A flurry of roster moves and injury updates arrived on Friday morning, as the Chicago Blackhawks inch closer to the first game of the regular season next Wednesday.
The initial news wasn’t good, as defenseman Caleb Jones’ reported “wrist soreness” has been diagnosed as a left wrist strain that will have him out until, roughly, mid-November:
MEDICAL UPDATES: Defenseman Caleb Jones is expected to miss approximately six weeks (left wrist strain).
Forwards Jonathan Toews and Jujhar Khaira and goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury will not practice today (maintenance).
— Chicago Blackhawks (@NHLBlackhawks) October 8, 2021
A trio of veterans were absent from Friday’s practice as indicated above, with several other young players also gone after multiple roster moves that trimmed Chicago’s roster down to 32. Among the moves were:
- Colton Dach, Chicago’s 2021 second-round pick, was re-assigned to his junior team, the WHL’s Kelowna Rockets
- Nolan Allan, Chicago’s 2021 first-round pick, was re-assigned to the WHL’s Prince Albert Raiders
- Forwards Evan Barratt and Dmitri Osipov were re-assigned to the Rockford IceHogs/
Those moves gave perhaps the clearest look we’ve seen at what the Blackhawks lineup could be for next week’s season opener:
#Blackhawks lines and pairings:
DeBrincat-Johnson-Kane
Gaudette/Borgstrom-Dach-Hagel
Kubalik-Strome-Kurashev/Nylander
Hardman-Carpenter-Johnson/Entwistlede Haan-Jones
McCabe-Murphy
Stillman-Mitchell
Galvas-Beaudin*Toews, Khaira not practicing (maintenance)
— Charlie Roumeliotis (@CRoumeliotis) October 8, 2021
This is especially true on the blue line, where the injuries to Caleb Jones and Wyatt Kalynuk have left room for Ian Mitchell, Jakub Galvas and Nicolas Beaudin to be among the parent club’s members come next Wednesday.