It’s Training Camp Day! Roster Reveal, Position Battles, Reichel Mic’d Up, Eichel Drama in Buffalo, and Other Blackhawks Bullets

Cel-e-brate good times, come on! We’ve finally made it to the start of the 2021-22 season and the start of Blackhawks training camp! As the players prepare to take the ice, let’s take one final whip around the Blackhawks world and the NHL as the offseason officially closes today.

•   Last night, the team announced the 63 players that will be taking the ice starting today.

•   Highlighted by the return of Blackhawks Captain Jonathan Toews, there’s going to be thousands if not millions of eyes on the 33-year-old Toews after missing all of last season. There’s been plenty of reason to believe that Toews is fully ready to come back to the Blackhawks in full force, it’s what they’ve been telling us for about three months. But there still should be some limitations on what to expect from him as he gets his NHL-legs back under him.

•   Blackhawks President of Hockey Operations and General Manager Stan Bowman spoke to season-ticket holders on Wednesday and said just that, wait and see what Toews can do before putting him on your Hart Trophy ballot.

•   Bowman also spoke about rookie Lukas Reichel and his expectations this season. Another player with a potentially high ceiling for the 2021-22 season, Bowman expects Reichel to play with the Blackhawks at some point this season, but can’t put a date on it just yet.

•   Reichel was arguably the best prospect for the Blackhawks during the Tom Kurvers Prospect Showcase against the Minnesota Wild prior to the opening of training camp. The club put a microphone on him for the exhibition games and it’s great content, as it usually is.

•   I wonder if he ever got that haircut?

•   Reichel is going to be fighting for an NHL roster spot in training camp, with some believing he already has a spot with the Blackhawks that is his to lose. He’s going to be battling for a position alongside some pretty sure-fire names in Chicago, so it will be great to see what kind game comes from Reichel and the others from the competition.

•   This caught me off-guard yesterday:

•   I’m excited to see what Seth Jones can do for the Blackhawks, but I think I would have been more excited to see what Adam Boqvist could have been with Chicago.

•   On the most recent episode of NHL.com’s ‘The Rink’ Podcast, Shawn O’Roake and Dan Rosen were joined by E.J. Hradek and they talked a bit about the Blackhawks coming into this season. You can check out the full episode below:

•   A few of the bits coming from the discussion were that Patrick Kane’s “nagging” injury issue is a wrist injury, according to O’Roake, and that they all think Blackhawks coach Jeremy Colliton is on the hot seat coming into this season. They talked as if Chicago gets off to a slow start, there might be a coaching change made. Interesting stuff.

•   The NHL came to a conclusion in their investigation into San Jose Sharks forward Evander Kane regarding his gambling habits.

•   But, in light of new allegations against Kane of sexual assault and domestic violence, the Sharks will not have him at training camp.

•   In Buffalo, the Jack Eichel vs. Sabres saga continues today as General Manager Kevyn Adams announced that the Sabres star was not medically cleared to play to begin the season (duh) and that the club had stripped Eichel of the team’s Captaincy.

•   The Sabres announced they will not name a new Captain this season. Eichel and the club have been at odds over treatment and surgery for a neck injury that has kept Eichel on the sidelines all offseason. Still awaiting treatment, Eichel is in danger of missing all of the 2021-22 season and missing out on a chance to play for Team USA at the upcoming 2022 Winter Olympics, which would be his first opportunity to do so.

•   From one clown show to another:

•   Tell me the NHL is an old boys club without telling me it’s an old boys club.

•   On a lighter note, Seattle Kraken forward Brandon Tanev has recreated his infamous Pittsburgh Penguins team headshot with his new club.

•   Sometimes in life you just got to laugh at yourself.

•   The Blackhawks might have deleted this Jonathan Toews tweet, but it lives on here.

•   Can’t wait to see this rad dude on the ice today.

•   And I can’t wait to see this dude on the field on Sunday!

•   A new era begins in Chicago. 🐻⬇️

•   That will do it for today. Hope you all have a great Thursday ahead of you!

written by

Mario Tirabassi is a writer for Bleacher Nation. You can follow him on Twitter @Mario_Tirabassi.

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