A number of expected participants were missing as the Blackhawks began held their first official training camp practice Monday.
Veteran defenseman Brent Seabrook and prospect forward Evan Barratt were ruled simply “unfit to participate,” a term that will finally cease when the regular season begins January 13 but for now provides little specificity.
Seabrook, who participated in July training camp and said then he was nearly game-ready, in particular will be a storyline to follow.
Meanwhile, newly signed forward Carl Soderberg has immigration issues and will join the team soon.
Veteran Zack Smith — who hasn’t played since February after back surgery but whose agent said days ago he would attend — was not invited and instead placed on waivers, per Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman.
The roster includes 36 skaters as mandated by the NHL — the Hawks chose to invite 22 forwards and 14 defensemen — as well as five goaltenders.
The full roster is as follows:
Forwards: Dominik Kubalik, Alex DeBrincat, Mattias Janmark, Dylan Strome, Ryan Carpenter, Philipp Kurashev, Pius Suter, Matthew Highmore, Brandon Hagel, Pius Suter, Cam Morrison, John Quenneville, Reese Johnson, Michal Teply, MacKenzie Entwistle, David Kampf, Andrew Shaw, Matej Chalupa, Lucas Wallmark, Brandon Pirri, Tim Soderlund, Andrei Altybarmakyan, Patrick Kane
Defensemen: Duncan Keith, Connor Murphy, Nikita Zadorov, Adam Boqvist, Chad Krys, Calvin de Haan, Lucas Carlsson, Wyatt Kalynuk, Ian Mitchell, Anton Lindholm, Nick Seeler, Michael Krutil, Nicolas Beaudin, Alec Regula
Goaltenders: Collin Delia, Malcolm Subban, Kevin Lankinen, Matt Tomkins, Cale Morris
Not participating: Brent Seabrook, Evan Barratt, Carl Soderberg, Jonathan Toews, Kirby Dach, Alex Nylander
Camp technically began Sunday with physicals, but the Hawks did not release the roster until Monday partially because Dylan Strome remained unsigned for so long. Strome finally inked a two-year contract Sunday evening and avoided a holdout situation.
The Hawks will have to trim their numbers to a maximum of 23 players on the main roster and a maximum of six more on the newly created taxi squad before the Jan. 13 season opener, just nine days away.
Outside of Smith and the injured players, the only players under contract not invited to camp were prospect Mikael Hakkarainen and minor-leaguer Brad Morrison.
Krutil, the Hawks’ fourth-round pick in the 2020 draft, was invited despite not yet having signed his entry-level contract. Morris, the fifth goaltender in camp, is only on an AHL contract.
