a smooth-skating, mobile defenseman who carries the puck very well and can transition from defense to offense with his feet or by making a pass. He reads the play very well and uses good positioning and the use of his angles to defend. Projects to be a top-four defenseman in today's game because of his skating and puck skills."

Rankings:

CSS: 6th among North American Skaters ISS: 7th Red Line Report: 9th

The 2018 NHL Draft will be held June 22-23 in Dallas. The Chicago Blackhawks currently hold the 8th and 27th picks in the first round, and eight picks overall. Stay tuned to chicagoblackhawks.com for on-going coverage leading up to the draft, including content from the NHL Scouting Combine. chicagoblackhawks.com

THREE THINGS: Get to know Kevin Lankinen

Chris Wescott May 21, 2018

Chicago has inked goaltender Kevin Lankinen to a two-year contract that runs through the 2019-20 season.

Here are three things to know about the 23-year-old Finnish netminder.

1. Better and better As you'd hope to see from any young, developing goaltender, Lankinen has recently improved his numbers each season. His save percentage in the top-tier Liiga in 2015-16 was .906. Since then, Lankinen has posted a .920 percentage in 2016-17, and a .946 in 2017-18. In a brief two-game stint in the second-tier league this past season, Lankinen had a .954 save percentage.

2. Award winning The Jorma Valtonen Award is given to the Jr. A SM-liiga's best goaltender. It's a piece of hardware that Lankinen received in 2013-14. That year, the netminder recorded a 2.33 goals-against average and .917 save percentage in 36 games for Jokerit's Under-20 team.

He had the best GAA of any goaltender who played 20 games or more. He was a workhorse, playing the fourth-most games among the league's netminders.

He was named a First Team All-Star.

3. Playoff performer They say good athletes step up in big games, and Lankinen has a history of getting things done in the postseason. The goaltender was a Jr. B Champion in 2011-12, recording the best GAA of the postseason (2.14) and best save percentage (.939).

He repeated his championship ways in 2012-13. In 2014-15, in Finland's top tier league, Lankinen once again lead his counterparts in playoffs GAA (1.74) and save percentage (.933). chicagoblackhawks.com

THREE THINGS: Get to know Dominik Kahun

Chris Wescott May 21, 2018

The Chicago Blackhawks have signed Dominik Kahun to a two-year contract that runs through the 2019-20 season. Here are three things to know about the forward.

1. Czech born, German raised Kahun was born in Plan, Czech Republic in 1995, but his family moved to Germany when he was a child. He has since become a staple of German hockey at the international level. He's represented Deutschland at various levels throughout his career, from World Juniors to World Championships and the Olympics. He's spent the past four seasons in Munich.

2. Scoring title Kahun played in the DNL (Deutsche Nashwuchsliga), Germany's elite junior league, from 2010-2012. During the 2011-12 season, Kahun led the league in scoring with 57 points for Jungadler Mannheim U18.

He edged out then teammate and now Edmonton Oilers star forward Leon Draisaitl by one point that season.

Kahun had 21 goals, good for second on the team, and 36 assists, which led his squad. The next year he came to North America to play for the Sudbury Wolves of the Ontario Hockey League, where he had a solid first season, recording 13 goals and 27 assists for a total of 40 points in 58 games.

3. Olympic breakout The 2018 Winter Olympics were a chance for Kahun to shine on a big stage. The forward was a part of Germany's impressive run to a silver medal.

In the preliminary round, Germany beat Norway 2-1 and then they outlasted Switzerland 2-1 in the qualifier to advance to the playoffs. Kahun had two assists in those initial two games.

Kahun scored a goal to give Germany a 3-1 lead over Sweden in the quarterfinals. The Germans would eventually hang on to defeat the Swedes 4-3 and advance again.

The forward recorded another assist in a shocking 4-3 victory over the Canadians, which bought Germany a ticket to the gold medal game against the Olympic Athletes from Russia (OAR).

Kahun scored the equalizer in the third period to make it a 2-2 game. However, OAR would eventually pull out the 4-3 victory, giving Germany silver in what would be a memorable second place finish.