Chicago hockey fans will get their first look at the Blackhawks’ best minor-leaguer, center Tyler Arnason, when they play coach Mike Keenan’s Florida Panthers on Wednesday night in the last game before the two-week Olympic break.
“It came totally out of the blue,” said Arnason, who leads Norfolk in goals with 23 and assists with 29. “I thought the Olympic hockey games were going on already. I think they’re just giving me a little taste.”
However, general manager Mike Smith said Tuesday he has more than “a little taste” of Chicago planned for Arnason this season. “We expect to play him some more games–whether immediately after the Olympic break or later in March,” said Smith.
“I’ve been looking for the last few weeks for an opportunity to bring him up. This is a good time–the American Hockey League is on its All-Star break.”
Before being recalled Monday, Arnason had played four games in five nights for Norfolk and his whirlwind schedule is ongoing. He will play in the AHL All-Star Game on Thursday night in St. John’s, Newfoundland, then rejoin Norfolk for three games in as many nights–Friday in Rochester, N.Y., and Saturday and Sunday in Cincinnati.
The son of former NHL winger Chuck Arnason was drafted by the Hawks in the summer of 1998 after he scored 37 goals and assisted on 45 in 52 games with Fargo-Moorhead of the United States Hockey League, and he enrolled at St. Cloud State that fall.
The high point of his collegiate career was leading St. Cloud State to the championship of the WCHA tournament and being named the tournament’s most valuable player.
“I had to prove I could be a big-game player there before I moved on,” said Arnason. “In the NCAA tournament we lost in the quarterfinals to Michigan. I was 22 years old and I felt I didn’t have too much more to learn in college, so I signed my contract [with the Hawks].”
At training camp the Hawks’ hierarchy was impressed with Arnason’s talent, but his conditioning left a lot to be desired.
“He’s in much better physical condition than he was in the beginning of the year,” said Smith. “The big difference is that he’s 20 pounds lighter.
“I saw him in the WCHA playoffs. He has a lot of ability. He’s a threat offensively. He’s very strong on the puck. He sees the ice very well and he has very good hockey sense. At Norfolk, he has been good from the get-go.”
Coming attraction: Smith said it’s also conceivable that Mikhail Yakoubov, the Russian center who was one of two first-round draft choices by the Hawks in 2000, will show up in Chicago during the playoffs. Yakoubov is playing for coach Brian Sutter’s brother, Brent Sutter, owner-GM-coach of Red Deer of the Western Hockey League.
“Their season ends March 19,” said Smith. “If they got beat out in the second round of their playoffs, we’d bring him in as a standby player. Same if they went to the Memorial Cup finals and after that we were still alive in the playoffs.”
Brian Sutter has been getting good reports from Brent. “They have the best record of any junior team in Canada and Mikhail is one of the top players on that team,” said the Hawks’ coach. “That tells me he’s pretty darn good.
[Brent] is preparing Mikhail to play here next year.”
