Philipp Kurashev continues to be a bright spot in Blackhawks’ bleak season

It’s not surprising that Connor Bedard leads the Blackhawks in scoring right now, but it is more notable that Philipp Kurashev ranks second on the team.

With 17 points — six goals and 11 assists — in 24 games entering Tuesday, Kurashev has largely maintained his hot start to his fourth NHL season and established himself as one of the Hawks’ few reliable offensive contributors.

Two months into another bleak season, as it becomes clear these 2023-24 Hawks might be even worse than their 2022-23 version, Kurashev, Jason Dickinson and Petr Mrazek are the only common denominators on both rosters that seem to have — unlike the team overall — improved significantly year-over-year.

Fortunately for the organization’s long-term plans, Bedard and the host of other rookies have been encouraging, exciting bright spots ever since the season opener. Outside of the kids, though, Kurashev might represent the next-brightest spot.

If he stays healthy the rest of the season, he’s on pace to finish with 54 points in 76 games, shattering the career high of 25 points he set last season.

Dickinson and Mrazek are too old to be long-term factors, despite how solid they have been this fall. But Kurashev, having just turned 24 in October, is still young enough to potentially evolve into a longer-term building block.

“I’ve just been feeling way better this year,” Kurashev said Tuesday. “When you work hard, plays open up, and that’s how it has been going.”

Playing almost exclusively with Bedard has certainly helped. He entered Tuesday having spent 87% of his five-on-five ice time with the 18-year-old phenom. Last season, his most frequent linemate was Taylor Raddysh, with whom he spent 47% of his five-on-five ice time.

Not only does Bedard’s immense talent — and opposing defenses’ hyper-focus on him — create more space and playmaking opportunities for Kurashev, but their consistency and familiarity together makes plays more instinctual, too.

“[In] the years before, I was always switching lines and positions and all that,” Kurashev said. “It doesn’t matter, I’ll play wherever the coach puts me, but it has been awesome just to build that chemistry and read off each other. It makes it a lot easier on the ice. You don’t have to think as much; you’re just used to it already.”

Alongside Bedard, Kurashev has discovered his niche as a set-up guy. He’s shooting less frequently than before, yet passing better.

His rate of primary shot assists per 60 minutes — as in, passes that lead directly to teammates’ shots — has increased from 4.2 and 4.8 in the last two seasons to 8.5 this season, per All Three Zones data. That 8.5 number is well above the NHL average and ranks second among healthy Hawks, behind only Bedard.

Kurashev said his growing comfort level in the NHL — with 215 games now under his belt — means he has a better sense of which plays work and which don’t.

He is also feeling more comfortable to show his true personality. He’s naturally a quiet, introverted person, and that hasn’t changed, but coach Luke Richardson has noticed him acting “more confident” and embracing the importance of in-game communication.

One particular example from the Hawks’ loss Sunday against the Canucks provides evidence of that.

“[I was] barking at him on the bench one play where he didn’t get the puck deep, and he answered back,” Richardson said. “He doesn’t just go into a shell and not say anything. He actually talks back [like], ‘Yeah, I know I have to have that.’ He’s taking ownership of it and feeling more confident as a person to express that.

“It’s a step for him, and he brings people along with him. [Lukas] Reichel is another quiet guy, and they’re best buddies. Hopefully that’ll bring more personality to Reichel on the ice, too.”

Running the point

With defensemen Seth Jones and Kevin Korchinski absent, the Hawks have pivoted to a five-forward top power-play unit — with Kurashev manning the point position where Jones or Korchinski typically operate.

“It’s a big responsibility to be up there,” Kurashev said. “You’re the last guy. But we all work as a five-man group and we help each other out.”

“You know you don’t have a ‘D’ on the ice — that’s why you all have to work back even more than usually, and you’ve got to trust each other that we’ll have each other’s back. But you kinda don’t think about that. You just try to make the plays [that are] open. It could work.”

Manning the point involves more side-to-side shifting than when manning the half-wall, which has been Kurashev’s role — on the flank opposite Bedard — on the power play most of the season so far.

He said he does have a little experience manning the point from previous seasons, though. And the fact the Hawks scored multiple power-play goals Sunday for the first time all season justifies continuing this experiment for at least a little while.