The Blackhawks officially finalized their roster Tuesday ahead of opening night by sending goaltender Collin Delia, as expected, to the Rockford IceHogs in the AHL.
Brendan Perlini and Slater Koekkoek took the 13th forward and seventh defenseman jobs, respectively, after the Blackhawks assigned forward Anton Wedin and defenseman Dennis Gilbert to the AHL on Monday.
Defenseman Connor Murphy (groin) and forward John Quenneville (right hip), who was placed on waivers last week but never assigned to Rockford, were placed on injured reserve Tuesday.
Chicago’s top prospect in Kirby Dach (concussion protocol) will start the season on injured/non-roster designation. Dach, who was selected third overall in this year’s NHL draft, traveled with the team to Europe this week for the NHL Global Series despite being in concussion protocol. He was placed in protocol after sustaining an injury in the seventh-place game of the NHL Prospect Prospect Tournament on Sept. 10 in Traverse City, Michigan. He has started practicing with the team, but is “unlikely” to play in the team’s opener against Philadelphia on Friday in Prague, according to general manager Stan Bowman.
Bowman has indicated Dach will be given some or all of a nine-game NHL “tryout” for the team to decide whether they want to keep Dach and use the first year of his entry-level contract or send him to the Saskatoon Blades in the WHL. He scored 25 goals and 73 points in 62 WHL regular-season games and five goals and eight points in 10 playoff games last season.
The Blackhawks have $1,249,887 in salary cap space, according to CapFriendly.
Forwards: Drake Caggiula, Ryan Carpenter, Kirby Dach, Alex DeBrincat, David Kampf, Patrick Kane, Dominik Kubalik, Alex Nylander, Brendan Perlini, Brandon Saad, Andrew Shaw, Zack Smith, Dylan Strome, Jonathan Toews
Defensemen: Calvin de Haan, Erik Gustafsson, Duncan Keith, Slater Koekkoek, Olli Maatta, Connor Murphy, Brent Seabrook
Goaltenders: Corey Crawford, Robin Lehner