So I was looking at Twitter (Which is never good for me), I read how a lot of Hawks fans are very disappointed in Dach and he's not living up to expectations as a 3rd overall pick and I even saw a person labeling him as a "bust".

First of all people got to remember he just missed 5 months due to a wrist surgery, and reports are coming out that he has wrist pain when he shoots. I think he's having a scoring slump and doesn't want to shoot but when I see him on the ice or on Hawks goals, he's the one creating the scoring opportunity and he's creating offensive opportunity. I think this is all going to go away next season when his wrist his fully healed. But Dach is a great skater for his size and he's a hard and determined player, he's good in the defensive zone and creates plenty of scoring opportunity. Dach is still developing and only has 74 NHL games in his career. But you and I've seen what he is capable of doing and he's going to be a stud.
Not to even mention he's a .5 ppg since returning.
@Stan_Bowman
@ChiHawk
@Wadejos123
Very Interested to hear your thoughts about this!

@exo2769
@ForsbergForVezina
@HatterTParty
Also very interested to hear your thoughts about this!

There are a couple things about Dach and his performance. He has the tools, He's made great plays AND I don't AT ALL think he's a bust. Kid can't even drink yet! To your point...he hasn't had a ton of time to learn. Whether that be the injury you mentioned or COVID keeping him from the team/team practices or just his age meaning he needs to learn more quickly.

The issue I'm starting to have is his skating "with a purpose". He's not moving at the pace everyone else is. I dont mean pace literally either. Its not a speed issue, its the speed of the game. Example - He gets back into the defensive zone and it appears that his approach is more....since I'm the center I should probably be further away from the net than the Dmen, but not against the boards where my wingers are ..so I'll roam here in the middle for a bit until I actually figure out what I'm supposed to be doing. I'm NOT trying to call the kid stupid either! Don't take it that way. It's just taking a lot of time for him to adjust to NHL pace in my mind. Its another reason I want to keep Reichel in the DEL another season. That's for a different post though I'm sure.

I’ll be totally honest, I’ve been a little checked out when it comes to Dach lately. Hasn’t really stood out, good or bad (your point) and this season feels like a bit of a wash for him, especially since he didn’t have a real training camp and then jumped in as everyone else was already establishing chemistry with each other.

All of that said, he’s not a bust lmao. I would say if he underperforms against next year, that’s when some doubt might start to creep in. But he’s still learning the game and its speed, like @exo2769 said I think once he figures those things out, we’re going to start to see some real growth.

I’ll admit, I can give a slight sliver of sympathy for Dach’s injury being a cause for his current status. It is still concerning to me that it happened in a wjc tune up game, but that’s still largely a fluke.

However, my opinion on Dach on the whole hasn’t changed very much if at all this season. He has tools, and he has promise, but I have to mirror exo’s comments on his skating for one point. The focused effort isn’t there still. Also, unless he’s changed it up in recent games, Dach’s desire to deke through everyone still drives me crazy. I don’t much care how good his hands are if he’s not using them productively and responsibly. I do believe that him playing with Brandon Hagel has been a massive help because Hagel is honestly someone Dach should look up to in terms of effort and relentlessness. That all being said, I am still deeply concerned about how he’ll play without Kane on this team. Him playing with Hagel, though, has been a decent start.

Even I’d never call Dach a bust, and I never have used that word. I just am not convinced, to this day, that he’s exactly what the hawks need going forward or will lead them to a cup.

I know this is a couple weeks ago but agree. I think Bowman is forcing guys like Boqvist, Mitchell, Dach into situations they shouldn't be in. In other words, these guys need development time. It's not fair to expect a 19 or 20 year old to play well at the NHL level, and in most cases does more harm then good to call them up early. Keith took until 22 to be in the NHL and until 25 years old to figure it out and be a force. Throwing these kids into the fire without working on tuning them up for the pros is just damaging. We've seen it clearly happen, albeit not with the Hawks, with Nylander and Strome as well...although there issues go beyond that, but nonetheless throwing kids into the fire often times hurts their development. Kappo is another example of this as well as Dahlin. Guys like Kane, McDavid, Makar are so few and far between, most of these kids need more time.

His rookie year was better then Kappo Kakko and Jack Hughes like what?

I like Dach. I think he's the future 1C of this team. It has been frusterating to see him A) refuse to shoot the puck, it was a problem even before the wrist injury, and B) not be able to win faceoffs. Both are things that he will get better at as he develops. He's only 20. Absolutly not a bust. If he's a bust then Hughes and Kakko are too. I will add that I would be winning to trade Dach+ for Eichel, depending on what the plus is of course. But Eichel is the only guy in the league who is available that I would move Dach for. Absolutly not for Seth Jones or anyone else.