It’s finally happened.
A much-speculated roster move finally came to fruition on Friday morning, with the Blackhawks recalling 2022 No. 13 overall pick Frank Nazar from the Rockford Ice Hogs.
Got any plans for Sunday? 👀
— Chicago Blackhawks (@NHLBlackhawks) December 13, 2024
🎟️: https://t.co/kr4mLa84sM pic.twitter.com/DkMN2HEmae
That roster space was made available by the team placing defenseman Alec Martinez on injured reserve, retroactive to Dec. 7 with a neck injury that prompted Martinez to fly home on Thursday from the team’s current road trip for further evaluation.
Nazar, who’ll turn 21 in January, has been lighting up the AHL this season while leading the IceHogs with 24 points (11 G, 13 A) in 21 games. His 11 goals are seventh in the AHL and his 24 points are sixth in that league while he leads all AHL rookies in goals and points.
Here’s a quick sample of what Nazar’s been up to with Rockford:
Hawks’ fans, here’s 2:19 of what you can expect from Frank Nazar 🎥
— Dana Grey (@DanaGrey0) December 13, 2024
– Leads AHL rookies with 11g, 24pts
– 8-game home point streak leads league
– Paces RFD in PPG(4), SHG(2) pic.twitter.com/BJie2pc3xY
And here’s a reminder of what Nazar did when he made his NHL debut last season:
FRANK NAZAR SCORES HIS FIRST NHL GOAL ON HIS FIRST NHL SHOT ‼️👏 pic.twitter.com/KWIeewZeR4
— Chicago Blackhawks (@NHLBlackhawks) April 14, 2024
According to this article over at The Athletic, Nazar is expected to make his debut on Saturday when the Blackhawks play on the road against the New Jersey Devils.
This weekend’s back-to-back suddenly just got a little bit more interesting, didn’t it?
[FRIDAY PRACTICE UPDATE] Based on how things looked during Friday’s practice, Nazar will be given every opportunity to produce at the NHL level just like he was at the AHL level:
Looks like Frank Nazar will make his NHL season debut tomorrow against the Devils. These are Blackhawks’ forward lines in practice today: Kurashev-Bedard-Donato Hall-Nazar-Bertuzzi Foligno-Dickinson-Mikheyev Maroon-Reichel-Teravainen
— Ben Pope (@benpopecst.bsky.social) December 13, 2024 at 12:22 PM
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(Why Nazar’s arrival had to coincide with a demotion for Teuvo seems a touch perplexing, but maybe he and Reichel find a connection which turns that line into something worthy of more ice time.)
Nazar will also share some ice time with Connor Bedard on the Blackhawks’ top power-play unit:
Nazar is on the top power play unit. He and Bedard are hashing things out between drills.
— Mark Lazerus (@marklazerus.bsky.social) December 13, 2024 at 12:24 PM
After practice, Nazar said he received the news of his call-up on Thursday night before quickly hopping on a flight out east:
Frank Nazar said Rockford GM Mark Bernard called him last night and told him he’d been called up and needed to fly to Newark. “I was kinda shocked. You get a random call at night from the GM, you can expect what he’s gonna say, but you never know. To hear the good news, it was a lot of joy.”
— Ben Pope (@benpopecst.bsky.social) December 13, 2024 at 1:17 PM