The Blackhawks submitted their official 2021 Opening Day roster to the NHL on Tuesday.
While a public announcement won’t come until Wednesday, a series of transactions and updates over the past few days has given a fairly clear picture of how it’ll look.
Most notably, Brent Seabrook is suffering from another undisclosed injury and still not able to skate, general manager Stan Bowman revealed.
The 35-year-old defenseman hasn’t played since December after undergoing a trifecta of shoulder and hip surgeries, but Bowman has previously told The Athletic that Seabrook’s absence from training camp was unrelated to those.
Now, Seabrook seems again weeks away from game readiness with his new ailment.
“[We] hope to have him on the ice in the near future,” Bowman said. “But I don’t know when exactly that’s going to be. He’s still not to the point yet where he can skate. Once he does get back on the ice, we’ll see how that feels. And then obviously he’s a couple of weeks behind in terms of game shape and conditioning, so it’ll take some time for him to ramp it up.”
Carl Soderberg, who — like Seabrook — also missed the entirety of training camp, has finally received his visa and traveled to Chicago, Bowman said. He’s beginning his NHL-mandated seven-day quarantine and should debut in the Hawks’ home opener Jan. 22.
Also Tuesday, the Hawks placed Alex Nylander (knee) on Long-Term Injured Reserve and Zack Smith (back) on Injured Reserve.
The Smith situation remains perplexing, given that he was thought to be healthy enough for camp until the Hawks declined to invite him and placed him on waivers on the first day.
Jonathan Toews and Kirby Dach will presumably end up on LTIR or IR eventually, but their lack of assignment Tuesday is likely due to salary cap gymnastics.
Finally, the Hawks assigned the four players they waived Monday — John Quenneville, Anton Lindholm, Nick Seeler and Matt Tomkins — to the AHL after they cleared waivers.
All of those moves left 15 forwards, nine defensemen and three goaltenders — for a total of 27 players — left on the Hawks’ unofficial roster. At least four of those guys must have received taxi squad assignments Tuesday.
Most unclear entering Opening Day is the Hawks’ goaltending situation, as coach Jeremy Colliton has repeatedly avoided naming a starter or favorite between Malcolm Subban and Collin Delia.
Both have taken some first-team reps; only one will start Wednesday against the Lightning.
