Patrick Williams, TheAHL.com Features Writer
Being an AHL team means rolling with the punches.
Last Thursday, the Rockford IceHogs lost head coach Anders Sorensen to the parent Chicago Blackhawks, where he took over as interim head coach. It is the third time in a little more than six years that the IceHogs’ bench boss has been promoted to Chicago mid-season, with Sorensen following Jeremy Colliton in 2018 and Derek King in 2021.
In the middle of it all are the IceHogs, who were on a six-game road swing and trying to find their footing in the AHL’s Central Division. The Hogs had bounced Lehigh Valley, 7-3, on Wednesday night in what would be Sorensen’s last game with the club. They were preparing to face Hartford and Springfield over the weekend when their leadership was shaken up by a coaching change made by another team in another league.
Rockford came into the season with high hopes for a slew of young Blackhawks prospects, and while their 8-10-0-3 record leaves them only fifth in the Central, those players have certainly made an impression.
Defenseman Kevin Korchinski, taken seventh overall by Chicago in the 2022 NHL Draft, came to Rockford this fall after spending his entire rookie season with the Blackhawks. Chicago wanted him in the AHL to get ample playing time and to round out his game.
Joining Korchinski on the IceHogs blue line was the second overall pick in last June’s NHL Draft, Artyom Levshunov. Levshunov, who turned 19 on Oct. 28, spent one season at Michigan State University and was one of the top freshman skaters in the country; the AHL was the perfect place to get him much-needed pro experience.
Forward Frank Nazar, a 20-year-old coming off an outstanding sophomore season at the University of Michigan, went 13th overall in the 2022 NHL Draft. He currently leads all AHL rookies with 11 goals and 24 points.
Mix in forward prospects Colton Dach, Cole Guttman, Gavin Hayes, Samuel Savoie and Landon Slaggert with blueliners Ethan Del Mastro (an AHL All-Star last season as a rookie) and Isaak Phillips, and the IceHogs had an intriguing blend for Chicago’s ongoing rebuilding project. Captain Brett Seney, NHL veteran Zach Sanford and former AHL MVP Gerry Mayhew provide experience, and 2020 second-rounder Drew Commesso and third-year pro Mitchell Weeks have been manning the crease.
But player development is an uncertain game, especially in the standings. Rockford got off to a 3-7-0-0 start, an early test for a young team’s collective confidence. Since then they have earned points in in eight of 11 games (5-3-3-0). But the AHL schedule does not wait, and new IceHogs interim head coach Mark Eaton, the Blackhawks’ assistant general manager overseeing player development, took over with his club 1,000 miles from home.
“We’re trying to keep it as business-as-usual as possible,” Phillips told broadcaster Dana Grey before Saturday’s game in Springfield.
Rockford closes its road stretch with a visit to Iowa on Wednesday, the first of six meetings between the fifth-place IceHogs and sixth-place Wild over a 22-day span. They are also without Korchinski and Commesso, who were recalled by the Blackhawks on Sunday. Still, this situation is an opportunity for everyone, including Eaton, a 15-year pro defenseman and former AHL All-Star who is getting his first chance to take on a bench role.
“I’m really looking forward to expanding my horizons and my perspective on the game and learning something new,” Eaton told Grey. “Embrace the challenge – that’s one of the things that I view as an expectation for the team here, a growth mindset.”
On the American Hockey League beat for two decades, TheAHL.com features writer Patrick Williams also currently covers the league for NHL.com and FloSports and is a regular contributor on SiriusXM NHL Network Radio. He was the recipient of the AHL’s James H. Ellery Memorial Award for his outstanding coverage of the league in 2016.
