Employing Nikita Zadorov last season gave the Blackhawks one of the NHL’s most intimidating physical presences, but they weren’t that physical of a team overall.
The Hawks finished 21st in the league with 1,214 total hits. Zadorov individually ranked seventh with 190, but the next-heaviest-hitting Hawk — Connor Murphy with 102 — ranked 66th. And the forward corps contributed very little: Ryan Carpenter led that group with 78 hits, followed by the diminutive Alex DeBrincat with 70.
The Hawks hope unheralded free-agent signing Jujhar Khaira changes that dynamic next season.
“There’s a lot of high talent and skill [on this team],” Khaira said. “I can bring a hard-nosed game out there. That’s going to be an asset, for sure.”
Khaira, a native of British Columbia but only the third-ever NHL player of Punjabi descent, measures 6-4, 212 pounds and proved more than willing to use that hefty frame during the past four years with the Oilers.
He has been credited with 587 hits over his 258 career games, and his rate keeps increasing. He racked up 151 in just 40 games last season, good for 14th in the league overall and eighth among forwards.
“[Jujhar] brings another element of size and strength to our team,” general manager Stan Bowman said Monday. “He has some versatility. He was used both as a centerman and a winger. We like his approach to the game. He plays competitively. [He provides] an element we don’t have a lot of, so we’re trying to bring some of that in to blend with some of the highly skilled players we have up front.”
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The Hawks were only able to sign Khaira because the Oilers didn’t give the soon-to-be 27-year-old a qualifying offer, letting him become unrestricted. That decision was part of an altogether strange offseason of incongruent decisions in Edmonton, although Khaira himself wasn’t surprised by how it played out.
“It was one of those things that I thought there was a chance [the Oilers wouldn’t qualify me], but it was out of my control at that point,” he said. “That’s stuff that happens in this game.”
It’s up for debate how valuable adding physicality — especially physical players who don’t contribute equivalent offense such as Khaira, who scored only three goals last season — is in modern hockey. Teams like the Avalanche, Hurricanes and Maple Leafs in recent seasons have committed wholeheartedly to speed and skill, largely eschewed grinders and achieved great regular season — albeit not as much postseason — success.
But that’s an argument for another day. The Hawks clearly believe investing in size and physicality can help them.
They certainly followed that mentality during the draft, selecting four young prospects who already exceed 6-4, 200 pounds — including beastly 6-7, 236-pound defenseman Taige Harding.
“You’re always looking to get size,” Hawks scouting director Mark Kelley said afterward. “When we watch the league [and] how it’s going now, the big defenders are having a lot of success — or, I should say, the teams that have the big defenders are having a lot of success… To answer your question, size was attractive to us.”
At the NHL level, Riley Stillman and Jake McCabe will compensate, hit-wise, for Zadorov’s departure among the defensemen.
And Khaira and Mike Hardman, who accumulated a ridiculous 38 hits in eight Hawks games late last season after signing out of Boston College, should together fill that niche among the forwards.
“[The Hawks] seemed very interested,” Khaira said. “[And I wanted the] opportunity I think that I have with the organization. That was the biggest thing, just getting an opportunity.”
