Revisiting my earlier roster preview now that Rockford's season opener draws near.
By Jack Masters, Lead IceHogs Analyst, @hogthought on X
ROCKFORD--Back in July, I dove in with a VERY early Icehogs roster preview. Since then, the only addition Rockford has seen is Cavan Fitzgerald joining the roster via an AHL PTO. We have seen a couple injuries come to light though. Laurent Brossoit had meniscus surgery and although he was on the ice on October 1st, he is expected out until sometime in the first few weeks in the season. Artyom Levshunov suffered a foot injury, also skated in a full-contact jersey on October 1st, but is on a similar timeline to Brossoit. Wyatt Kaiser missed a week of training camp due to an undisclosed issue in his physical that required invasive testing, hampering his chase for Chicago's sixth or seventh defenseman role, but is expect to be on the ice before the season begins. With those updated notes and a clearer look at the depth in the Blackhawks organization, let's run this thing back with t-minus a week and a half until Rockford begins the 24/25 campaign and do some roster preview-ing.
Guts Of The Operation - AHL Contracts
First things first, let's assess the depth Rockford has access to via-AHL contracts.
*- Rookie
C - Jackson Cates
RD - Austin Strand
LD - Lucas Brenton*
RD - Colin Felix
LD - Cavan Fitzgerald (PTO)
LD - D.J. King
LD - Adam McCormick *
W - Brandon Baddock
C/LW - Ryan Gagnier
C/W - Marcel Marcel (CHI owns NHL rights)
RW - Kevin Lombardi *
LW - Kyle Maksimovich
G - Ben Gaudreau *
G - Mitchell Weeks
Sporting a good mix of young and old, Rockford has a handful of options to chose from for depth when injuries or call-ups occur. Out of that list, I expect Jackson Cates will be the only one getting his way into the lineup sheet on a nightly basis.
Build-A-Lineup: Full Strength Edition
Injuries and call-up's aside, how does this Icehogs team line up at full strength? Let's get creative and have a look:
Slaggert - Nazar - Seney
Dach - Guttman - Sanford
Luypen - Cates - Hayes
Savoie - Ludwinski - Rolston
Bench- Baddock, Marcel
Korchinski - Del Mastro
Allan - Levshunov
Fitzgerald - Crevier
Bench- Strand, D.J. King
Commesso, Soderblom
In short, this team is young. But don't let that be a negative. They're fast and skilled, extremely deep on defense with both scoring ability in Korchinski and Levshunov, as well as lock-down defenders like Nolan Allan and Louis Crevier. Looking over the lineup above, the top line is the stand out. Rockford showcased that trio on October 2nd, when that line posted a combined five-points in Rockford's 4-3 win to open the preseason slate, highlighted by Frank Nazar capitalizing on a feed from Brett Seney which started on an excellent set up by Landon Slaggert:
Who's in Indy?
As I pointed out earlier, Rockford has a large number of AHL contracts. So of those fourteen AHL-deals, who makes Rockford's roster? Let's start in net. We know Mitchell Weeks will be on the squad as long as Soderblom is filling in for Brossoit. Looking towards Ben Gaudreau, odds are he finds himself in Indy unless Sorensen feels the need to have three goalies on the roster to help the team along in practice and provide security against an injury. That's the easy part, looking to forward and defensive depth, decisions get trickier. D.J. King served as Rockford's primary call-up from Indy on the blueline last season and he has seemed to turn eyes towards him in Blackhawks camp.
New-comer Colin Felix is the lone right-shot defenseman in the system behind Austin Strand, so that helps his case.
Lucas Brenton, a 21-year old rookie out of the WHL, is the other option for Rockford. In reality, due to the less-stringent roster limitations in the AHL compared to the NHL, Rockford will more than likely keep 2 defensemen behind Austin Strand. With one pre-season game left for Rockford against Iowa on October 3rd, we will soon see what Rockford opts to do. Forward depth brings a similar roster-crunch in terms of quanity.
Kyle Maksimovich, Kevin Lombardi, Matus Spodniak (ECHL contract w/ Indy), Ryan Gagnier and Marcel Marcel are all depth options for the Hogs. Again, the AHL does not limit roster size, but in reality, Rockford carrying all of the above mentioned makes for a logjam. I figure they opt to send at minimum two down, more than likely being both Matus Spodniak and Kyle Maksimovich, both of whom have been big parts of the Indy Fuel roster last season.
Storylines to Follow:
D-Men Development: It's no secret the core of Rockford's high-end prospect riches sit on it's blueline. Kevin Korchinski, Arty Levshunov, Nolan Allan and Ethan Del Mastro are all names Icehogs and Blackhawks fans-alike will be following to see how they progress. Watch for a mix of pairings, powerplay and penalty-kill deployment as well as overall production to cure your inner Blackhawks prospect-watcher.
Drew Commesso's Net: After a full-season of rotating in and out of the crease with Jaxson Stauber, Drew Commesso now looks to be off and running in his sophmore season with an opportunity to take the number one job in Rockford and run with it. How does he fair?
Frank The Tank: Amidst all the hype surrounding Kevin Korchinski and Artyom Levshunov coming to Rockford, it seems some have looked over Blackhawks 2022 first round selection Frank Nazar arriving. After scoring his first NHL goal on his first shot in his debut last season, how does the uber-prospect do in his first full pro season?
Do They Name A Captain: Rockford has not had a player wear the "C" on his chest since Garrett Mitchell. Brett Seney, Isaak Phillips, Brandon Baddock, Austin Strand and Cole Guttman have donned the "A" at times last seaon. Seney and Fitzgerald wore the "A" in their first pre-seaon game. Do they finally opt for a full-time Captain this season? My vote is for Brett Seney.
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