Preseason Injuries Hindering the Chicago Blackhawks

The Chicago Blackhawks have a lot of injuries hindering their lineup heading into the 2021 season. Let’s break things down.

Every time a franchise loans a player to a tournament or a league during the offseason, they risk injury to their player. The Chicago Blackhawks saw that first hand when Kirby Dach fell to an injury during the World Junior Championship.

Chicago will enter the 2021 season shorthanded; even though they have not played a game yet, there are a few players that are going to start the season out of the lineup. Chicago is already going to have a wacky season, thanks to the taxi squad group practicing with the team. However, throwing a group of players on injury reserved is also going to make things even crazier.

Alex Nylander, Andrew Shaw, and Kirby Dach all might miss time due to injuries. Nylander and Dach are guaranteed out of the lineup with their injuries, but Shaw could still make the season. We haven’t heard anything about Shaw yet, so we will have to wait and see.

Andrew Shaw has been dealing with concussion issues for the past year, and he has a long history with them in the past, making things even more challenging to recover from. Right now, we haven’t heard anything from the Blackhawks to indicate that he will be ready to go.

With the addition of Carl Soderberg to the lineup, Chicago is adding a veteran to their bottom six to help bolster things defensively after the loss of players like Kirby Dach and Alex Nylander. What used to be a significant youth movement heading into 2021 is taking a step back with the loss of these two players. Chicago will give other young prospects a shot, but losing those two hurts the team.

The bottom six is going to have several players vying for spots. Who do you think will surprise everyone and make the lineup to start the season? With some players already out with injuries, we are going to see a few different faces.