Morning Chirps: Blackhawks take in some playoff baseball, new teammate for Kantserov

Key members of the Chicago Blackhawks spent their afternoon taking in postseason baseball action. The Blackhawks' top prospect in Russia gets a new teammate. Meanwhile, it was a busy day across the National Hockey League with contract extensions, trades, retirements, and fines. Here come your Morning Chirps!

Blackhawks Chirps

• Todd Matthews gave us three bold predictions for the upcoming Blackhawks’ season about Connor Bedard, Spencer Knight, and Artyom Levshunov. We’ll have Blackhawk Up roundtable predictions for you before opening night, so stay tuned.

• Speaking of Bedard, he, Frank Nazar, and Nick Foligno headed to Wrigley Field after practice yesterday to take in the NL Wild Card Series action between the Chicago Cubs and San Diego Padres. Bedard pushing the Padres hat out of the way cracks me up.

Blackhawks Hall of Famer Chris Chelios was at the Friendly Confines yesterday, too. He and his pal, Pearl Jam lead singer Eddie Vedder, sang “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” during the seventh inning stretch. Unfortunately, the Cubs lost 3-0, forcing a winner-take-all Game 3 later today. Be sure to follow our friends at Cubbies Crib for coverage.

• On this date in 1991, the Blackhawks acquired defenseman Steve Smith from the Edmonton Oilers for fellow blueliner Dave Manson and a third-round draft pick. Smith had 25 goals and 136 points in 317 games for the Blackhawks over the next six seasons.

• In 2000, the Blackhawks traded defenseman Bryan McCabe to the Toronto Maple Leafs for Alexander Karpovtsev. The veteran blueliner struggled in three-plus seasons, scoring seven goals and 46 points in 182 games. He was traded to the New York Islanders in 2004 for a fourth-round pick and was the subject of a legendary Pat Foley rant shortly after. The Blackhawks used the pick from the Islanders to select Niklas Hjalmarsson in 2005, so it ultimately worked out well.

• In 2009, the Blackhawks began their championship season by playing the first of two games in Helsinki, Finland, against the Florida Panthers. Patrick Kane, Dustin Byfuglien, and Patrick Sharp scored in a 4-3 shootout loss.

• Blackhawks Birthday Roll Call, Oct. 2: Ralph Taylor, Jimmy Peters, Rob Palmer, and Brian Young.

NHL Chirps

• The New Jersey Devils signed defenseman Luke Hughes to a seven-year, $63 million contract. He and fellow defenseman Dougie Hamilton are now the highest-paid players on the team at $9 million per season. That’s one million more than what Jack Hughes makes per season.

• Defenseman Erik Johnson is calling it a career after 17 NHL seasons. He was the first overall pick of the 2006 NHL Entry Draft by the St. Louis Blues, two picks ahead of Jonathan Toews.

• Buffalo Sabres goaltender Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen left Tuesday’s exhibition game after the first period. It appears that he’s aggravated the lower-body injury that has limited his participation in training camp. The Sabres can lean on Alexander Georgiev and Alex Lyon if Luukkonen is out for an extended period.

• Staying in the crease, the Edmonton Oilers acquired netminder Connor Ingram from the Utah Mammoth for future considerations. He will report to the Bakersfield Condors of the American Hockey League.  

• Evgeny Kuznetsov has signed on with the Kontinental Hockey League’s Metallurg Magnitogorsk, where he will be a teammate of Blackhawks’ prospect Roman Kantserov.

• Ottawa Senators forward Nick Cousins was fined $2,144 for slashing Ivan Demidov of the Montreal Canadiens. Hayden Hodgson was also fined $2,018 for boarding Alex Newhook during the testy preseason tilt on Tuesday.

• NHL Birthday Roll Call, Oct. 3: Red Beattie, Bill Moe, Jimmy Peters, Don Luce, Jack Brownschidle, Gordie Roberts, Glenn Anderson, Glen Wesley, Phil Kessel, Josh Bailey, Frederick Andersen, and Angus Crookshank.