In eight days, the Blackhawks will be in Utah to open the 2024-25 regular season. But training camp rolled along on Monday as the Blackhawks continued inching closer to the lineup that’ll take the ice that night.
Following a round of cuts on Sunday, a pair of veteran forwards cleared waivers on Monday and followed the aforementioned roster cuts to Rockford.
A curious absence from practice has been defenseman Wyatt Kaiser, who hasn’t been seen since last week. The update on Kaiser from coach Luke Richardson was that another update would be arriving soon.
Over the last week, 2024 third-round pick AJ Spellacy has been one of the standout performers in training camp, particularly in the preseason games that included him in the lineup. Those efforts are part of the reason why Spellacy hasn’t been sent back to his junior team yet, although that is still the plan, per Richardson:
Frank Nazar hasn’t had quite as strong of a showing during the preseason but Richardson sounded upbeat about a change in that fortune before the season arrives:
As mentioned in the second tweet in the thread above, Chicago’s lineups for the next two preseason games on the schedule this week. Monday’s practice lineup offered some possible clues but was not a conclusive look:
Teuvo was skating with a different practice group and will almost certainly be in that top six. Spellacy is on his way to Windsor eventually, so he won’t be in that lineup. Ryan Donato could factor in somewhere on the bottom two lines along with Joey Anderson and Craig Smith, assuming the latter won’t remain on the second line to start the season. On the blue line, it seems like Korchinski may actually end up starting the season in Chicago due to Wyatt Kaiser’s continued absence. Still a ways to go between now and next Tuesday, though, with ice time still to be earned in the remaining preseason slate.