Blackhawks Recall Dylan Sikura, Carl Dahlström
On Wednesday morning the Blackhawks made a few roster moves before hosting the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Forward Dylan Sikura and defenseman Carl Dahlström have been recalled from Rockford. Forward Artem Anisimov was placed on IR (concussion) and forward Alexandre Fortin was reassigned to Rockford.
Sikura, 23, has nine goals and nine assists in 26 games with Rockford this season. He was credited with three assists in five NHL games with the Blackhawks last year. The Blackhawks burned one season of his two-year entry-level contract last year. But Chris Kunitz was the missing piece on this “playoff roster.”
Dahlström, 23, has one goal and seven assists in 22 games with Rockford this season. He picked up three assists in 11 NHL contests with the Hawks last season.
The recall of Dahlström is intriguing because the Blackhawks are already bloated with mediocrity on the blue line. After a nice showing from Dahlström last year, Stan Bowman opted to bring in veterans Brendan Davidson, Brandon Manning and re-sign Jan Rutta to provide an extra helping of mediocre on the back end.
These two guys should have been with Chicago from Day One this season, but another summer signing veterans kept them in the AHL. Hopefully Jeremy Colliton gets them on the ice early and often so they can gain valuable experience and be part of the solution.
I appreciate your use of the word mediocre, but so far this team gives mediocrity a bad name…?
… it’s a start…. (although Bowman appears petrified of A) showing his face in public again; B) speaking to the media –local or otherwise — in any form or fashion; and C) most notably, showing the fortitude to waive non-exempt players {I use the term player loosely} such as Martinsen, Kuntiz etc…). It’s easy to just send whoever like Fortin to the minors.
Hillman next please. Hjalmarsson Jr.
All those guys Stan signed looked good on spreadsheets.
Haha….Jordy good one.
I feel bad for Sikura as it seems he was having some success in Rockford but his coach indicated there was still some development to his game needed to stick in the NHL. I guess we will see if he was right or wrong, but the bottom line is if it wasn’t for this enormous losing streak, they would have left Sikura in Rockford to continue to develop.
Stan ran out of patience because of how bad is roster is performing. Same reason he launched Q.
About dang time. Now when Anisimov and Forsling are ready to come off IR waive any combination or hopefully trade Martinsen, manning and Rutta. Kunitz is here until a mystery injury hits after he plays 1k games. No movement clause for him. Such a shame Highmore is out long term.
“All those guys Stan signed looked good on spreadsheets.”
Not hockey ones…
Poor Fortin! The kid was not ready to be a top 6 guy, and yet they played him there and put too much pressure on the 21 year old. So, then they yo-yo him around. He is a 3rd line guy right now in the NHL, but one who needed to be in Rockford to work on his game and hands. Instead he is forced to play with Kruger and Kunitz, and he is not a 4th line guy, that role should have gone to Luke Johnson.
I hope he gets his confidence back, and works on his game. The kid has talent, but it will probably be utilized by another team.
If nothing else, today’s moves show that speed is overrated. People were dumping on Strome because he was considered slow. Fortin had great speed but couldnn’t put it to use. I’ll take hockey IQ and good hands over speed any day.
Question and I know it’s early in the Brendan Perlini era as a hawk. If he doesn’t show much going forward the rest of the season do they even qualify him at the end of the year? A la duclair.
Hereismike, if Sikura needs more time in the AHL, then recalling him out of desperation looks like another bad decision. We need him long-term, but only when he is ready.
Toews, Kane and Colliton are front and center answering questions after every game and most questions are the same every game. My question is where the hell is Stan? As the creator of this shit show why is he not answering the questions and tell everyone what the plan moving forward to right this ship? My thought is Stan Bowman is a coward that is running scared and doesn’t know how to fix this. Time for McD and Rocky to step in and do something.
I’m probably more happy about Fortin being sent down than Sikura being brought up, and I say that as a huge fan of both Fortin and Sikura.
Fortin may never develop to the point of being a legit NHL player but he isn’t one now and it’s not helping his development to be yanked all around and in and out of the lineup, especially with the losing vibe of the Hawks right now. There are very obvious parts of his game that need to be better so there should be no confusion as to what he needs to work on before he gets another shot at the NHL.
As for Sikura, it’s a good opportunity for him but the fact is that he is joining a shitshow of a team which isn’t the best scenario for a guy that isn’t a one man show kind of player. Sikura is a complementary player who can make a good team better more so than make a bad team good. But, we’ll see how he fares.
Dahlstrom – can’t be any worse than who’s playing back there now – can he?
Calling Manning and Rutta mediocre is an affront to all truly mediocre NHlers
A great game from them is mediocre – the problem is who is going to take them off our hands
So glad to see Sikura and Dahltrom get a chance – agree that Fortin needed to be returned to AHL – I have hope for him but as ER said he’s not ready yet
Seabrook on back to back games-too many giveaways
Prospects tonight
Boqvist 1a
Ryczek 1a
Gravel 17 saves 19 shots win