The Chicago Blackhawks made a huge acquisition in Vegas: "The best powerforward in the league"

"It hurt off and on a little bit, it bugged me, but I just tried to move it out of my mind and just did my thing. I'm looking at it pretty positively. I've got six months here to get better and stronger and healthier, so I'm just looking at it as time to keep working hard, be in the gym, and get stronger. There's ups and downs for it, but I'm using it as an up. I don't think this is going to affect a whole lot. A lot of NHL players have had it. So it's just a little bump in the road that I have to come over."

"The way he looks in practice, and the mentality, and the way he's training in the gym, I think Marek's primed to have a huge year. I think he's the best power forward in the CHL, and there were games last year where you could tell he was himself again. He's going to have a massive year, and we're really excited."

"Marek is the guy who does the hard work in the corners, and he's a goal scorer at the net. He's a fierce forechecker. He's very aggressive on his attack for pucks. He's great at hunting pucks down. And he's a finisher."

"With his acceleration and top-end speed, he can be a dual threat in the sense that he can kill off penalties but also chip in here and there with some short-handed goals.

Teams that play with one player at the top of their power play, it's always a threat when you've got a guy like Marek and his speed on the kill if there's a blocked shot or a chipped puck, and you go on the offense pretty quick with a guy like him.

He's got high-end speed with a high level of compete and a great shot. Those combinations really helped propel him. He was a guy who was dominating on the ice often for us (in his draft year)."

"There's a lot there where he hasn't even scraped the surface He's very coachable, and you can tell some kids are out there just kind of going through the motions I feel like he's locked into everything."