While the NHL’s holiday roster freeze helps give front offices around the league some well-deserved time off, it certainly makes things more hectic right before things officially shut down. The Blackhawks are no exception, making a few moves right before the freeze, which apparently got in right before the midnight deadline.
The most notable move for the Blackhawks was the decision to send defenseman Wyatt Kaiser to Rockford. It’s an interesting move – Kaiser was excellent for most of the start of the season. He appeared to be the “next Alex Vlasic” after taking the same path one year after the budding star. However, he plateaued in his last few performances before ultimately being a healthy scratch in each of the past three games. The Blackhawks probably didn’t put too much stock into it, but it isn’t the best look for Kaiser that the team won each of the last three games without him.
By the Blackhawks’ standards of the past few years, Kaiser has absolutely deserved a roster spot. However, it’s slowly becoming clear that Chicago is building an absolute unit of a defense from the ground up. Beyond Vlasic, who already looks like a superstar, players like Kevin Korchinski, Nolan Allan and even Louis Crevier have looked more than capable. If a skater like him can’t stay with the big club, that’s a great problem for the Blackhawks to have.
In addition, Chicago placed Craig Smith on IR retroactive to December 12. He’s missed the last four games due to injury and would be eligible to return to the lineup Saturday if he’s healthy, though that would seem unlikely given the timing of the news. With Smith out with a back injury, Joey Anderson has been filling in on the fourth line next to Pat Maroon and Lukas Reichel.
Earlier this week, the Blackhawks also activated Petr Mrazek off of IR, assigning Drew Commesso back to the IceHogs. Commesso was able to start one game while in Chicago, and while he let in four goals, his performance was certainly a promising one. Arvid Soderblom still started Thursday’s game against the Kraken, so it would appear Mrazek would be in line to start on Saturday. We’ll have to see if he’s ready to go after his groin injury, the likes of which can take time to heal for goaltenders.
