Can young Jokiharju, Boqvist both make Blackhawks' roster?

Sometimes the best-laid plans need to be adjusted. Tweaked. Or flat-out blown up.

Whether the Blackhawks have reached that point with defensemen Henri Jokiharju and Adam Boqvist remains to be seen.

But this much is for certain - both teenagers are making quite an impression during training camp and their odds of making the team improve every day.

Let's start with the obvious: If not for injuries to Connor Murphy (back) and Gustav Forsling (wrist), it's unlikely we'd be talking about both Jokiharju and Boqvist possibly being on the ice for the regular-season opener at Ottawa on Oct. 4.

And honestly, it still seems like Boqvist - taken eighth overall in last June's draft - is a longshot.

But stranger things have happened and it's not like the Hawks are loaded with top-notch blue liners.

So what to do? It's a great question, but here are the two ways GM Stan Bowman and coach Joel Quenneville are probably going to look at this situation in the coming days:

Develop, don't destroy

Rushing a pair of potential phenoms because Murphy and Forsling are injured is dangerous. You risk damaging their confidence once the inevitable bumps in the road occur.

Need proof? Look no further than Forsling and Jan Rutta.

Both young D-men impressed Quenneville so much early last season that he was playing them 22, 24 and 25 minutes a game against opponents' top players.

Then came a hiccup. And another. And another.

Soon, Forsling was in Rockford, and Rutta was either out with an injury or seeing reduced minutes.

Remember what Cody Franson said last May: Having young D-men face the Evgeni Malkins and Sidney Crosbys every night can have "a domino effect" on their confidence.

"When I got up top, (coach) Barry Trotz played me in situations that he thought I could handle," said Franson, who was a third-round pick in 2005 and spent two seasons in the AHL. "That first season, I was playing 15, 16, 17 minutes a night against third and fourth lines with a defenseman that was an older guy that I was learning from.

"That allowed me to develop properly."

Brave new world

Franson makes a good point. But that was also more than a decade ago and things have changed drastically since.

"The league is so young nowadays," said the Hawks' Jonathan Toews. "So how young is 19, really?"

To wit: Noah Hanifin was 18 when he made his NHL debut for Carolina in 2015. Same with Arizona's Jakob Chychrun in 2016.

Mikhail Sergachev (Lightning), Charlie McAvoy (Bruins), Ian Provorov (Flyers) and Zach Werenski (Blue Jackets) - all top-14 selections in either 2015 or '16 - also made their debuts before turning 20.

Reached by phone Saturday, Werenski actually flipped the narrative on Franson's comments, saying he was thrilled the Blue Jackets threw him into the deep end. He was on the power play, penalty kill and on the top D pairing with all-star Seth Jones.

"You can tell when somebody's ready and confident to go out there and just play," said Werenski, who 11 had goals, 36 assists and averaged nearly 21 minutes as a rookie. "The best way to establish yourself in this league is just by playing your game.

"The coaching staff was awesome with me in Columbus. If I had a bad game, the next game they threw me out there for 20 minutes again. I grew as a player and it gave me a lot of confidence that I could play in this league."

There's little doubt Jokiharju (taken 29th in 2017) and Boqvist are incredibly talented. They're fast, can skate, have great offensive instincts and never hesitate to show off their impressive shots.

So given the chance, how would they fit on the Hawks?

Would you pair Jokiharju with Duncan Keith and trust him with top-pair minutes? If not, can Keith and Brent Seabrook honestly shut down opponents' top players? They've been together at camp for five straight days, so it seems like Quenneville is seriously entertaining the idea.

If that's the case, Jokiharju would likely play with Brandon Manning, and the other pair would be Erik Gustafsson and Rutta.

Despite his solid play, there doesn't appear to be room for Boqvist, who could play up to nine games without burning the first year of his contract. It also seems premature to rush a kid who is 5-foot-11, 168 pounds and could use a year putting on muscle while he develops in the OHL.

The 6-2, 209 Werenski, though, said size may not matter that much.

"No one's going to ask Boqvist to go out there and have that big hit or get into scraps or fights," Werenski said. "If he goes out there and plays his game - moves the puck and jumps by forwards, get up in the play - no one's going to look at his size anymore. They're going to look what he's doing with the puck. …

"Defensively, it's just being hard to play against. It's not letting guys go to the net. Just the little things - body position and things like that.

The verdict

It probably makes the most sense for the Hawks to keep Jokiharju and Brandon Davidson, who is in camp on a professional tryout, as the seventh defenseman. The 27-year-old has 152 NHL games under his belt, 51 of which came last season for the Canadiens, Oilers and Islanders.

If not Davidson, then Carl Dahlstrom is also in the mix. Of course, neither possesses the dynamic capabilities of Jokiharju or Boqvist - who are likely to play in Tuesday's home preseason game against Columbus.

"They've done some neat things so far," said Quenneville, who reiterated that there's at least a chance Boqvist could be on the opening-night roster. "We'll see how he does this week. Good chance he could play all three games and I think we'll get a better read off of that."

So you see the conundrum the Hawks - a team with a coach and GM both on the hot seat - are in.

They might like to proceed with caution, but can they afford to? Perhaps, perhaps not.

But Werenski said it might not matter.

"If they're playing their games and they're making plays and can make the team better, why not keep them around?" he said. "Obviously there's going to be mistakes and a learning curve.

"But if they see the potential in them and want to stick with them through this year, the sky's the limit for those two."

Youth gone wild

Recent first-round draft picks who entered the NHL either the year they were drafted or the year after:

<b>2016 Draft</b>Mikhail Sergachev

Taken: Ninth by Montreal; Height, weight: 6-3, 215

Experience: Played four games for Montreal in 2016-17, then scored 9 goals and had 31 assists while averaging 15 minutes, 22 seconds of ice time in 79 games for Tampa Bay last season.

Charlie McAvoy

Taken: 14th by Boston; Height, weight: 6-0, 208

Experience: Played at Boston U. in 2016-17, then appeared in 63 games last season for the Bruins, scoring 7 goals and dishing out 25 assists. Average TOI was 22:09.

Jakob Chychrun

Taken: 16th by Arizona; Height, weight: 6-2, 210

Experience: Went right to the NHL, scoring 7 goals while averaging 16:40 in 2016-17. Last season he had 4 goals and averaged 20:15 in 50 games.

<b>2015 Draft</b>Noah Hanifin

Taken: Fifth by Carolina; Height, weight: 6-3, 206

Experience: Went right to NHL, scoring 4 goals and averaging 17:54 for Carolina. Scored 10 goals last season. Now with Calgary.

Ivan Provorov

Taken: Seventh by Philadelphia; Height, weight: 6-1, 201

Experience: Spent one season in WHL, then scored 6 goals while averaging 22 minutes as a rookie in Philadelphia. Tied for the league lead last season among D-men with 17 goals, only 2 of which came on the power play.

Zach Werenski

Taken: Eighth by Columbus; Height, weight: 6-2, 209

Experience: Played one season at Michigan, then scored 11 goals and averaged 21 minutes in 78 games for Columbus. Scored 16 times last season.