Blackhawks Jumble Young Defensemen, Recall Stars For Home Stretch

One of the quiet storylines of an otherwise dull Olympic break for the Blackhawks has been the status of young defenseman Wyatt Kaiser. He suffered a lower-body injury just before the break that looked pretty serious, and we never got an update on his status. Sure, Chicago wasn’t on the ice, but we would’ve expected a bit more news.

The Blackhawks still aren’t giving a black-and-white update on his return, but they did give us a somewhat general timeline. After Tuesday afternoon’s optional skate, head coach Jeff Blashill said Kaiser won’t be available coming out of the break, but that he would be back on the ice this season. On Wednesday, before their first full practice, the team put him on IR retroactive to Feb. 4. Kaiser has the third-most ice time of all Blackhawks defensemen and plays a key role on the penalty kill.

To replace Kaiser, Chicago opted to recall two stars from Rockford in Kevin Korchinski and Sam Rinzel. That puts them at seven blueliners coming out of the break, so it’ll be interesting to see whether the Blackhawks skate seven defensemen like they did for much of the first part of the season or if a trade is in the works.

It’s also unclear how long Korchinski and Rinzel will be in Chicago. Common practice for teams out of playoff contention is to call up young, high-upside players to try to leave a good impression and get a taste of the next level. It’s a bit early for that, but that does leave the door open for one or both of them to stay in the NHL until the end of the season. If someone like Connor Murphy or Matt Grzcelyk is traded, they’ll already be on the roster and can fill in nicely.

Korchinski in particular will be interesting to keep an eye on, especially with his entry-level contract expiring this summer. He came up to Chicago for two quick games in January, playing poorly against Washington before putting on a much better performance against Nashville. The Blackhawks will want to get as long of a look at him as possible before being faced with the decision whether or not to re-sign him this year.