Amid a flurry of changes over the weekend, the Blackhawks got a bit more exciting. The team suffered a few disappointing injuries to Alec Martinez and Petr Mrazek, but replaced them with players who, despite not necessarily being ready for the next level, will make Chicago more interesting over the next few weeks. Mrazek is only expected to miss one to two weeks, which is a relief. Chicago called up Drew Commesso and Kevin Korchinski to take the places of Martinez and Mrazek.
On Sunday and Monday, things got a bit more interesting when the Blackhawks made their strangest move yet. Chicago sent forward Joey Anderson through waivers, a risky move that paid off when he cleared on Monday afternoon.
Many believed that the move would immediately lead to the recall of Frank Nazar, who has been dominating in the AHL. However, there’s no news on Nazar’s situation, and he isn’t expected in the NHL for a little while.
For Blackhawks fans wondering when they might see top prospect Frank Nazar in the NHL.. not imminent, but we’re getting close.
Chicago wants its prospects to over-ripen in AHL. Believe the initial call up plan for Nazar was later this season, but timeline has moved up because…
— Emily Kaplan (@emilymkaplan) December 9, 2024
Still, it certainly appears Nazar is “ripe” for the big show. With 24 goals in 20 points in his first professional season so far, he’s crushing it with the IceHogs. A move at this point wouldn’t be to spark some offense, but rather as a reward for an impressive showing this year.
On the other hand, GM Kyle Davidson said last week that he wanted the team to get situated with interim head coach Anders Sorensen, who filled the role on Thursday, before making any moves besides bringing up Commesso and Korchinski. It would have been a complete about-face to call up Nazar immediately after that. Still, there’s very little doubt that Nazar will be in Chicago by the end of the 2024-25 season.
With that being said, the move to put Anderson on waivers without much explanation is a puzzling one. The 26-year-old hasn’t played since November 23, but has been one of Chicago’s more consistent forwards all year. He’s a great defensive forward, which isn’t exactly an advantage on a team searching for offense as quickly as possible. It wouldn’t have been surprising if he had been claimed.
While Nazar wasn’t brought up on Monday, it certainly seems as if Anderson being waived is a precursor to that move being made sometime soon. The Blackhawks now have 30 days to send Anderson to the AHL before he’ll have to clear again to do so. While a lot can happen between now and early January, Chicago has that option available, and probably wouldn’t have risked losing Anderson without having a reason for doing so. Is that reason named Frank Nazar? We’ll see.
