SUNRISE, FLA. — The goals will come for Nick Schmaltz, they always do. Just when that will be, and as much as he wants them to get here already, he doesn’t know.
But Schmaltz expects them to arrive in bunches. They always do.
“It’s definitely a confidence thing,” he said. “And once you get on a roll, you get that touch. It’s just how it works sometimes.”
It has been a frustrating season for Schmaltz, who was expected to equal or exceed last season’s breakout 21-goal campaign. There’s still time for that to happen, of course, but he has only two goals so far and none in his last eight games.
The waiting isn’t easy, but Schmaltz isn’t brooding over it. With assists in three straight games — including on Erik Gustafsson’s overtime game-winner Saturday against the Panthers — he has been doing his best to contribute where he can.
Because there are worse things for Schmaltz than not scoring goals. There’s being invisible on the ice.
“You don’t want to have those games where you’re unnoticeable and come back after the game and say you didn’t really give it your all and you could have made some more plays out there,” Schmaltz said.
After scoring six goals in 61 games as a rookie in 2016-17, Schmaltz scored only four goals in his first 25 games last season. Then, on Dec. 10, he had a goal against the Coyotes that propelled him on a run in which he scored eight during a 13-game span.
Hawks coach Jeremy Colliton knows what he has in Schmaltz, who earlier this season was a healthy scratch in Joel Quenneville’s second-to-last game before getting fired.
“He’s definitely shown flashes where he can be a dominant player,” Colliton said. “The feedback we’re giving him is that the skating, when you don’t have the puck, (needs to) get to full speed. When you don’t have the puck to pressure the puck, to get on the forecheck to create turnovers, because he’s as good as anyone when he’s doing that.”
Schmaltz is in the final year of his entry-level deal and will be a restricted free agent next summer unless he signs a new deal with the Hawks. There's also the possibility he could be traded this season if the Hawks fall out of the playoff picture. There won’t be a ton of 22-year-old forwards who have had a 21-goal season on the market in February.
The Hawks were in a similar position with Ryan Hartman last season and dealt him to the Predators for a first-round pick and prospect Victor Ejdsell. Schmaltz has a higher upside than Hartman and likely would command a greater haul.
None of that is on Schmaltz’s mind, he said.
“I just try to take care of each game every day and get better,” Schmaltz said. “It’s out of your control, management controls that, so it’s a business. Play as hard as you can and worry about that stuff as it comes along.”
Johnson to Rockford: The Blackhawks reassigned forward Luke Johnson to the IceHogs on Sunday. Johnson had one assist in 13 games with the Hawks.
Twitter @jcgreenx
