Morning Chirps: Pridham honored by OHL GMs, Dach scores big goal in his return

It’s team photo day for the Chicago Blackhawks, and they will squeeze in a practice at the United Center after saying cheese for the camera. They will wrap up the 2025-26 season with four straight games on home ice.

Blackhawks Chirps

• Jack Pridham is taking home some postseason hardware. He was named the winner of the Leo Lalonde Memorial Trophy, given every year to the Ontario Hockey League’s Overage Player of the Year as voted by the general managers.

• Pridham is the Kitchener Rangers’ third straight winner of this award. He originally intended to play this season at Boston University, but elected to stay in Kitchener. He finished the regular season with 46 goals, second only to fellow Blackhawks prospect Marek Vanacker. He added 44 assists for 90 points in 65 games.

"It’s a tremendous honor to win the Overage Player of the Year Award. I want to thank my teammates and the coaching staff for everything they’ve done to help me this season. To continue the tradition after Soppy and Parsons is great as well. It’s awesome to keep that award in the organization."

Jack Pridham

• On this date in 1961, the legendary Gordie Howe recorded two assists in the Detroit Red Wings’ 2-1 win over the Blackhawks to even the Stanley Cup Final at 1-1. The pair of helpers gave Mr. Hockey 61 career Stanley Cup assists, setting a new NHL record.

• In 1991, Chris Chelios scored a goal and recorded three assists to lead the Blackhawks to a 5-3 win over the Minnesota North Stars in Game 3 of the Norris Division Semifinals.

NHL Chirps

• BREAKING NEWS: No NHL general managers or head coaches were fired on Tuesday.

• Speaking of general managers, Frank Seravalli reported that the Nashville Predators will add Tom Fitzgerald to this list of candidates after he was fired by the New Jersey Devils on Monday. Fitzgerald was the first captain of the Predators, playing 307 games with them. One of his teammates during his time in Nashville was current head coach Andrew Brunette. The hire would make a ton of sense.

• The Colorado Avalanche got Valeri Nichushkin and Nicolas Roy back on Tuesday. Nichushkin had two goals as the Avalanche beat the St. Louis Blues 3-1 to clinch the top spot in the Western Conference. However, Nazem Kadri left the game with an upper-body injury. Head coach Jared Bednar didn’t have an official update after the game, but the injury doesn’t sound too serious. Star defenseman Cale Makar remains out of action but is expected to return before the end of the regular season.

• With the Avalanche locking up the top seed in the Western Conference and the Central Division, the Dallas Stars and Minnesota Wild will meet in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Who will have home-ice advantage still needs to be determined. The Stars have 104 points, while the Wild have 102. Both teams have four games left on their schedule.

• The Carolina Hurricanes, who will be at the United Center on Thursday, clinched the Metropolitan Division by beating the Boston Bruins 6-5 in overtime.

• Colton Dach was activated from long-term injured reserve and returned to the Edmonton Oilers lineup last night against the Utah Mammoth. He made an immediate impact by scoring his first goal in an Oilers uniform to give his team a 5-4 lead early in the third period. However, the Mammoth came back to win 6-5 in overtime. Earlier in the game, Connor McDavid added another highlight-reel goal to his already impressive portfolio.

• NHL Birthday Roll Call, April 8: Dave Richter, Viktor Arvidsson, J.T. Compher, Keegan Kolesar, Jamie Drysdale, and Marco Kasper.