This roster projection has Kevin Korchinski not making the Chicago Blackhawks' opening night roster

It is looking like young defenseman Kevin Korchinski will start the season in the AHL instead of with the Chicago Blackhawks.

Chicago Sun-Times Blackhawks beat reporter reinforced that with his opening night roster projection.

Pope thinks Korchinski will be on the second pairing, but not to start the season.

One of the reporters who has watched a lot of losing has veterans Alec Martinez and T.J. Brodie starting as the second pair behind Seth Jones and Alex Vlasic.

He then has Wyatt Kaiser and Connor Murphy rounding out the defensive pairings. Then it is a battle between Louis Crevier and Isaak Phillips for final spot on the blue line.

Korchinski's career would have likely started at Rockford had he not been 19 last season and shined in the early part of the season.

The 2022 first-round pick played well enough during his nine-game free look that the Hawks felt it was useless to send him back down to the juniors. It made sense as there was nothing left for him to do in the WHL.

It also meant there were going to be some growing pains as he navigated his first NHL season at that young of an age.

He had 15 points on the season. Korchinski was hesitant to shoot the puck on most nights. He had just a .1 offensive point share.

There were plenty of instances of him being out of position. There were also times when head coach Luke Richardson had to use the bench as a teacher for Korchinski.

Sending him to Rockford to start the season might be beneficial to get Korchinski in the habit of being more assertive offensively and iron out some of the finer details in helping prevent goals.

Also, Korchinski still might make the final roster out of camp if he outshines Kaiser or Connor Murphy is still hurt. Korchinski going down to the IceHogs will probably be a short stay as Murphy is always destined to land on IR.

Sending Korchinski to the AHL also aligns with the team's preferred method of developing its defensemen. Vlasic turned into a great defending defenseman last year after playing a couple of seasons for the Rockford IceHogs with a couple of appearances in the NHL.

The agreement to not allow OHL players under 20 to play in the AHL is the biggest reason Korchinski stayed in the NHL. He showed he could be available by skating in 76 games when the defense was ravaged by injuries.

There is still some work to be done in his game. That is why it cannot hurt for him to use some games in Rockford to get some refinement.