NEWSLETTER
Over the past few days as I’ve worked on a couple different things, my mind has continued to come back to one name on the Blackhawks roster: Jason Dickinson.
On Thursday morning when I shared a couple notable reports that the Blackhawks are in the market for a second-line center, Dickinson’s name was on my mind. After all, he had a career-year last season with 22 goals and appeared in all 82 regular-season games. He has good size, he can skate, he wins faceoffs and he’s one of the better defensive centers in the entire NHL. So why not? He spent some time as the Blackhawks’ top-line center with Connor Bedard last year after all.
But then my thoughts transitioned to a few of the stats I mentioned when I put together some miscellaneous numbers from the first seven games of the regular season. Specifically:
- Dickinson ranks third in the NHL having taken 66 defensive zone faceoffs already. Only New Jerseyโs Nico Hischier and Calgaryโs Mikael Backlund have taken more defensive zone draws than Dickinson to date; Hischier has played nine games and Backlund six.
- Dickinson has taken 23 of the Blackhawksโ 29 total short-handed faceoffs to start the season.
I’ve written in the past about Dickinson being committed to the defensive end of the ice, willing to take a back seat offensively to be the best checking line center he can be. He skates against opposing teams’ top lines every night (almost every shift) and does it exceptionally well.
With all of those concepts swirling around in my head, after practice on Thursday I asked Blackhawks captain Nick Foligno what it says about Dickinson being willing to take on the role he’s playing this season after having the best offensive season of his career.
“Well, that he is a leader, right? That’s Jason Dickinson,” Foligno said. “He’s probably one of the more selfless guys I’ve ever played with, and he understands it’s bigger than him. It’s about what the team needs him to do, and he’s more than willing to do the hard part because he sees the greater good of what it’s going to contribute to the team. It’s a lesson for a lot of guys in this room that a guy like that is willing to sacrifice maybe a little offense so that our team has a really good third line center that can play and shut down teams. And I’m sure he’s looking at guys that are in those roles to do their job because I know he can. So that’s the beauty of it. … I’m sure he’ll get his offensive opportunities as well, but we are very lucky to have a guy like him who cares that much about the group. And it’s a great lesson for a lot of guys in here.”
That’s pretty high praise from the team’s captain. And it speaks to why he received votes for the Selke Trophy last year.
There’s been a lot of attention on players holding each other accountable in the Blackhawks’ room this year. One of the guys we never have to worry about giving his best effort is Dickinson. Take his first period against Vancouver for example. He took a penalty early that led to a Canucks power play goal. His next couple shifts were hard and aggressive, and he made a great effort play to set up Ryan Donato for a goal. And against a good team, Dickinson finished the night with two hits and won 13 of 16 faceoffs.
Dickinson signed a two-year extension with the Blackhawks last season. He’s still 29, and I would think the way he’s continuing to perform he could be in line for another contract with the organization after this one. And getting him from the Canucks is one of the better trades general manager Kyle Davidson has made since taking over that job.
