NEWSLETTER
The Chicago Blackhawks are whittling their roster down ahead of tomorrow’s deadline to have their NHL lineup ready for opening night of the regular season. With 28 players in camp still, Chicago needs to get down to at least 23 players. Three moves were made today, helping the Blackhawks get to 25 players. One that was written on the wall over the past few days for the Blackhawks was sending former Sabres first-round draft pick Alex Nylander down to the Rockford IceHogs. This afternoon, it happened, along with the Blackhawks putting goaltenders Collin Delia and Malcolm Subban on waivers.
One of the biggest hang-ups around sending Nylander down was the potential for the Blackhawks to possibly lose him for nothing if he had to go through the waiver process. Nylander, coming off of a knee injury and surgery that caused him to miss all of the 2020-21 season, was rumored to potentially be on the radar of a few NHL teams, particularly the Arizona Coyotes. But we learned on Sunday that Nylander would not be subjected to waivers this season.
Alex Nylander has been ruled exempt from waivers this season by the NHL, @CapFriendly confirms. Last season no longer counts as his last waivers-exempt year because he missed it all due to injury.
This adds tremendous flexibility to the Blackhawks’ forward situation.
— Ben Pope (@BenPopeCST) October 10, 2021
Huge flexibility for the Blackhawks and for Nylander, who was acquired for Henri Jokiharju prior to the 2019-20 season. After missing all of last season, Nylander had an uphill battle ahead of him as this training camp approached. Chicago has added a number of middle-group forwards and Nylander was going to have to really stand out to earn himself an NHL spot.
He didn’t.
Now he’ll head to the Rockford IceHogs in the AHL, where again he’ll need to battle it out with a number of promising forwards in the Blackhawks system to get back to the NHL level.
The #Blackhawks assigned Alex Nylander to Rockford.
In 2 preseason gms, Nylander played 28:55, had 2 SOG, 2 hits, 2 takeaways and one block.
Before the 1st game regarding his knee injury: "I don't think about it at all. Rehab went really well, on ice it's really good."
— Joe Brand (@Joe_Brand1) October 10, 2021
Along with Nylander being cut from the Blackhawks training camp roster, two goaltenders who were part of the NHL roster last season have been sent to the IceHogs, only they will be subjected to the waiver wire. Malcolm Subban and Collin Delia are interesting players to hit the wire ahead of the NHL’s roster deadline tomorrow.
Blackhawks have waived Subban and Delia, as expected. It’ll be interesting to see if either get claimed.
— Ben Pope (@BenPopeCST) October 10, 2021
There are a number of teams that could be interested in a veteran like Subban to add to their group. Delia as well. Both are on very affordable, one-year deals and have at times proven to be capable of playing at the NHL level. If they are both to make it through the waiver system and land in Rockford, the IceHogs are going to be stacked in net for the AHL level. Although, it seems likely that one of those two could be moved, one way or another, this season.
