Updated Monday 10:30am: The Chicago Blackhawks are whittling down the roster to the mandatory 23 for Tuesday’s regular season opener on the road against the Pittsburgh Penguins. The big news of the day is that per a release from the team, Isaak Phillips has been assigned to Rockford which means that Kevin Korchinski will be with the team tomorrow for opening night.
Looking at the Whole Picture
As of now, the following have been sent back to Rockford as expected: David Gust, Mike Hardman and Brett Seney. All three were called up for the preseason finale yesterday, which the Blackhawks lost 5-3 to St. Louis. The other notable was releasing Anders Bjork from his professional tryout and assigning him to Rockford as well. Joey Anderson was also placed on waivers.
Blackhawks Locks Include Bedard; Netminders Set As Well
The Blackhawks goalies are set with Petr Mrazek and Arvid Soderblom making up the tandem. Connor Bedard is a lock as well as the expected veterans in Taylor Hall, Nick Foligno, and Corey Perry to name a few.
It was murkier with some of the forwards and remaining eight defensemen. But taking into account who was sent back and is still on the list, here’s how it likely shakes out as confirmation has yet to happen:
- MacKenzie Entwistle, Reese Johnson and Boris Katchouk all stay up
- Colton Dach goes back to Rockford
With Philipp Kurashev still injured, he’ll go on the IR to keep an extra player. So now defensively knowing that Phillips heads to Rockford, here are the seven on the blue line:
- Connor Murphy, Seth Jones, Wyatt Kaiser, Kevin Korchinski, Alex Vlasic, Nikita Zaitsev, and Jarred Tinordi
Yesterday I wrote this:
If Korchinski goes back to Seattle, he’s there for the entire season. The conventional thought here is that Phillips goes to Rockford and Korchinski likely gets at least nine games. Phillips could be called up at any point, especially if Zaitsev is seeing his performance akin to Saturday’s play.
Korchinski has been featured enough with enough play that he’s likely on the roster for the entire season. The game he plays can be grown at the NHL level by a former defenseman who knows what to look for.
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