Where Is Blackhawks Forward Austin Wagner?

The only move the Chicago Blackhawks made on Friday before the NHL’s Trade Deadline was acquiring forward Austin Wagner from the Los Angeles Kings for future considerations.

Wagner, 25, had appeared in 24 games for Ontario in the AHL this season at the time of the trade.

Since the trade deadline, we’ve already seen every other player the Blackhawks acquired over the past few weeks (who is playing on North America) report for duty. Andreas Englund, Joey Anderson and Anders Bjork have played in multiple games already. It took Nikita Zaitsev nine days to get through immigration but he, too, is active.

When I was looking at the roster report for Saturday night’s game, the Blackhawks still had Wagner listed as No. 0 (number zero). He has since been assigned No. 26 (no comment from Sami Pahlsson), but did not have a name plate in the dressing room at the United Center yet.

We still haven’t seen Wagner in uniform, which begs the question: why not?

Well, the Blackhawks offered an answer to that question (and a health update on Englund, who left Monday night’s game after nine shifts) after practice on Tuesday.

The good news is the Blackhawks’ forward group appears to be settling in and rolling fairly well. The organization already said the plan is for Wagner to spend the rest of the season on the NHL roster, so this isn’t keeping a veteran body out of Rockford’s lineup, either.

With Englund not traveling with the team to Detroit, Florida and Tampa, it looks like Ian Mitchell might finally get a chance to get back into game action.