Chicago Blackhawks interim head coach praises young defenseman for his maturity

The Chicago Blackhawks are down to their final five games of the season and only one of them will be played at the United Center over the next eight days. With Sunday’s win at home against the Pittsburgh Penguins, it is likely that the team won’t drop below second-to-last in the league standings. This is the exact position that they finished a season ago in a draft lottery where the order did not change at all.

Chicago will hit the ice against the Penguins again on Tuesday, but this time it will be at PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh. The theme for that game will be similar to that of the past month or so surrounding the Blackhawks youth movement. The overall vibe around the team and culture has appeared to have shifted as of late and the rebuild has taken on a whole new direction.

The Blackhawks front office has made eight first round draft choices from the 2022-2024 drafts and six of them are now playing at the NHL level. While there is still plenty of work to do from a development standpoint, general manager Kyle Davidson has done well with his decisions so far.

The last 2022 first round selection of the Blackhawks made his debut over a week ago and has already impressed the current coaching staff in his short stint at the highest level.

Chicago Blackhawks bench boss impressed by Sam Rinzel

Interim head coach Anders Sorensen has loved what he has seen from Sam Rinzel so far in just four games, and it’s easy to see why.

“He’s mature, Sorensen said. “We really like the fact that he wants to have the puck. He takes control in shifts, and you see it in Arty (Levshunov) as well. They want it, and they want to get after it. [The Penguins] have some guys on the other side that do the same thing with (Erik) Karlsson and (Kris) Letang. You see that.”

Having the top two right-shot defenseman having any type of comparisons to the likes of Erik Karlsson and Kris Letang has to make Blackhawk fans excited for the future. Rinzel collected his first NHL point in Sunday’s win over the Penguins on a secondary assists. The former Minnesota Golden Gopher also finished the game with a +2 plus/minus rating which is the best mark he has posted through four career games.

Sam Rinzel will anchor the Chicago Blackhawks blue line next year

Rinzel coming in and getting over 20 minutes of ice time from the jump to begin his career is a telling sign that the organization already has plenty of trust that he will be a marquee player down the road. The 20-year-old has already worked himself into quarterbacking the top power-play unit, with his offensively ceiling being through the roof.

The scoring chances that Rinzel has generated for himself and those around him in four games has been extremely noticeable and good results will follow as he prepares to enter his first full NHL season in the fall. For a guy seen as a “project” when taken with the 25th overall pick in 2022, things have panned out nicely so far for Rinzel in the Blackhawks organization.