3 Surprising Cuts Blackhawks Made In Training Camp

The Chicago Blackhawks altered a big portion of their roster this offseason and set their path to a full rebuild. As they traded away a number of key players, they also brought in some lower-level free agents and players via trades.

Their lineup is weak and should be changing a lot this season. But instead of inserting some more youth on the team, they decided to go with the veterans the team brought in. Here are three surprising cuts the Blackhawks made in training camp this season.

Lukas Reichel

Lukas Reichel was expected to make the Blackhawks and play in the top-six. This would expose him to some great players who could provide leadership to him as well as help him put up points. After a very strong rookie season in the AHL in 2021-22 posting 21 goals and 57 points in 56 games, he earned a call-up to finish the season in the NHL.

In 11 games, Reichel recorded just one assist but didn't see a whole lot of ice time. If he were to start the season in the top-six alongside players like Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane, it would benefit him greatly. Sometimes a reason for sending a top prospect down to the AHL is because there isn't opportunity to get the ice time at five-on-five and special teams he needs. That wouldn't have been the case on a tanking Blackhawks team. Since he's not starting the season in the NHL, expect him to be called up at some point and remain with the Blackhawks.

Nicolas Beaudin

Nicolas Beaudin was a first round pick in 2018 by the Blackhawks and has only played 22 total NHL games. Defencemen typically take longer to develop, but the young defender had a strong showing in the 19 games he played in the NHL in 2019-20. He was held to only two games last season.

The Blackhawks are down defencemen like Jake McCabe, Caleb Jones, and Ian Mitchell to start the season and just traded away Riley Stillman to the Vancouver Canucks. Instead of giving Beaudin the chance to start the season in the NHL, which he's earned, the Blackhawks have kept Alec Regula, Alex Vlasic, and Filip Roos around.

Arvid Soderblom

The Blackhawks goaltending situation is not going to be pleasant this season. They have Petr Mrazek starting for them in net after the Toronto Maple Leafs dumped him on them at the draft. Arvid Soderblom was expected to be backing him up to gain more NHL experience, but the team has decided to go with Alex Stalock who's a third goaltender at best, even on a team like Chicago.

Soderblom is ready for the next step, which is the NHL, and this was supposed to be the season where he got that opportunity. He didn't have the strongest showing in three games last season, but the season was already lost by the time he got into games. Stalock has played one NHL game in the past two seasons and has played over 30 in a season just once. It makes more sense to give Soderblom the opportunity with the Blackhawks this season and use Stalock as a third goalie.