While the Blackhawks currently find themselves near the bottom of the NHL standings, the team has been a bit more exciting to watch lately. That’s because young players like Frank Nazar, Landon Slaggert, Colton Dach, Ethan Del Mastro and Nolan Allan have begun to flood the NHL lineup, finally migrating to the league. They’ve each been excellent, more than holding their own at the game’s top level. In some cases, that’s given them more ice time, though we have yet to see the elusive lineup with nine players ages 23 and younger, a possibility given the names currently on the roster (adding Connor Bedard, Alex Vlasic, Louis Crevier and Lukas Reichel to the previous list).
Lately, though, Chicago has gotten even further away from that possibility. While the Blackhawks have a chance to put together a pretty exciting lineup, they’ve inexplicably done exactly the opposite with their latest groupings.
In practice Tuesday, Chicago rolled out a brand-new lineup that looks a bit different than usual:
Landon Slaggert – Connor Bedard – Ryan Donato
Teuvo Teravainen – Jason Dickinson – Ilya Mikheyev
Nick Foligno – Frank Nazar – Tyler Bertuzzi
Pat Maroon – Lukas Reichel – Craig Smith
Alec Martinez – Seth Jones
Alex Vlasic – Connor Murphy
Ethan Del Mastro – TJ Brodie
Nolan Allan – Artyom Levshunov
Petr Mrazek
Arvid Soderblom
Wait… what? When interim head coach Anders Sorensen took over in December, he told fans that he would change his lines less than Luke Richardson had, as that had created a big problem in the roster’s consistency. Now, he’s not only changed them, but has made them almost hard to watch.
The reason behind the switch is obvious – the team is trying to give players like Donato as much help as possible in hopes that they can get some extra value in a trade. But we’ve said it time and time again – the Blackhawks don’t need another third-round pick. Their primary goal at this point is to develop the talent they already have, and how does a lineup with 13 players ages 28 and older accomplish that?
It’s bad enough that Chicago isn’t giving its top players more ice time, putting together lines like Slaggert – Bedard – Nazar to give them some time together. But the lineup becomes even worse when it means young players are going to be scratched. Colton Dach has been excellent for almost all of his time in Chicago, but he’ll be watching Wednesday’s game from the press box. The same goes for Nolan Allan, who will be the extra defenseman when Levshunov is sent back to Rockford. Even Philipp Kurashev, who is having a brutal season, would be a better choice for the Blackhawks’ long-term goals than Maroon or Smith.
With Chicago wrapping up on Saturday before the Four Nations Face-Off, there’s a good chance that players like Dach, Allan and Del Mastro are sent to the AHL to get more run – the IceHogs play four games that week. Like any move to Rockford, that means there’s a chance one or two of them isn’t brought back after the break, especially with two players now on IR. That makes the current lineup more inexcusable – if there’s a chance they’ll be with the IceHogs for a while, why wouldn’t the Blackhawks want the young skaters to get a longer look?
