Blackhawks' Dickinson on track for a career year alongside Kane

Patrick Kane has been on a line with a wide variety of centers over the course of his career.

The easiest to remember are guys like Jonathan Toews, Artem Anisimov, Nick Schmaltz, Dylan Strome, Dave Bolland, Brad Richards and Andrew Shaw.

Then there are the also-rans and/or unlikely candidates like Ben Smith, Brandon Pirri and Ryan Carpenter.

This season, Kane has spent a significant amount of time with Max Domi, but in the last three and a half games Blackhawks coach Luke Richardson has gone an unorthodox route by throwing Jason Dickinson into the top-line center role with Kane.

And the results have been pretty remarkable.

Dickinson, whose career high in goals is 9, has scored in back-to-back-to-back games. His latest tally came early in the second period of the Hawks' 3-2 OT loss to Anaheim on Tuesday when he took a feed from Kane and fired a shot that beat Ducks goalie Anthony Stolarz through the five-hole.

"Dickey's got a good chance to kind of move up into the lineup and he's making the most of it," said Richardson, who put Tyler Johnson on the other wing against the Ducks.

Dickinson played 221 games with Dallas from 2016-21, then inked a three-year deal with Vancouver but managed just 11 points in 62 games with the Canucks games last season. He was traded to the Hawks in October.

This three-game goal run is the best scoring streak of Dickinson's career, besting a pair of 4-goals-in-nine-game runs (one with Dallas in 2019-20; one with Hawks to begin this season).

"I mean, playing with Kaner creates a lot of offense," Dickinson said. "And it's a snowball effect. If you get more chances in the O-zone, you start to feel good and you want the puck more and you want to do more with it.

"So it's been nice getting those opportunities."

Dickinson had two more glorious opportunities Tuesday, but saw a first-period shot go just wide of the net and a third-period shot go right into the midsection of goalie Anthony Stolarz.

"Yeah, that one sucked. Rolled on me there," Dickinson said of the latter chance. "It ended up being a muffin right into his stomach."

With 8 goals, 10 assists, 18 points, 52 blocked shots, 36 take-aways and a faceoff win percentage of 48.4, there's a decent chance he'll set personal bests in all six categories.

It will be interesting to see if this little hot stretch opens the eyes of a few general managers who may want to strengthen their third- or fourth-lines. Dickinson - who boasts 40 games of postseason experience - could help a title-contending team contain an opponent's top line much like Andrew Desjardins did for the Hawks in 2015.

One issue may be Dickinson's contract, however, as it carries a $2.65 million cap hit through next season.

In the meantime, we'll see if the 27-year-old Ontario native can keep his hot streak going against Arizona on Friday and through a four-game Canadian road trip that begins Saturday in Winnipeg.

Johnson, for one, believes it's possible.

"He does what Kaner wants as a center," Johnson said. "You drive that middle, create that space for him. When Kane has space, I mean, anything can happen.

"So they've obviously been playing well before the break and we played extremely well again (against Anaheim). We got the two goals, but I think we could have got a lot more.

"As long as we can keep building on that, I like where the line's at."

Toews out again:

Jonathan Toews (illness) missed a fourth straight practice Wednesday. He also sat out Tuesday's loss to Anaheim. The Hawks believe Toews has the flu.

Patrick Kane and Seth Jones (maintenance) also did not practice.

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Jason Dickinson's career stats

2018-19, Dallas: 67 games, 6 goals, 16 assists, 22 points

2019-20, Dallas: 65 games, 9 goals, 12 assists, 21 points

2020-21, Dallas: 51 games, 7 goals, 8 assists, 15 points

2021-22, Vancouver: 62 games, 5 goals. 6 assists, 11 points

2022-23, HAWKS: 45 games, 8 goals, 10 assists, 18 points

Totals: 328 games, 38 goals, 54 assists, 92 points

Notes

• Had 3 goals, 2 assists in 38 games from 2015-18 with Stars.

• 2019-20 NHL season shortened to 69 games for Dallas; 2020-21 season was 56 games

• Had 5 goals, 4 assists in 40 playoff games with Dallas