Morning Skate Update: Taylor Raddysh done for the season

A few updates ahead of the Blackhawks games against the Seattle Kraken at Climate Pledge Arena Saturday night.

The Blackhawks top-six is once again shuffling around due to injury as Taylor Raddysh is ruled out for season with a groin injury.

Additionally, it was reported that Lukas Reichel and Alex Vlasic would be sent back to the Rockford after tonight’s game to help bolster the IceHogs’ playoff chances. Rockford has dropped to fifth in the Central Division since Reichel was recalled on March 2 and they have five more games to secure their postseason spot.

While Reichel will play against Seattle, Vlasic is expected to be a healthy scratch. Coach Luke Richardson has been rotating Vlasic and Wyatt Kaiser on the bottom pairing, and Vlasic soon-to-be demotion isn’t impacting that process, so Kaiser will draw back into the lineup to be paired with Jarred Tinordi.

Andreas Englund and Nikita Zaitsev will both be scratched as well, the latter for the third straight game.

With Raddysh out, the top two forward lines are mixed up from what the Blackhawk rolled out against the Canucks Thursday. Andreas Athanasiou was moved back to center, but remains with Lukas Reichel, while Jonathan Toews was split from those two to center Tyler Johnson and Jason Dickinson instead. Anders Bjork has taken the biggest leap, going from the fourth line to top-six.

And the goalie rotation continues, so Petr Mrazek will be starting tonight.

And since the Blackhawks are in Seattle, Mark Lazerus from The Athletic took some time chat with Blackhawks prospects  Kevin Korchinski, Nolan Allan, and Colton Dach with the Thunderbirds. They just swept the Kelowna Rockets to advance to the second round of the 2023 WHL Playoffs.

Specifically, the the trio talked about how there’s a possibility of them being a part the future core of the Blackhawks. Nolan Allan summed it up perfectly:

“Those dynasty years they had from 2010 to 2015, those are legendary. You dream of doing something like that. To think that maybe something like that could happen in the future one day …”

Dach and Korchinski also touched on how the Thunderbirds fans and players held their own unofficial Pride Night to show support for teammate Luke Prokop, the only out gay player in the WHL. As Blackhawks prospect Kevin Korchinski put it

“It’s always going to be younger generations stepping up and making the world a better place.”

For more, check out Lazerus’ article here:

As for Seattle, the Kraken lineup was also shuffled around from when they played the Arizona Coyotes Thursday. Jaden Schwartz missed morning skate, but the Kraken beat writers think that he’s likely to still play. Ryan Donato was in Schwartz’s place during line rushes, but if he’ll likely move back to the fourth line if Schwartz plays.

Martin Jones is expected to be the starter:

Also, it’s fun to see how excited the Seattle fans are about their team making the playoffs for the first time and showed it at practice:

Remember that feeling, Blackhawks fans?