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3 Roster Moves the Chicago Blackhawks Should Make After Demoting Lukas Reichel

Another player deserves to be demoted while two trades should take place.

By Todd Welter |
/ Kamil Krzaczynski-USA TODAY Sports
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The Chicago Blackhawks finally had enough of Lukas Reichel’s struggles and demoted him to the Rockford IceHogs of the AHL.

Although this is not the organization giving up on the talented 21-year-old forward.

It was a move the organization had to make as the healthy scratches and moving him up and down the lines were not working.

The Chicago Blackhawks should not stop with demoting Lukas Reichel. There are three more roster moves the team needs to make…

Demote Arvid Soderblom

The backup goaltender has been terrible during his first full NHL season. He ranks 90th in the NHL among 92 goalies in goals saved above expected. That is -11.2 saves worse than an average goalie would allow in a game. In layman’s terms, he struggles to make the routine save. Soderblom also tends to forget how big he is in front of the goal.

He has played so poorly that you must start wondering if he should be loaned out to a European club next season like what the team did with Cristobal Huet many years ago. Soderblom is clearly not the long-term No. 1 goalie for the Blackhawks.

Drew Commesso can be that player, but he is not ready for the NHL. The Hawks do have Jaxson Stauber in Rockford who can come up and replace Soderblom as Petr Mrazek’s backup.

Stauber is not exactly shutting down opposing teams in the minors, but his production certainly can be better than Soderblom’s.

Stauber is 7-7-3 with a 3.16 goals-against average and a .894 save percentage. He even accomplished a rare feat recently when shut out the Chicago Wolves and scored a goal.

Performing something rare is not the main reason Stauber should get a shot. The reason is Soderblom has played terribly and should be held accountable like Reichel was.

Soderblom’s GAA is 4.01 and has an .875 save percentage. He has three games in his 19 starts where he has allowed two goals or less.

Stauber was serviceable in his six-game call up last season. It cannot hurt to see if he can prove he is worthy of being considered for the backup job next season with a couple games in the NHL while Soderblom regains the form that originally had him pegged to be a starting goalie.

Trade Tyler Johnson before the NHL Trade Deadline.

It is going to be a quiet trade deadline for the Chicago Blackhawks compared to last year. In 2023, general manager Kyle Davidson would have traded Tommyhawk if he would have netted a draft pick.

All the trades before the deadline last year were the final part of the roster teardown. Now that Nick Foligno, Jason Dickinson, and Petr Mrazek have been extended, the Blackhawks do not have a lot of trade assets before this year’s deadline.

Tyler Johnson is probably the only pay worth something on the open market as a contender might be interested in adding his playoff experience.

This month began with some speculation that the New York Rangers might be interested in acquiring the veteran center with two Stanley Cup rings.

If he can fetch a third- or fourth-round pick or a prospect with a chance to make the NHL, then he should be moved. It beats losing him for nothing.

Try to acquire Kaapo Kakko

Blackhawks fans were hoping the franchise would acquire Andrei Kuzmenko from Vancouver. The talented winger ended up being traded to Calgary as a part of the Elias Lindholm trade.

The reason for hope that Chicago would get Kuzmenko was he was a talented, young, and accomplished offensive player who fell out of favor with his organization. The hope was to pair him up with Connor Bedard and Phillip Kurashev to form an outstanding first line.

Now that dream is dead, it does not mean the Hawks should ignore young, talented players on the trade market because of a falling out with their original team.

One player rumored to be available is the Kakko. The Rangers took him the Finnish winger one spot ahead of the Blackhawks in the 2019 draft.

He had 40 points which included 18 goals. He has 50 career goals in 273 NHL games. Kakko has become the Rangers’ version of Lukas Reichel in that he just ten points this season. That is one reason he is rumored to be on the market.

He is set for restricted free agency after this season so the Hawks could gamble and hope New York does not tender him. They could also bring him in for the remainder of the season to see if he can find himself skating along Bedard.

However, the Hawks would be trading for a potential performance problem like they are dealing with Reichel.

Maybe the better idea is to stay sellers at the deadline.

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