Morning Chirps: Frondell's end of season plans, injury to Canadian Olympian

The Chicago Blackhawks are off today after a tough loss last night. Cancelling practice is the right call, given that all the players are feeling the effects of a rampant stomach bug. Keeping everyone at home and resting is a great way to stop it from spreading further. They will be back on the practice ice tomorrow.

Blackhawks Chirps

• We found out moments before pregame warmup that Connor Bedard would not play against the Edmonton Oilers last night. A bad first period cost them, as they took too long to play the style of hockey they’ve used to achieve their recent success.

• I stopped by the CHGO Blackhawks Postgame Show to talk about the loss and some of the positives to come out of it, like Spencer Knight, Oliver Moore, Artyom Levshunov, and the penalty kill.

• We are less than a month from the Winter Olympics, and shortly after the NHL schedule resumes, the trade deadline is quick to follow. With that in mind, Justin Lynch gives us five Blackhawks veterans who could be valuable trade chips in March.

• Speaking of the trade deadline, Frank Seravalli was on the CHSN pregame show last night and had a few tidbits on the Blackhawks. He said that the Blackhawks are getting some trade interest in Jason Dickinson and Connor Murphy and said that “trade deadline additions will come internally.”

• Seravalli added that one of those additions will be Anton Frondell. He said he’ll be heading to Chicago “without a doubt” as long as Djurgården doesn’t make a deep playoff run.

• Finally, Seravalli said the stretch run ahead is important for Arvid Soderblom. He’s 100 games into his NHL career, and his save percentage is below .900, so he needs to put together some better numbers if he doesn’t want to lose his job to Drew Commesso.

• Blackhawks Birthday Roll Call, Jan 13: Nikolai Khabibulin, Jack Johnson, and Joe Veleno.

NHL Chirps

• The most surprising news of the day came when the Columbus Blue Jackets fired head coach Dean Evason and assistant coach Steve McCarthy. They hired Rick Bowness as his replacement. He has over 800 games as an NHL head coach with the Boston Bruins, Ottawa Senators, New York Islanders, Phoenix Coyotes, Dallas Stars, and, most recently, the Winnipeg Jets.

• The NHL announced that the Buffalo Sabres will host the 2026 NHL Entry Draft on June 26th and 27th. This will be the fourth draft hosted by the Sabres, and the first since 2016 when Auston Matthews was taken first overall. The league will have a decentralized draft for the second straight year, so the general managers and their staffs will not be there.

• Former Blackhawks defenseman Isaak Phillips was recalled by the Jets after they placed Colin Miller on injured reserve. Phillips has yet to play a game for the Jets since he was acquired from the Blackhawks nearly a year ago for Dmitri Kuzmin. He has three goals and 13 points in 33 AHL games this season with the Manitoba Moose.

• The Detroit Red Wings retired Sergei Fedorov’s No. 91 last night. The Russian star was an absolute beast during his time in the Motor City. He scored 400 goals and 954 points in his 908 games over 13 seasons. He won three Stanley Cups, two Selke Trophies, and the Hart Trophy. The Red Wings started the night by wearing replicas of Fedorov’s famous white skates. They ended it by beating the Carolina Hurricanes 4-3 in overtime after jumping out to a 3-0 lead.

• The Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Philadelphia Flyers 5-1 to win their 10th straight game, but it came with a price. Brayden Point had to be helped off the ice after scoring a power-play goal. Jon Cooper said Point will travel with the team to their next game against the Pittsburgh Penguins, but his status is uncertain. If the injury is serious enough to keep him out of the Olympics, Bedard could be a suitable replacement.

• NHL Birthday Roll Call, Jan. 13: Art Ross, Cesare Maniago, Mike Palmateer, Kelly Hrudey, Allen Pedersen, Sergei Brylin, Mike Rupp, Marc Staal, Kyle Clifford, Austin Watson, Yakov Trenin, Ivan Provorov, Connor McDavid, Michael Kesselring, Adam Ginning, and Maveric Lamoureux.