From Chicago Sun-Times Blackhawks reporter Ben Pope:
Blackhawks rookie Oliver Moore’s speed has made him an asset since being called up at the beginning of November.
Moore reached a top speed of 21.62 mph – his fastest in six NHL games this season – during a semi-breakaway against the Maple Leafs on Saturday.
Moore, 20, projects to be a Swiss Army knife who can fill any role in the top or bottom six, and he already has been used as such by head coach Jeff Blashill.
‘‘Every game is an opportunity for me to show what I can do and also [to] get better and improve,’’ Moore said Friday.
2 comments
It’ll be interesting to see where Moore can bring the upper end of his speed by the end of the season and beyond.
His top speed right now of 21.62 mph is almost exactly at his top of the 2025 season so in his young NHL career he hasn’t reached the higher end speeds that top players achieve (~24 mph) but all of his history leading up to the NHL says he should be one of the fastest players in every game he plays. The agility and acceleration he has is very evident already, but not that higher end speed.
I think a major component of that is the lack of confidence to push around or through opponents that the article discusses, highlighted by the clip where he defers passing to Bedard versus carrying the puck deeper, so hopefully it comes around soon! He definitely has the skating ability to be elite in this regard, he just needs to keep pushing the limits.
As he figures that out, Bedard and Nazar keep getting stronger, Kantserov and Lardis make their NHL debuts, the entire blueline keeps growing, etc. this team will start running their opponents into the ground every goddamn game in the near future lol
Moore was described as a Swiss Army knife kind of player in this article. From what I saw of his time at Minnesota and here in the professional leagues, I find it an apt description, and is something that will be sorely needed as veteran contracts run out.
Yeah, he might spend most of his time on the 3rd line which might disappoint some. But it won’t disappoint me, because it’ll mean that the team has a hell of a lot of depth.
I eagerly await to see how he develops as a player.