Blackhawks Recall Dillon Boucher; Place Bowen Byram On IR

The Chicago Blackhawks need insurance now that veteran winger Patrick Kane is set to miss a few games with an upper-body injury. To that end, the Blackhawks announced they recalled forward Dillon Boucher from the AHL’s Rockford IceHogs. In a corresponding roster move, Chicago moved defenseman Bowen Byram to the injured reserve with an upper-body ailment.

Today’s roster move has a few moving parts. First, the Blackhawks preferred to recall Nick Lardis to replace Kane on the active roster, but he is dealing with his own undisclosed injury, per Scott Powers of The Athletic. Powers added that even though Boucher earned the call-up, he is unlikely to play while Kane is in the press box.

Second, Byram’s move to the injured reserve is strictly procedural. The offseason acquisition has been out with an upper-body injury since mid-October, making him eligible for activation whenever he is healthy. Still, the Blackhawks have been fairly vague regarding Byram’s absence.

Yesterday morning, when it was discovered that Byram wouldn’t practice with Chicago, Ben Pope of the Chicago Sun-Times reported that Byram was seeing a specialist to get him over the “last hurdle.” Despite the heavy cost to acquire him from the Buffalo Sabres this past summer, Byram has registered only one assist in six games with a -7 rating for the Blackhawks, averaging 24:42 of ice time per game.

Meanwhile, the silver lining is that the uber-physical Boucher has the opportunity to make his NHL debut. After spending last year on an AHL deal with the IceHogs, Boucher signed his first NHL contract this past summer. The undrafted free agent scored three goals and eight points in 53 games for Rockford last year, amassing a whopping 114 PIMs.