The Chicago Blackhawks know they will host the Utah Hockey Club on Friday night. What wasn’t known on Thursday was exactly who would be playing for the Original Six franchise when it faces off against the NHL’s newest club.
The Friday contest will start 5 1/2 hours after the league’s trade deadline. The Blackhawks, who own the NHL’s second-worst record, already have made some moves to acquire draft picks and prospects to build around last season’s Calder Trophy (rookie of the year) winner, Connor Bedard.
Last weekend, veteran defenseman Seth Jones was dealt to the Florida Panthers with a fourth-round pick in next year’s draft in return for goaltender Spencer Knight and a first-round pick in the 2026 draft.
In late January, the Blackhawks shipped former Hart Trophy (MVP) winner Taylor Hall to the Carolina Hurricanes in a three-team deal that netted the club a third-round pick in this year’s draft in exchange for the Blackhawks absorbing more than $4.6 million of Mikko Rantanen’s salary. Rantanen went from the Colorado Avalanche to the Hurricanes in the deal.
Whether veterans such as center Ryan Donato, whose 23 goals lead the team, or netminder Petr Mrazek, who has started 33 games, are on the roster as of Friday night remains to be seen. On Thursday, interim coach Anders Sorensen was philosophical about the process and where he fits in it.
“We coach the guys that we have in front of us, right?” he said. “That’s our job, and then (the front office), they handle the rest and apply trust. So, we just deal with what we have.”
The Blackhawks lost 4-3 in overtime to the Ottawa Senators on Wednesday. That ended Chicago’s two-game winning streak, but with a win or an overtime loss on Friday, the Blackhawks wound have earned points in four straight games for just the second time this season. The team went 1-0-3 from Jan. 16-24.
Utah is playing the second of back-to-back road games, coming off a 4-2 win over the Detroit Red Wings on Thursday. Coach Andre Tourigny’s club rallied from a 2-1 first-period deficit and scored twice in the third period. With seven wins in the past 10 games, Utah is just three points behind the Calgary Flames for the final Western Conference wild-card position.
“These are the games we want to be in,” Utah left winger Lawson Crouse, who scored an insurance goal on Thursday, said on the team’s postgame television show. “We talked about that after the second period. As much as we didn’t like the first two periods, like I said, we pulled together, and we came out strong.”
Clayton Keller, whose six-game point streak ended in the prior contest, notched his team-best 48th assist and the 300th of his career on Thursday. Dylan Guenther registered his team-leading 23rd goal in Detroit, giving him one more than Keller.
The Thursday game also was the first that goalie Karel Vejmelka played since he signed a five-year extension with an average annual value of $4.75 million on Wednesday. The Czech Republic native made 38 saves as he won for the fifth time in his last six starts.
Utah’s other goalie, Connor Ingram, has started just once since the break for the 4 Nations Face-Off, when he gave up four goals in a 5-3 loss to the Los Angeles Kings on Feb. 22.
–Field Level Media
