Here is the official roster for tomorrow afternoons 1:30 pm game in Raleigh against the Hurricanes.
Forwards (13)
80 Antropov, Nik
18 Bergfors, Niclas
49 Burmistrov, Alex
15 Dawes, Nigel
21 Eager, Ben
9 Kane, Evander
16 Ladd, Andrew
10 Little, Bryan
19 Modin, Fredrik
56 Pettersson, Fredrik
47 Peverley, Rich
22 Stewart, Anthony
27 Thorburn, Chris
Defensemen (7)
4 Bogosian, Zach
39 Enstrom, Tobias
44 Kulda, Arturs
24 Meyer, Freddy
29 Oduya, Johnny
3 Sopel, Brent
51 Zubarev, Andrey
Goaltenders (2)
50 Mason, Chris
31 Pavelec, Ondrej
Missing from the lineup are forwards Kozek, Slater, Rissmiller and Boulton and defensemen Byfuglien, Hainsey and Valabik.
Please, cut Valabik already!
What are you on! Valabik is such a huge great player. He has a shot at the point & his size isnt easy to find.
Boris is going to be a huge part of the blueline this season. Literally and figuratively. Just needs to get healthy again.
With the defensive depth this year Boris is not in the picture in my mind right now. He has look very slow throughout much of his career and he does not posses the puck handling ability to be part of this system. Meyer and Kluda have a better shot at this team right now.
How on earth did the Thrashers give up an NHL-ready pure scorer at age 20 in the Byfuglien deal? Isn’t that the one thing that we dont have?
http://blackhawks.nhl.com/club/news.htm?id=538713
I would argue that Evander Kane is a goal-scorer (who still isn’t 20) so I don’t think it’s accurate to say we don’t have one.
The question is if Morin brings more to the Blackhawks than Byfuglien, Eager and Spoel will bring to the Thrashers. Its way too early to tell.
I guess my “fly off the handle” reaction was just in regards to trading young players with a scoring touch while we have a roster comprised mostly of grinder types and could definitely benefit from a pipeline of scoring talent. There are other prospects in the system that may have appeased Chicago’s need for talent when they were stuck firmly between a rock and a hard cap. I just don’t want to be watching the hockey equivalent of pitcher’s duels that we appear to be destined for this season much further into the seasons to come.
If Little, Kane and Bergfors develop as they should under Ramsay I don’t think scoring will be as much of a problem as a lot of people expect. Morin was very tough to give up, but he brought in three pieces that are going to solidify the roster. Let’s revisit this in December or January when we see how the season is going for both Morin and the former Blackhawks he helped us get.