Opportunity knocks for next wave of Blackhawks defensemen

Joel Quenneville is just as curious to see what the Blackhawks’ defense looks like as everyone else.

Without Niklas Hjalmarsson, Trevor van Riemsdyk, Johnny Oduya, and maybe Brian Campbell, the Hawks will be a lot greener on the blue line next season. Newcomers Connor Murphy and Jan Rutta will be in the mix, and Gustav Forsling figures to get a full NHL season after a partial rookie campaign.

Rutta, a puck-moving Czech import, is the biggest unknown.

“Looking forward to seeing how he plays,” Quenneville said. “There’s a lot of options, who’s going to be playing with whom. We like to measure how they defend first. Having that ability to move the puck, be involved in the attack — we’re looking forward to seeing how [Rutta] can add offense on the back end.”

General manager Stan Bowman is counting on Forsling and Michal Kempny — who combined to play 88 games — taking big steps forward in their sophomore seasons.

“We have some guys here that are ready for bigger roles,” Bowman said. “I think Kempny and Forsling are going to be two guys — obviously Kempny was here all year; Forsling was here part of it. I think we’re looking for Gustav to take that next step to be an NHL regular. In Kempny’s case, we’re looking for him to take the next step to be more of an impact player. It’s up to them to kind of take hold of it. I think the opportunity’s going to be there for them to take bigger roles. A little bit of a different look but I think it’s time to give these guys a chance to grow and take on bigger responsibilities.”

RFA watch

The Hawks have until Monday to tender qualifying offers to restricted free agents Dennis Rasmussen and Tomas Jurco. Rasmussen’s would cost the new league minimum of $650,000, while Jurco’s would cost $945,000. The Hawks are expected to qualify both, especially considering they gave up a third-round pick for Jurco in February.

Jurco was underwhelming in his two months with the Hawks — the story of his career, really — with one goal and no assists in 13 games. But the Hawks are still holding out hope he could be the next Richard Panik, a wildly successful reclamation project.

“That’d be nice,” Joel Quenneville said. “[Panik] did it at the AHL level, looked like he was going to do it [at the NHL level], then went just ordinary. [Then he] took off again. I don’t know if [Jurco] has proven that yet, but we feel there are capabilities in his game. [Panik] really did come on nicely and turned out to be a good acquisition.”

Right’s all right

The Hawks selected five defenseman in the NHL Draft, and the first three (first-rounder Henri Jokiharju, second-rounder Ian Mitchell, and fourth-rounder Roope Laavainen) were right-handed shots. That was no coincidence. The Hawks have been dealing with a dearth of right-handers for years, with lefty Niklas Hjalmarsson playing on his off side.

“There are just fewer guys,” Bowman said. “For whatever reason, most of the Europeans are almost all lefties. It’s not like it’s 50-50 in the league, there are just fewer righties in general. That makes the guys who can make it to the NHL valuable. That was a priority for us.”

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