ROCKFORD, Ill. — Wyatt Kaiser thought he was ready for playing in the NHL and everything that came with it.
A few months into his first true pro season as a defenseman with the Blackhawks, it was apparent he wasn’t, and he recognized it only when he had been assigned to the Rockford IceHogs. Now more than two months into his first AHL stint, Kaiser is feeling and playing like he did before his game and confidence began to fade in Chicago.
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Kaiser has worked his way up into the role of the IceHogs’ No. 1 defenseman. He’s leading the team in ice time, playing in all situations and impacting the game in a variety of ways. Just this past weekend, the IceHogs won Friday and Saturday with Kaiser contributing a goal, two assists and six shots on net and Rockford outscored its opponents 4-0 with Kaiser on the ice in five-on-five play. He played about 25 minutes both games, too.
“I feel like I’m getting back to my game, back to myself, too,” Kaiser said after Friday’s win over the Texas Stars. “It’s definitely a big transition away from the college lifestyle to pro and just a lot of different things coming at me. So now, I’ve been taking it in stride. It’s not always going to go your way, so just fighting back, just trying to get better every day.
“I think a lot of it was away from the rink mentally, to be honest. Just doing things, honestly, like getting out of my room, going doing things I like. Coming to the rink with kind of like you only got right now, you don’t got tomorrow, so just finding an enjoyment again.”
Part of what helped Kaiser bounce back is how he approached going down to the AHL. He took a positive mentality and got ready to work. That mindset also helps IceHogs coach Anders Sorensen do his job to develop Blackhawks prospects. Kaiser is unlike a lot of younger players in that he’s vocal and wants to understand why and how things are being done. He asks questions and doesn’t hold back his opinion.
“It’s good; I like it,” Sorensen said. “He’s got some good ideas, some good thoughts and talk through it with him. And finding that balance of what we want as a team and as an organization him to do and then the things he does really well, find the middle ground somewhere.”
The thing Kaiser especially does well is skate. He’s one of the Blackhawks’ best defenseman skaters. In college, he utilized that ability to be an elite defenseman. Then during the rookie games against the Minnesota Wild and in Blackhawks training camp in the fall, he looked as if he might be able to quickly transition into a quality NHL defenseman because of that. But his game began to slip in November and December. Whether it was being asked to play his right side as a left-handed shot, the NHL competition or everything else about being a pro, Kaiser just didn’t look like the same player from earlier in the season.
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That’s when Blackhawks general manager Kyle Davidson decided to take a step back with Kaiser and assign him to Rockford and have Sorensen and the Blackhawks development staff work with him.
“For him, what’s his strength as a player?” Sorensen said. “It’s obviously his skating and using his feet to defend and making sure he’s in a good position to defend and using his feet in those situations. Also with the puck, being able to skate the puck when opportunities are there. I think he’s done a real good job of that. Obviously he has some size, but he’s not the biggest guy. Similar to a Duncan Keith, he had to defend with his stick and his feet, so focus on that. His retrieval situations, that should be his bread and butter. Make sure pucks come out all the time. If it’s skating it out or moving it out, that’s where he’s going to make a living.”
Kaiser had his first multi-point pro game on Friday and was a big reason why the IceHogs won, but he wasn’t happy with his overall performance. That bread-and-butter skill Sorensen mentioned wasn’t up to Kaiser’s standards.
“I would say for me, when I’m playing more bigger minutes, it’s kind of controlling the game a little bit more, feeling the flow of it,” Kaiser said. “Today, like, some of my breakouts weren’t great. It’s like I’m trying to go back and trying to be a little too pretty. Where sometimes during the game, it’s more of an uglier game, things weren’t going great, we weren’t super clean, so it’s kind of chipping pucks and living another day. I think that’s some of the maturity that comes along with it where you chip a puck and turn back.
“Defensively, I kind of measure more defensively on breaking pucks out, neutral zone. How am I doing in our half of the zone? Am I controlling play? Am I limiting chances? Am I advancing pucks cleanly? That’s kind of where I measure it. Now the offensive side starts coming, now you look at, should I have held that puck and then you can start looking at some offensive things.”
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Kaiser was noticeably cleaner with his breakouts in Saturday’s game. He used his skating to put the IceHogs in better positions to advance the puck. He and the IceHogs were getting plenty into the offensive zone and creating chances. Rockford scored six goals on the night, and Kaiser had a team-high five shots on goal.
With what Kaiser is going through, it’s easy to draw comparisons to Alex Vlasic’s path. Like Kaiser, Vlasic played three years of college hockey, burned the first year of his NHL contract, got some NHL games and played a bulk of his first full pro season in the AHL. Vlasic was given the same sort of ice time and opportunity Kaiser is getting now. Now this season, Vlasic returned to the NHL and has been the Blackhawks’ best defenseman.
Kaiser hopes to be in the same position as Vlasic next season, but Kaiser also understands it’s not that simple.
“You see that he’s done extremely well this year, very mature,” the 21-year-old Kaiser said of the 22-year-old Vlasic. “He gets it. You hope that it’s the same way it’s going to go for me. Everybody’s got their different path. I’m sure you’ve seen a lot of guys come up and through. Hoping for that.”
The Blackhawks aren’t going to rush Kaiser back to the NHL. He could probably hold his own again now if needed, but they see the benefit in him playing as much as he is, becoming more predictable shift to shift and learning to pick his spots to be aggressive.
Kaiser isn’t in a hurry, either. He’s playing in meaningful games.
“I want to win,” Kaiser said. “As as far as we can go here and continue to win. Playing the big ice is nice, too.”
(Photo: Brad Repplinger / Rockford IceHogs)
