Throughout the first month of the season, the biggest question surrounding the Blackhawks hasn’t been on what we’ve seen on the ice, but rather, what we haven’t seen. That’s because Chicago’s most notable acquisition from this summer is nowhere to be found.
Laurent Brossoit, who was expected to compete with Petr Mrazek for the starting goaltender spot, would have at least made up one half of one of the better netminding duos in the entire league. Instead, Brossoit is still missing without much explanation. He had a knee surgery back in August that was expected to knock him out until around the start of the season. That soft deadline came and went. We keep getting told that Brossoit is experiencing “setbacks”, and that his timeline is being delayed. In his absence, Mrazek has had a huge workload, and Arvid Soderblom has been excellent.
This week, we learned that the netminder’s timeline is being delayed once again, and this extension could be even more disappointing. According to head coach Luke Richardson, the team isn’t even willing to put an expectation on that timeline, instead extending it indefinitely.
“Really no timeline. We kind of had a timeline, hoping for earlier in the year but we just had to adjust that because it wasn’t ready.”
– Luke Richardson
Well, that’s not great. Earlier in the year, we got some approximate deadlines from the team that just kept getting extended. Now, though, the Blackhawks have thrown that out the window. That suggests he’s still nowhere close to a return.
While a lingering issue like this one would normally be a cause for long-term concern, Richardson said that isn’t necessarily the case.
“I think it’s a little bit more normal with the goaltenders; I think Demko is going through the same type of thing in Vancouver, so I think it’s not uncommon for them to have a little bit longer periods of time than normal players. But again, I think everybody’s body is different. We’re just hoping that it’s progressing and slowly getting back to where we can have him back.”
– Luke Richardson
On the bright side, Mrazek and Soderblom have certainly been holding things down in the meantime. This whole situation may have been a bit of a blessing in disguise – Soderblom has shocked everyone with a .933 save percentage in four games. The 25-year-old was initially the odd man out, with Mrazek and Brossoit sharing the NHL net and Drew Commesso being named the starter in Rockford. Instead, Soderblom has made the most of his opportunity. He seems to have regained much of the confidence that he lost in last year’s disastrous campaign and has renewed his status as a potential long-term option for the Blackhawks in the net.
