The Blackhawks brought 17 forwards, 10 defensemen and four goaltenders — including Corey Crawford — to Edmonton, according to rosters the NHL released Sunday for all 24 teams that qualified for the postseason.
Crawford returned to the team Saturday for the last day of training camp after recovering from COVID-19. The Hawks’ top goalie said testing positive caught him by surprise.
He experienced “flu-like” symptoms and self-isolated at home, staying away from the team until doctors felt he was well clear of any risk to others.
Like the other teams that qualified for the postseason, the Hawks could bring 31 players to Edmonton, the hub city for the Western Conference. Toronto is the Eastern Conference hub.
After landing in Edmonton on Sunday, the Hawks practiced at Terwillegar Community Recreation Centre, about a half-hour drive from Rogers Place, the West hub’s arena. They’ll skate there again Tuesday, which Hawks coach Jeremy Colliton indicated will be a light practice to “make sure we have the juice we need to compete come Saturday.”
The 24 teams’ rosters include backups, and teams planned accordingly. Many teams are carrying four goaltenders, though some brought three.
Crawford’s late arrival and bout with the coronavirus likely calls his readiness into question. The 12th-seeded Hawks start their best-of-five play-in series against the fifth-seeded Oilers on Saturday.
“The biggest thing is we just want to get him skating as much as possible and get him his work,” Colliton said Sunday in a conference call. “We have practices with the team, but we’ll get him on early and give him some extra things. It’s a priority for us to get him ready as soon as we can.”
Regular-season backup Malcolm Subban and Rockford call-ups Collin Delia and Kevin Lankinen are the other goalies on the Hawks roster.
Colliton said he’ll treat Wednesday’s exhibition against the Blues like a real game
“The guys need that game to get used to things again,” he said, “playing a normal game, as normal as it’s going to be: real referees, the game routine you go through. We need to get back in touch with that.”
He also indicated he’ll give a long look at whoever is most likely to be his starting goalie.
“We’re going to focus in on looking at who’s going to play the first game,” he said. “At the same time, there’s still a couple days left. We don’t have a plan yet.
“We’ve had those conversations, but we want to see how things play out over the next couple of days.”
Overall, the Hawks roster had no surprises. Defenseman Brent Seabrook, who battled back from hip and shoulder surgeries, bowed out because he felt his play wasn’t at the level he wanted it to be.
Forward Reese Johnson and defenseman Chad Krys, who gained valuable experience from camp but were long shots to make the squad, also were left off.
Here is the Hawks roster, starting with the forwards (in order of points):
Patrick Kane
Jonathan Toews
Dominik Kubalik
Alex DeBrincat
Dylan Strome
Brandon Saad
Alex Nylander
Kirby Dach
David Kampf
Drake Caggiula
Ryan Carpenter
Matthew Highmore
MacKenzie Entwistle
Dylan Sikura
Brandon Hagel
John Quenneville
Philipp Kurashev
Defensemen (in order of defensive point shares):
Duncan Keith
Connor Murphy
Olli Maatta
Calvin de Haan
Slater Koekkoek
Adam Boqvist
Lucas Carlsson
Nicolas Beaudin
Nick Seeler
Alec Regula
Goaltenders:
Corey Crawford
Malcolm Subban
Collin Delia
Kevin Lankinen