On June 20, 2008, former Blackhawks G.M. Dale Tallon rolled the dice on Kyle Beach, a player considered to be of high skill and physicality, but also known to have some character issues.
Despite the known risk that saw this kid fall from what was projected to be a top-five pick by some, Chicago used the 11th overall pick to select Beach from the WHL's Everett Silvertips. Although he racked up a whopping 222 penalty minutes in the season leading up to that draft he also posted a point per game, good for third on the team behind a pair of 2007 draftees.
On paper, the move seemed solid. Hoping that Beach would be able to get his head in order, the Hawks grabbed the best available player on the board, and saw him joining the team after his WHL career was over and maybe a season down in Rockford.
His final season in the WHL yielded promising results, with Beach not losing his nasty edge (186 PIM), and putting up some amazing offensive numbers: 68 games played, 52 goals, 34 assists.
During this time, Beach's reputation as a non-ideal player grew.
However, the top level talent was still there, and Beach saw limited action for the AHL' ...
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Article written by Jim Weihofen
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July 7th, 2012 by Jim Weihofen Leave a reply »
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