Blackhawks place Nick Foligno on injured reserve

Foligno is out of the lineup due to a hand injury, one that he sustained late in the second period of the Blackhawks game against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday. When the Blackhawks were in the defensive zone, Foligno was covering Jake McCabe at the blueline. McCabe fired a shot towards the net, but it deflected off of Foligno’s hand. Foligno was immediately in pain and skated to the bench, and did not return to the game.

With Foligno’s IR placement retroactive to that game against the Maple Leafs, he will at least miss the next three games on Tuesday against the Calgary Flames, Thursday against the Seattle Kraken, and Friday against the Buffalo Sabres. He will be eligible to return for Sunday’s game against the Colorado Avalanche, although it’s unknown if his timeline for return is longer than that.

At this point in time, the Blackhawks have no plans to call up a player from the AHL to fill out the roster spot. Defenseman Sam Rinzel was the team’s only healthy scratch on Saturday, so unless one of Tyler Bertuzzi or Jason Dickinson is eligible to return to the lineup for Tuesday’s game, Chicago will likely roll with a lineup of 11 forwards and seven defensemen.

While Foligno is currently producing at around his usual pace of 30-40 points this season with six in 15 games, he has struggled to put the puck in the net, as all six points being assists. He currently has the fourth-most points among forwards without a goal this season.

The Blackhawks will look to add to their five-game point streak without Foligno when they host the Flames at 7:30 p.m. CST. Chicago sits fourth in the Central Division with a 9-5-4 record, good enough for the first wild card spot in the Western Conference.