Morning Chirps: Opening night roster set, former Blackhawk finds a new home

The Chicago Blackhawks will practice today in sunny Florida ahead of their season-opening game tomorrow. They have their opening night roster set with a couple of surprising names included. Meanwhile, the defending Central Division champs are dealing with a significant injury, while a former Blackhawk seems to have found a new home after multiple address changes in recent months.

Blackhawks Chirps

• In case you missed it yesterday, the Blackhawks gave Matt Grzelcyk a one-year, $1 million contract.

• Lukas Reichel is still on the roster, for now. Todd Welter gave us the only reason to trade him, if that’s what they ultimately decide to do.

• The Blackhawks sent 14 players to the Rockford IceHogs on Sunday, including Nolan Allan, Oliver Moore, and Ryan Greene. Ethan Del Mastro is making the season-opening trip just in case Alex Vlasic can’t go on Tuesday.

• On this date in 1955, Glenn Hall was the starting goalie for the Detroit Red Wings for their 3-2 loss to the Blackhawks. This was the start of Hall’s consecutive starts streak. He started every game until Nov. 10. 1962, setting a record of 502 games that will never be broken. The first 140 games of this historic streak were played with Detroit before he was traded to Chicago, where he played 362 consecutive games.

• In 1982, Steve Larmer scored his first NHL goal during the Blackhawks’ 3-3 tie with the Toronto Maple Leafs. He assisted on the other two goals to cap off a three-point night.

• In 1988, Jeremy Roenick made his NHL debut. He did not find the scoresheet during a 2-2 draw with the New York Rangers.

• Eight years after scoring his first NHL goal, Larmer became the fourth player in team history to score 300 goals. He scored goals 299 and 300, and an assist came in a 5-2 victory over the rival St. Louis Blues.

• In 1993, the Blackhawks hosted the Florida Panthers in their National Hockey League debut. The game ended in a 4-4 tie after Scott Mellaby scored the first goal in franchise history. Chris Chelios led the Blackhawks with two goals and an assist.

• Finally, in 2001, Duncan Keith scored for Michigan State as they hosted Michigan in an outdoor game at Spartan Stadium. A massive crowd of 74,544 set a world record for the largest ever at a hockey game.

• Blackhawks Birthday Roll Call, Oct. 6: Phil Maloney and Steve Bancroft.

NHL Chirps

• We continued our tour through the Central Division with three burning questions for the Winnipeg Jets and Dallas Stars.

• Jonathan Toews returned to Jets practice on Sunday. The former Blackhawks captain has been out of action since leaving Tuesday’s preseason game against the Minnesota Wild with an undisclosed injury.

• It wasn’t all good news out of Winnipeg yesterday. Head coach Scott Arniel announced that forward Cole Perfetti is week-to-week with an ankle sprain. He suffered the injury in Saturday’s game against the Calgary Flames.

• It looks like former Blackhawks center Joe Veleno will make the Montreal Canadiens' opening night roster after an impressive training camp. Veleno was acquired from the Red Wings at the deadline last spring for Petr Mrazek and Craig Smith. He was then dealt this summer to the Seattle Kraken for Andre Burakovsky. However, the Kraken bought out the final year of his contract, which allowed him to sign in Montreal.

• The Yegor Chinakov drama continues. After being unhappy with the way Columbus Blue Jackets head coach Dean Evason deployed him, he has now fired his agent. He is starting to look like a guy who wants to point the finger everywhere else without pointing a thumb towards himself.

• NHL Birthday Roll Call, Oct. 6: Bill Stewart, Kenny Jonsson, Daniel Briere, Tyler Ennis, Nazem Kadri, Marcus Johansson, Josh Archibald, Nail Yakupov, Ryan Pulock, Jake Guentzel, Juuso Valimaki, and Martin Fehervary.