{"id":21506,"date":"2018-09-06T12:33:34","date_gmt":"2018-09-06T16:33:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=21506"},"modified":"2018-09-13T11:32:26","modified_gmt":"2018-09-13T15:32:26","slug":"auroras-sikura-feels-ready-for-nhls-blackhawks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/auroras-sikura-feels-ready-for-nhls-blackhawks\/","title":{"rendered":"Aurora\u2019s Sikura feels \u201cready\u201d for NHL\u2019s Blackhawks"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Jake Courtepatte<\/strong><\/p>\n

When Dylan Sikura takes to the ice in Traverse City, Michigan this weekend for the Chicago Blackhawks annual prospects tournament, the speedy forward will be putting his skills to the test against some of the Hawks\u2019 elite first and second round draft choices.
\nFor the Aurora native, his path to the big leagues has been more of a journey since being drafted in the sixth round four years ago: but one he says he is now ready for.
\n\u201cYeah, it\u2019s definitely a little different to be surrounded by those guys,\u201d said Sikura, the latest pick to take part in the tournament. \u201cBut I think at this point in our careers, if you\u2019re here, you\u2019re here. It doesn\u2019t really matter where you got drafted, if you got drafted or whatnot. Like I said before, I don\u2019t think it matters too much where you go, but the organization that picks you and if it\u2019s the right fit. Obviously Chicago\u2019s been nothing but perfect for me so far. This is a pretty cool experience being here.\u201d
\nThe 22-year old Sikura spent most of three seasons with the OJHL\u2019s Aurora Tigers, before becoming a prominent piece up the middle for the NCAA\u2019s Northeastern University Huskies over the past four seasons.
\nOver four seasons at Northeastern, Sikura averaged more than a point per game, with 58 goals, 88 assists and 146 points in 137 games.
\nSikura\u2019s college career ended with an upset when the Michigan Wolverines beat Northeastern 3-2 in the first round of the 2017-18 NCAA tournament. He signed an entry-level contract worth $925,000 with the Blackhawks shortly after.
\nDescribed by Hawks brass as having a \u201cmeteoric rise\u201d up the Blackhawks prospect charts in recent years, Sikura jumped from twenty-second to fifth on the Hawks \u201cTop 25 Under 25\u201d list released by the team last month.
\nHis five games spent in the NHL late last season, where he showed chemistry with some other big-name young wingers like Alex DeBrincat and Brandon Saad in putting up three assists in five games, helped his cause significantly.
\n\u201cI think that was huge,\u201d said Sikura. \u201cEven though it was just five games, I think I got a taste of what the league is like. I got to play against some pretty special players and see them at their highest form. I think it\u2019s just good to have a benchmark like that, kind of compare yourself to other players throughout the league and see how you match up and what you need to work on.\u201d
\n\u201cThis summer I was obviously able to use that little experience I had with those five games and kind of remember what it\u2019s like. Obviously it\u2019s been a huge summer for me and getting pretty antsy and ready to get back out to Chicago.\u201d
\nSikura will also have another familiar name at training camp this season: older brother Tyler Sikura, the 26-year old centreman who signed with the Blackhawks last year, and a current member of the Blackhawks\u2019 AHL affiliate, the Rockford IceHogs.
\nThe brothers last skated together as members of the St. Andrew\u2019s College Saints in Aurora.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s going to be pretty special,\u201d said the younger Sikura. \u201cI don\u2019t think I\u2019ve played with him since I was in Grade 9. We played a little bit of high school hockey together. For me, it\u2019s my first main camp, so I don\u2019t know what to expect too much. He\u2019ll definitely be someone that I lean on while I\u2019m there. We\u2019ve been training together this summer. He\u2019s been working hard, keeping tabs on each other. I think that\u2019ll be a pretty special moment for us to be there together.\u201d<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When Dylan Sikura takes to the ice in Traverse City, Michigan this weekend for the Chicago Blackhawks annual prospects tournament, the speedy forward will be putting his skills to the test against some of the Hawks\u2019 elite first and second round draft choices.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":21502,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[24,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21506","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-sports","category-sports"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-5AS","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-09-01 19:07:31","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/2018-09-06-10.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21506","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21506"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21506\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21506"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21506"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21506"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}