Re: WISCONSIN HOCKEY 09-10 - Climbing The Mountain (7th Edition?)
On Skille, I want to see him suceed as much as anyone, but to say he should play before Kane or Toews is absurd. As someone mentioned, he is behind Bolland, Versteeg, Brouwer and a half dozen other Hawk forwards without anything remotely resembling a doubt. He has gotten to play 24 games at the NHL level over the past 2 years and has concistantly been inconcistant in those chances. For every game he looks really good, he has 2 or 3 that he is invisible. Jack was a solid college player, but hardly someone that was spectacular (other then maybe the OT's against Cornell). Toews and Kane have been stars at prior levels and elite at the international level before they got to Chicago.
I think the reality for Jack is that he has a pretty limited skill set that needs to evolve some more for him to be a regular on a real good team (yes he could play in the NHL for certain franchises and probably be a productive player...but those are not going to be very good teams). His offensive game is still very much he skates real fast around the outside of a dman and by the time he turns the corner he is beloow the face off dots with a bad angle for a shot. I'm not sure Jack will ever have the hands to dangle through open ice against NHL level dmen. He has a fairly hard shot, but his accuracy can leave you wanting more times then not (although he has improved since his days as a Badger). I also don't see him as the traditional power forward as at 6'1 and $1.98, he just is not big enough to play that kind of game and hold up physically. At this point, I see him with a ceiling of a third liner that can create some energy, give you limited offfence (12-15 goals a year), draw a few penalties by moving his feet and skating well.
As to Jack's future in Chicago, I think he gets plenty of chances to show what he can do at the NHL level this season. Hossa and Burish are out for big chunks and Skille has to be the next guy in line when a top 9 forward goes down (again, I don't think you play Jack as a 4th liner at this point). I know Versteeg, Bolland, and Brouwer have missed practice time with an assortment of ailments and nicks this week and the other given in the NHL is that players will get hurt for every team. Long term, the Hawks have 8 forwards on the roster that are either UFA's or RFA's after the season. They need to resign Toews, Kane, and Keith to major pay raises which will result in having to let others go. There should be 2 or 3 spots at forward next year in Chicago that need to be filled on the cheap (young players on their first or second contract) of which I think Skille is one of the candidates with 3 or 4 other kids in the system. I also would not be shocked to see Skille packaged at the deadline to try to fill whatever holes the Hawks have at that point leading into the playoffs.
