CHICAGO \u2014 A few days ago, Matt Grzelcyk heard that the Chicago Blackhawks were in store for a challenging conditioning skate on Friday.<\/p>\n
Conditioning is one of those necessary aspects of training camp that a lot of veterans like Grzelcyk, who is 31 years old and 10 years into the NHL, want to simply get through \u2014 doing just enough to ensure their teammates don\u2019t have to continue skating. But as Grzelcyk lined up with the rest of the Blackhawks on the hash marks Friday and took off at the whistle for a series of full-ice sprints, it was as if he were instead a 20-year-old defenseman out to prove he was going to do anything to make the team out of camp.<\/p>\n
\u201c(My speed) is one of my assets, and I feel like I have to showcase that,\u201d Grzelcyk said after the grueling practice. \u201cEvery day feels like a game for me. That\u2019s kind of how I\u2019m preparing for it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The fact that Grzelcyk had to embrace that sort of mentality heading into training camp wasn\u2019t at all what he anticipated heading into the offseason. A season ago, he produced a career-best 40 points for the Pittsburgh Penguins and recorded 19 primary assists, tied for 14th among all defensemen. Some of his offensive analytics, especially shot contributions, have declined in past seasons, but overall, he played consistently enough to think he\u2019d be in the NHL for some time still. He certainly thought he had shown plenty last season and would have no trouble getting a new contract somewhere.<\/p>\n
But then he didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was pretty tough, to be honest,\u201d Grzelcyk said. \u201cI don\u2019t think anyone envisions it going that way to start. I\u2019ll say, the first week was really challenging. And then after that, I had to try to change my mindset into making myself as prepared for whatever was to come. At that point, it\u2019s kind of out of my control. I felt like I did what I needed to do last season to have a good year.<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes this happens to guys. I\u2019m not the first one. I\u2019m not going to be the last. So just to try to reframe in my mind to be ready for the opportunity I have next, and I\u2019m here now, so just trying to make the most of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
After waiting all summer for a contract, Grzelcyk decided to take the best professional tryout (PTO) offer he thought could lead to a contract and regular ice time on an NHL team. He knew the Blackhawks have a young defensemen group and thought he could potentially help them on and off the ice as a veteran.<\/p>\n
The Blackhawks thought of him similarly. No promises, but Blackhawks general manager Kyle Davidson also thought Grzelcyk could make sense to them.<\/p>\n
\u201cMatt\u2019s a really good veteran in this league, had a nice year last year,\u201d Davidson said. \u201cWe\u2019re pretty young on the back end, and so it\u2019s some additional competition for our young players, and an opportunity for Matt to take a run at either making our team, and if it doesn\u2019t work out with our team, then it\u2019s a showcase for the rest of the league. But first and foremost, he\u2019s trying out to make the Blackhawks.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s no secret that the Blackhawks will prioritize their young defensemen.<\/p>\n
If the Blackhawks\u2019 young, left-handed defensemen \u2014 Wyatt Kaiser, 23, Kevin Korchinski, 21, Ethan Del Mastro, 22, and Nolan Allan, 22 \u2014 play well in training camp, the team will prioritize them over fellow lefty Grzelcyk and likely let him walk. He probably also doesn\u2019t fit with the Blackhawks as their seventh defenseman. That roster spot will likely go to Louis Crevier, 24, who needs to be placed on waivers if Chicago wants to send him to the AHL this season.<\/p>\n
Grzelcyk checks a lot of boxes for areas Blackhawks coach Jeff Blashill finds important, such as breakouts. If Grzelcyk can excel there, he might have a better chance.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust showcase my strengths, my skating ability, good first pass coming out of the zone with highly-talented forwards, a lot of speed,\u201d Grzelcyk said. \u201cIf I can showcase that throughout camp, that I can get them the puck and have them spend less time in our zone, it would be a benefit to everyone. At the same time, I think I\u2019ve come a long way in my defensive game as well, and I just want to showcase that I\u2019m not the biggest guy, but I can have a good stick and angle guys and use my smarts.\u201d<\/p>\n
At the end of the day, Grzelcyk\u2019s fate may be determined by those young players. But for him, he has to focus on what he can control.<\/p>\n
\u201cUltimately, he\u2019s got to be him,\u201d Blashill said. \u201cHe\u2019s got to be a really good, steady kind of figure out there for us. And it probably depends on how some of the younger guys play. If the younger guys play really good, it\u2019ll make it hard. If the younger guys falter and then open the door for him and he plays great hockey, then he\u2019s in a good position.\u201d<\/p>\n
(Photo: John Jones \/ Imagn Images)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CHICAGO \u2014 A few days ago, Matt Grzelcyk heard that the Chicago Blackhawks were in store for a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":156502,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,7520,575,85],"class_list":["post-156501","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-chicago-blackhawks","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156501","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=156501"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156501\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/156502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=156501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=156501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=156501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}