Blackhawks prepare for camp at Notre Dame

Tommie Lee
Sep 15, 2015
2 min read

Kruuuugs!

At the end of last week, the Blackhawks continued to make changes as they reloaded for another Cup run.

Marcus Kruger will suit up in the #16 sweater again, having been signed Friday to a one-year contract. Kruuuuugs has been with Chicago for his entire NHL career, amassing 84 points along the way…28 of them goals. Four of those points were extremely clutch, in that hard-fought 3OT against the Ducks in the playoffs last year. The 25 year-old Swede was drafted by the Hawks in ’09.

Paving the way for this was the shaking-loose of Kris Versteeg and Joakim Nordstrom. They are being swept up into the Carolina Hurricanes, in exchange for D-man Dennis Robertson, Jake Massie, and 5th-round pick in 2017. Robertson netted 3 goals and 14 assists in the AHL last year. Massie was just drafted by the Canes this year.

The team is under the salary cap, to the tune of just under a million dollars, as of this writing.

Straight Into Compton

The Blackhawks are headed to the Compton Family Ice Arena at Notre Dame this weekend for their training camp. And though the status of one of the team’s (and sport’s) biggest stars remains a question mark of legal waiting, there is plenty to see. A number of new faces have yet to be spotted sporting the Indian Head Sweater: Trevor Daley, Artem Anisimov, Viktor Tikhonov, Marko Dano, Ryan Garbutt…it remains to be seen what sort of chemistry they can start to develop on the ice with their new teammates.

Last year at camp we had a very early look at just how quickly Brad Richards could develop a hive mind on a Blackhawks line, and the work he did with Kane and Saad was spectacular even in the preseason. Now, two of those guys are gone…and the third is, well, yeah.

Who will feature on the hot line in camp this year? We’ll know soon enough.

Go Blackhawks!