Morning Chirps: Blackhawks have a new Olympian, OHL prospects off to a hot start

The Chicago Blackhawks will play their final preseason game tonight against the St. Louis Blues. They are expecting to recall several players from the Rockford IceHogs to dress this evening. Stay right here for complete coverage all day long. Here are your Saturday Morning Chirps. Go Cubs Go!

Blackhawks Chirps

• In case you missed it last night, my Postgame Musings of the final dress rehearsal includes thoughts on the struggling special teams, Connor Bedard’s shoot-first mentality, and Landon Slaggert's impressive preseason debut.

• As I’ll be doing for all home games this season, I was on the CHGO Blackhawks Postgame Podcast as we gave you our view from the United Center pressbox.

• The final roster moves are likely to come tomorrow, before the Blackhawks head to Sunrise, FL. Kyle Bokota believes that giving defenseman Matt Grzelcyk a contract makes perfect sense.

• Congratulations to Blackhawks assistant coach Anders Sorensen, who will be part of Team Sweden’s coaching staff at the Winter Olympics.

• If you’ve been missing Pat Maroon, don’t fret. He will be joining the NHL Network this season as an in-studio analyst.

• Jack Pridham had two assists in the Kitchener Rangers’ 4-3 victory over the Owen Sound Attack on Friday. He’s off to a hot start with two goals and four points in the first three games of the Ontario Hockey League season.

• Meanwhile, in Brantford, Marek Vanacker was the First Star in the Bulldogs’ 6-3 win against the Peterborough Petes. The 2024 first-round pick has two goals and four points in two games to start the season.

• On this date in 1999, the San Jose Sharks had the first “double hat trick” in their history, as Owen Nolan and Jeff Friesen each netted three goals in a 7-1 blowout of the visiting Blackhawks. Nolan also has three assists to finish his night with six points. Eric Daze opened the scoring with an early first-period power-play goal, but it was all downhill after that.

• Blackhawks Birthday Roll Call, Oct. 4: Les Cunningham and Petri Kontiola.

NHL Chirps

• TSN’s Darren Dreger reported that the Nashville Predators are nearing an agreement with unsigned restricted free agent Luke Evangelista. Chris Johnston added that it should be a two-year contract worth about $6 million in total.

• Buffalo Sabres head coach Lindy Ruff did not provide a great update regarding injured goaltender Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen. He revealed his young netminder is dealing with a new injury unrelated to the one that caused him to miss part of training. He is considered week-to-week and will miss the start of the season.

• The Toronto Maple Leafs will be without forward Scott Laughton for the foreseeable future. He is out week-to-week with a lower-body injury suffered in Thursday’s game against the Detroit Red Wings.

• The future of Tampa Bay Lightning head coach Jon Cooper is no longer a mystery. According to Pierre LeBrun, he quietly signed a contract extension during the offseason, but the duration is unknown. This marks the second straight offseason in which Cooper inked an extension without an announcement from the team.

• The Edmonton Oilers announced the contract extension given to head coach Chris Knoblauch. He signed a three-year extension to keep him behind the Edmonton bench through the 2028-29 season.

• Before yesterday's game, the Wild released former Blackhawks defenseman Jack Johnson from his PTO after claiming Daemon Hunt off waivers from the Columbus Blue Jackets.

• NHL Birthday Roll Call, Oct. 4: Gerry Odrowski, Vic Hadfield, Justin Williams, Jesse Winchester, and Zach Boychuk.