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Blackhawks Training Camp Day 2: Suter returns to practice, Smith clears waivers

Posted on by Dave Melton

One Blackhawks forward returned to action and a second cleared waivers as the team took to the ice for its second day of practice at Fifth-Third Arena on Tuesday.

After missing Monday’s practice, European import Pius Suter was on the ice for Tuesday’s practice while Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported that Zack Smith cleared waivers.

There was also some front office movement, as Norm Maciver left the Blackhawks to join the expansion team in Seattle, according to this report from Scott Powers and Mark Lazerus of The Athletic.

As for the action on the ice, here’s a probably-way-too-early look at line combinations that have emerged over the first two days:

The inclusion of Brandon Pirri in Chicago’s top-nine is a curious one, especially with the Blackhawks allegedly focusing on their younger players. A soon-to-be-30-year-old forward who’s been a fringe AHL/NHL talent for the majority of his career would seem to be antithetical to a youth movement. Let’s not spend any more time on this topic but keep an eye on it for future rage-based content.

Parsing through more tweets, here’s a rough look at where the top three D pairings currently stand after two practices. Again, there’s only so much that can be concluded this early in the practice schedule, but it’s also worth considering with the Hawks’ first game just eight days away:

Keith — Murphy
Zadorov — Boqvist
de Haan — Mitchell

Speaking of defensemen, here’s a highlight from defenseman Ian Mitchell, Chicago’s second-round pick (57th overall) in the 2017 NHL Draft who’s expected to start the season at the NHL level:

Collin Delia passed a quick test early in the scrimmage:

Matthew Highmore finished the 2020 season on a positive note with a strong postseason performance and was someone to watch during Tuesday’s happenings, according to Powers:

One of the goals from the scrimmage scored by Dylan Strome, no doubt buoyed by his recent contract extension:

The scrimmage was tied up 2-2 thanks to this tally from John Quenneville:

Here’s the final tally from Tuesday’s “game”

Talking Points