Matt Smaby had an interesting perspective of Blackhawks defenseman prospect Sam Rinzel as they both joined Team USA for the recent World Junior A Challenge.
Smaby is Rinzel’s head coach for the Waterloo Black Hawks of the USHL, so Smaby has been watching Rinzel up close for the last three months. Smaby is well aware of Rinzel’s skating ability, offensive instincts, length and so on. But this environment was different, and that made Rinzel play differently. Against some of the world’s best around his age group, the 18-year-old Rinzel took his game to another level and flourished while helping Team USA to the championship.
“Especially at this level of the tournament we’re at, you can just see the fact that he’s a world-class skater,” Smaby said. “It’s pretty obvious. He ends up scoring a goal (in one game) on the rush, blowing by four guys. His skating is world class. In an event like this, it’s the best Junior A players across North America, he’s standing out big time in regards to that.”
The Blackhawks used their third first-round pick in 2022 on Rinzel largely because of his skating ability and 6-foot-4 size. They knew he already possessed those gifts to play in the NHL. The question they and other teams had entering the draft was whether the rest of his game would catch up to that. The Blackhawks thought the potential reward outweighed the risk and selected him as the 25th pick.
The Blackhawks plan to be extremely patient with Rinzel’s development. Where defenseman prospect Kevin Korchinski, the seventh pick in 2022, could be in their NHL lineup as early as next season, there isn’t any expectation by general manager Kyle Davidson for Rinzel to be anywhere near the lineup for a number of years. It’s this season at Waterloo for Rinzel, then heading off to the University of Minnesota as a freshman next season and so on.
As Davidson recently said, “A long-term guy, but he’s on the right track.”
The Blackhawks believe Rinzel has the tools to be an elite player, but it’s a matter of putting them together. At the World Junior A Challenge, he showed some signs of his potential to do that. I went back and watched all of Rinzel’s shifts from three of his games at the tournament. This is what stood out:
Let’s start with the play that Smaby referenced. You may have seen it on social media. It got around a bit after Rinzel scored it. On this play, it’s the skating, the change of speed, the poise, the puck-handling and the vision.
That last goal is the type of play that happens every once in a while, right? Well, Rinzel nearly scored a similar goal earlier in that same game. The first one would have been even more impressive, too. There’s a lot to like for the Blackhawks on this play, but what might be most transferable is his retrieval speed. He can alleviate so much defensive pressure alone. The Blackhawks believe Rinzel’s first step could be a game-changer.
“With his skating, the ability to kind of beat that first wave of pressure is outstanding,” Smaby said. “And when he does create a little bit of time and space for himself, he’s flown by guys. And I think that also rings true in the offensive zone when he’s moving. With our system and our team, we’ve got a lot of movement in the offensive zone. When he’s skating, it presents a big problem for the other team because he has the ability to find space and create more space for himself, and that draws other defenders to him and opens up plays to his teammates.”
A common theme in these clips will be his skating. In this following one, it’s him utilizing that skating to be aggressive on the forecheck. He forces a turnover and helps create an offensive chance.
Rinzel doesn’t panic often with the puck. He seems like he might be in a corner with few options, but he’s willing to hold onto the puck and see if he can figure things out for himself. On this play, he figures things out well as he skates out of trouble and creates a shot. That doesn’t always work out, and Rinzel does have to learn when to make those types of plays.
“Efficiency with the puck is a big thing,” Smaby said. “Like we just talked about, he’s a world-class skater, but I think the growth areas for him where he can keep getting better is just being efficient with the puck. Players at our level and really at every level kind of moving up from this point forward, they’re gonna become better and better defenders. So kind of having that ability to know when he’s got time and space and when to use it. And then also to know and understand when he’s under pressure and where his outs are and moving the puck efficiently.”
This is an example of where he tries to do too much:
Back to the positives, Rinzel coasts with the puck into the zone, creates a shot and then gets the puck back to keep the possession going.
Rinzel’s skating is most noticeable in the offensive zone, but it is useful all over the ice. He makes up ground so quickly with his skating and long strides. On this play, he has the puck in the offensive zone, the opposition gets it and he chases it down. The more he can fine-tune utilizing his stick and length, the more dangerous he can be as a defenseman. He also finishes this shift with a shot. That’s a lot of puck touches.
This is an example of how he uses his skating to put himself in a better shooting lane:
This is another example of Rinzel in different zones. The Blackhawks know he has to add on some weight and muscle before he has a chance to get to the NHL, but he has been trying to use his body more. His defensive zone play also needs work, but it’s another area he and Smaby have been working closely on.
“It’s getting better,” Smaby said. “He’s been more engaged physically this year, which I think is an important thing. I think learning how to defend using his frame is really important. He’s obviously got a ton of range with how big he is and how long a stick he has, so I think the ability to take away time and space is really important. And we play on an Olympics sheet, so it’s challenging at times to cover quite a bit of ground, but I think it’s a really good challenge to have. Because if you learn how to defend… on a big sheet, when you get to that NHL-size rink, everything happens a little quicker, but you just find yourself in better spots. So hopefully kind of going through the season on our sheet, he’ll be able to kind of grow and grow his defensive game just because of the situations that he’s naturally put in.”
(Photo: Ryan Remiorz / The Canadian Press via AP)
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