Notes on the Hawks: How committed is Mason West to hockey over football?

Mason West has committed to playing hockey. That’s why the Chicago Blackhawks drafted him in the first round.

That won’t stop college football programs from calling, though.

“Yeah, they’ll always be calling,” said Jason Potts, West’s football coach at Edina High in Minnesota, on Thursday.

With West being 6 feet 6 and athletic and deciding to play one more season of high school football as a quarterback, college football programs are still hoping he’ll change his mind.

“I think the interest will always be there,” Potts said. “Recruiting is just out of hand. It’s crazy. It feels like it never stops. They’re always interested, and I think they always will be. I don’t know when it actually ever stops. But again, Mason’s just focused on his goals and what he wants to do. And he’s really good at blocking distractions out and then just enjoying the experience.”

The fact that college football programs continue to call is something the Blackhawks have to live with. That’s part of the game. What is more important to the Blackhawks is West’s commitment to hockey. As long as he’s not enticed by major college football programs calling him, they can rest assured in his path. West doesn’t seem to be tempted. Potts said he hasn’t thrown for any major football programs this summer.

Potts won’t be trying to change his mind, either.

“A lot of people think, as the football coach, I’m going to tell him to play football or don’t play hockey,” Potts said. “But I love Mason. I love him as a person, and I want him to do whatever his heart is set out to do, so I’m really proud of him. I think (he and his family) handled it phenomenally. His parents were great support. I never told him what to do. I would just ask him guiding questions for him to help figure it out on his own, and I think that’s what he did, and I think he feels really good about it, and the family is really happy.”

The Blackhawks have a ton of faith in goaltending scout Dan Ellis.

When it comes to other positions, they consult a variety of opinions from within their hockey operations department. On goalies, Blackhawks general manager Kyle Davidson mostly turns to Ellis. His opinion carries weight.

So when the Blackhawks were looking for another goalie to sign for next season and likely be the No. 2 to Drew Commesso with the Rockford IceHogs, they turned to Ellis.

Ellis had someone in mind: Stanislav Berezhnoy, a 22-year-old, 6-4, 218-pound undrafted goalie from Russia.

Berezhnoy was on Ellis’ radar when he was draft-eligible, but he and every other NHL team didn’t see enough to select him.

“But I just continued to track him, and his game just kept getting cleaner and cleaner,” Ellis said. “He’s a huge man, and it takes a lot for a big body like that to gain control, gain speed, gain power, and he’s slowly just gotten better and better. And I thought that the size, the athleticism and the consistency that he’s putting up, from the MHL to the VHL — he’s only got a couple of games in the KHL, so there’s not much to judge from that, but it’s nice to see that he got that experience — and he just looked like a guy that might be a good prospect to add to the depth chart.”

Berezhnoy had a .928 save percentage in 27 games in the VHL and played in one KHL game for SKA this past season.

Berezhnoy is a bit of a project, but the Blackhawks can take that chance. They’re confident in their NHL goalie pool, with Spencer Knight and Arvid Söderblom returning and Laurent Brossoit possibly joining the mix. They also have Commesso coming off a strong second half of last season with the IceHogs, likely to start next season as the No. 1. Berezhnoy can ease into North American hockey and share the IceHogs’ net with Commesso.

The Blackhawks considered signing a veteran for that role, but they thought there might be more upside in someone like Berezhnoy.

“The only thing with (the veteran) is it’s great, but that player still wants their minutes, and they still want their games and stuff,” Ellis said. “They’re not always willing to accept that role, and some guys just don’t want to be a mentor. … So you’re paying anywhere from ($250,000) to ($500,000) in the American League to get a guy like that. Or, you look at, well, we can also get a prospect who can develop and maybe becomes an NHL goaltender, an NHL asset.

“That was the route that we felt was best to take, with Drew taking the jump in his development. He’s put himself in a position to be the No. 1 goaltender in Rockford and put himself in a position to be that next guy in line in Chicago. And Stanislav will now get a chance to earn the same opportunities in his own development time.”

Ellis said he has been communicating with Berezhnoy’s goalies coach in Russia and exchanging video and notes. Ellis said the focus will be getting Berezhnoy up to speed on playing more of an east-west game and adapting to the direction changes, mobility and quickness of the North American game in net.

Ellis also influenced the Blackhawks in drafting goalie Ilya Kanarsky in the seventh round in June.

Like Berezhnoy, Kanarsky is from Russia. He’s 20 years old, 6-3 and 192 pounds. He had a .938 save percentage in 34 games in the MHL and a .942 save percentage in three games in the VHL last season. In the MHL, he shared the net with Kirill Zarubin, a Calgary Flames 2024 third-round pick, and had better numbers than him.

“I think there’s a ton of potential there,” Ellis said of Kanarsky. “I honestly don’t know how he slipped through the draft. He’s another guy that I tracked a couple years ago when he was first draft-eligible, and I’ve continued to follow him as well. He completely outplayed Zarubin, who was a third-round pick by Calgary. I remember talking to the goalie coach that year, the year that they were both draft-eligible, and he kinda seemed like he was steering us towards Rubin, for whatever the reason was.

“But I kept watching Kanarsky. They play a very similar game. They’re very similar in size. They got the same equipment. They look identical, honestly. And so I was like, you know what, like, if this guy is available in the seventh round, why not take a swing at him? He’s motivated. He’s seen his partner get drafted over him. He stole the net from him last year. He’s played in the VHL. He might get an opportunity to play in the KHL this year. I mean, the value that you have in a player like him in the seventh round, I think it’s fantastic.”

The Blackhawks’ development camp is advertised as being off-ice, but some prospects get on the ice and work with the organization’s development staff. That aspect of camp worked out well for Adam Gajan.

“I’m the only goalie here, so we get on the ice, and it’s four coaches and me,” Gajan said. “There was a lot of focus and working on a lot of details that we normally wouldn’t have time to work on it. This week was super productive on the ice.”

The Blackhawks drafted Gajan in the second round in 2023 with the understanding he’d be a long-term project. He was in the USHL the season after being drafted and was a freshman at Minnesota Duluth last season. His first year in college was challenging, playing behind a young team and dealing with an injury. He finished with an .885 save percentage in 21 games.

The focal point of the Blackhawks’ instruction has been for Gajan not to rush to use his athleticism.

“You don’t get that opportunity very often where you get an hour, hour and a half every day to just break down games, and so when I was out there with (goalie development coach) Matt Smith, we can slow things down,” Ellis said. “We got a couple of great shooters out there. We can look at some of the small details of his game. The emphasis was controlling the power that he has. He’s an extremely athletic guy, and sometimes he gets into those stretch or those split situations where he doesn’t necessarily need to. He has to learn to trust his edges, trust his power and get to places under control. And so I think with the adjustments that we had him work on throughout the summer, his game has really evolved and improved, and we’re looking forward to another great season for him.”

The Blackhawks restructured their scouting staff this offseason and made some changes to streamline their process. With those changes, Anatoli Semyonov, Mikko Luoma, Brigette Lacquette and Alexandre Rouleau were not extended as full-time scouts, nor was Ron Anderson as a senior adviser.

The Blackhawks also hired Juan Gonzalez to be their head strength and conditioning coach. He was with the Pittsburgh Penguins for the last two seasons. He also previously worked for the IceHogs from 2020 to 2022.

The Blackhawks also promoted Sam Forstner from manager of analytics to director of analytics. He joined the Blackhawks in 2022 as a data scientist. Chris McCorkle has gone from senior analyst of hockey strategy to manager of hockey operations. Zack Brusso was made director of hockey technology after previously being a senior software engineer of hockey systems.

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