Chicago Blackhawks‘ 1st round pick in the 2011 draft (#18 overall) 2nd year center Mark McNeill(28) is on his way to new career highs in scoring with minor league affiliate Rockford IceHogs.
He had 18 goals and 19 assists for 37 points in a full slate of 76 AHL games as a rookie and has already tied his goals mark and is only one off his helpers total in only 53 appearances so far.
Chosen as a replacement to appear in the 2015 All-Star game, he paced the Western Conference 14-12 win with a hat trick.
The pretty sturdily sized 6’2″ 218 lbs. power forward was basically a scoring machine in his last three seasons of junior hockey with Prince Albert Raiders scoring just over a point-per-game.
He led the team in scoring as team captain in his fourth and final year.
Signed through 2015/2016, he’s on a three-year entry level deal.
The 22-year old has yet to realize a recall on a parent club with so much depth and maybe would have scored the dream of an NHL early in the current campaign, if he hadn’t been downed by a blazing puck to the knee that had him sit for a stretch.