On Sunday, the Chicago Blackhawks were idle. Their AHL affiliate, the Rockford IceHogs, however, was not. Rockford was at the Allstate Arena to take on the Chicago Wolves for Sunday night hockey.
Rockford was defeated in regulation by a score of 4-2, but the story of the game was their newest goaltender, Adam Gajan.
Gajan was a second-round pick, 35th overall, by the Chicago Blackhawks in the 2023 NHL Draft. He has had a very interesting year, which included his first pro contract a couple of weeks ago.
This was the first pro game for Gajan, making his AHL debut with Rockford. Although his team lost, he gave them a chance to win by making 36 saves on 39 shots.
Gajan looked quite sharp this afternoon, stopping 36 Wolves shots. He more than gave the IceHogs a chance to earn points🎥 pic.twitter.com/VubfDd1TZF
The IceHogs are the third team that Gajan has played for this season. He was one of the NCAA's top goaltenders with the University of Minnesota Duluth, and he was also a part of Team Slovakia at the Winter Olympic Games in Milano Cortina. He didn't see any game action there, but it was a great learning experience in the early stages of his development.
With Gajan making this start, he became the 7th goalie to play for Rockford this season, which sets a team record. Even for an AHL team, where there is a lot of movement between the NHL and ECHL, that's a lot of goalies.
Next season, the Blackhawks are projected to have Spencer Knight, Arvid Soderblom, Drew Commesso, and Adam Gajan in the mix for different roles. For a kid like Gajan still developing, this was a great start to begin his ascention within the organization that drafted him.
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