MONTREAL — Tyler Johnson was still playing for the Tampa Bay Lightning in the 2020 playoff bubble when he first saw him, not knowing then he would be a future teammate. The Lightning were in the eastern bubble in Toronto, meaning by the time their games would end, the western bubble games were still on.
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Johnson was watching the Chicago Blackhawks take on the Edmonton Oilers, and one player jumped out to him. It was Kirby Dach.
“I remember watching him in the playoffs the one year when he was up with Chicago, and he had just an unbelievable playoffs, was playing really well,” Johnson said after Blackhawks practice Monday.
Less than a year later, Johnson was traded to Chicago, a cap casualty in Tampa, and heading into training camp he remembered that kid he watched in the bubble playoffs at age 19, but was eager to get to know him more as a player.
“When I saw him in camp, just watching his handles and how he was able to shield off guys with his body and use his big frame and also his speed with how big he is, I felt like he was that whole package where he was going to have a really, really big year last year,” Johnson said. “Unfortunately, with the team, I don’t think any of us really had a big year last year.
“So it was one of those things, but I’m pretty confident he’s going to be a really, really good NHL player.”
But the first thing Johnson talked about with Dach was how much he grew to like him as a person and teammate, even though Johnson was injured for much of last season.
“I loved Kirby,” he said. “Last year, I felt like him and I — I was hurt for a lot of the year — but even in the locker room, he and I were hanging out, talking. He’s just a great guy to have around. He has an unbelievable amount of skill, with that big frame, what he can do is really extraordinary. There’s not many players who can do that, especially at his age.”
And yet, at his age, the Blackhawks moved on from Dach.
Late in the first period of Tuesday’s game against the Blackhawks, the Canadiens were killing a penalty. Dach was on the ice, and so was Patrick Kane, his frequent linemate last season. Kane was handling the puck deep in his own end when Dach used what’s become his superpower, that extended reach and active stick that creates turnovers in bunches. Dach poked the puck away from Kane, triggering a sequence of events that allowed the Canadiens to kill off roughly 30 seconds of that power play with the Blackhawks barely touching the puck.
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Kane still has trouble understanding why Dach couldn’t be part of the rebuild in Chicago, why he was traded to the Canadiens for draft picks, why Alex DeBrincat was traded earlier that day, and even why Brandon Hagel was traded to the Tampa Bay Lightning at last year’s trade deadline. It might not be Kane’s problem for much longer as he contemplates his own future with the Blackhawks, the only team he has ever played for, but the organization’s lack of patience with Dach still puzzles him.
“I always liked playing with him,” Kane said Monday. “I thought he was a good centreman, he was good both ways, he could skate up the middle, a lot of speed, ability to make plays. I think he was just, especially at the start, he was very raw. I don’t want to say they rushed him, but he probably needed some time to develop, and you can see this year he’s having a great year. I’m happy for him.”
Tell me you think they rushed him without telling me you think they rushed him, basically.
The Blackhawks are hardly the first organization to rush a No. 3 overall pick into the NHL only to move on from him quickly. The Canadiens, after all, did it twice in six years. But in this case, the Canadiens are benefitting from someone’s lack of patience in a way neither the Carolina Hurricanes have with Jesperi Kotkaniemi or the Arizona Coyotes did with Alex Galchenyuk.
In fact, Dach’s development this season has hit hyperdrive.
When Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis was asked after his team’s 4-0 win against the Blackhawks on Tuesday why he thought Evgenii Dadonov has looked more effective lately, he pointed to the fact he was playing with Dach as one reason why. Dach’s vision of the ice helps a player like Dadonov, and his willingness to play without the puck to make sure it’s moving forward helps someone like Dadonov.
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“It’s a combination of a lot of things,” he said, “but Dach is a great player.”
Earlier Tuesday, after the Canadiens’ morning skate, St. Louis actually took exception to a question asking if Dach is slowly showing the player he could become. It’s not happening slowly at all, he said.
“I find he’s taken a big step this year, so I can’t say it’s not quick,” St. Louis said. “I’m happy with the time it’s taken to really see what this guy can be, and that’s on him if you know what I mean. It’s encouraging, and it’s fun to have a player like that on your team. It’s a good package. There’s not just one way Kirby can beat you, he’s physical, he has one hell of a hockey brain and he has some sandpaper to him. He can win puck battles, he wins back a lot of pucks. It’s fun to see.”
Dach was held off the scoresheet Tuesday and had a dismal night in the faceoff circle, but both those things have not exactly been the norm for him since the calendar flipped to 2023. He still leads the team in both goals (7) and points (12) since Jan. 1, and the confidence in his game is a big reason why that’s the case.
“You can just tell the confidence he has out there, it’s fun to watch,” Christian Dvorak said. “The speed he has and the size, you know he can beat anyone in a foot race. The way he carries the puck through the middle of the ice is fun to watch.
“He’s been so good for us.”
Dach’s been as good as his former Blackhawks teammates knew he would be. The Canadiens should consider themselves fortunate the Blackhawks organization did not share that same assessment.
(Top photo of Kirby Dach: Minas Panagiotakis / Getty Images)