Kirby Dach successfully took a huge leap forward Monday in his road back to game readiness.
Dach joined the Blackhawks for practice and participated in full, although the practice did not include any contact drills. He worked on his stick-handling through pucks beforehand, then led three-on-three, full-rink rushes and other drills with the rest of the team.
Dach hadn’t been seen on the ice since breaking his wrist during a controversial stint at the World Junior Championships in December.
He underwent surgery Dec. 28 and was projected to miss four to five months, putting his approximate return sometime between late April and late May. With the Hawks’ regular season schedule ending May 10, that made it seem unlikely he’d play much or at all this season.
But that seems more likely now, although Hawks coach Jeremy Colliton said Monday that Dach “still has a ways to go” before he’s fully recovered and playing games for the team.
Dach will nonetheless travel on the Hawks’ six-game road trip that begins Tuesday so he can continue practicing at every opportunity with the team or taxi squad.
“He’s just getting started,” Colliton said. “Up to this point, he was able to spend some time at home [in Canada] for a couple of weeks, when we were on the road. He had been skating before that. We’re just getting him back in the group again and he’ll be around every day, just like everyone else.”
Colliton said it’s too early to say definitively whether Dach’s recovery is moving ahead of schedule, but added that “he looks good.”
The 20-year-old center did indeed look good, displaying his powerful stride and excellent vision in drills.
The wrist injury obviously doesn’t affect his lower body, and general manager Stan Bowman actually said more than a month ago that Dach “looks like he could play today when you watch him skate.” And he did have a little more trouble with the stick-handling drills, hitting some of the puck obstacles on his first few attempts.
Monday’s news represented a huge step forward, though.
“It’s great he’s back skating,” forward Philipp Kurashev said. “He’s a big part of this team when he comes back.”
Dach’s appearance wasn’t the only good news to come out of practice for the Hawks.
Forward Dylan Strome, who has missed the last seven games with a concussion, and defenseman Calvin de Haan, who missed Sunday’s game with a leg injury, were both on the ice and participating, as well.
And defenseman Connor Murphy, whose match penalty Sunday for an illegal hit to the head seemed likely to invoke a suspension, won’t be suspended after all. Colliton said Murphy will be available for the Hawks’ game Tuesday against the Stars — which will also be Patrick Kane’s 1,000th NHL game.
