PRAGUE — After a long offseason and training camp of transactions, roster battles and speculating about future transactions and roster battles, the Blackhawks’ roster has been finalized for the start of the regular season Friday against the Flyers.
It inevitably will change during the course of the next six months, and players who have won NHL jobs for now might find themselves in the American Hockey League (or on injured reserve) at any time.
In NHL terms, ‘‘final’’ and ‘‘permanent’’ are far from synonyms. But the roster is, for now, final.
Brendan Perlini and Slater Koekkoek squeezed into the 13th forward and seventh defenseman jobs, respectively, after the Hawks assigned forward Anton Wedin, defenseman Dennis Gilbert and goalie Collin Delia to Rockford of the AHL on Monday and Tuesday.
The Hawks also put defenseman Carl Dahlstrom on waivers Monday and saw him claimed by the Jets on Tuesday.
Center Kirby Dach remains in the NHL, although he didn’t play during the preseason while recovering from a concussion and has been given a non-roster designation for the moment. The Hawks can wait up to nine regular-season games before deciding whether to keep him or send him back to Canadian juniors this season. If they choose the latter option, Dach’s three years at capped entry-level-contract salary won’t begin until next summer.
Defenseman Connor Murphy and forward John Quenneville, who was put on waivers last week but never assigned to Rockford, were put on injured reserve.
Plenty of questions remain unanswered, though.
Will defensemen Calvin de Haan be healthy by Friday? Will Corey Crawford or Robin Lehner start in goal? How long will Dach’s stay be? Who will be the healthy scratch?
Some of those answers might be learned Wednesday, when the Hawks conduct their first of two game-week practices in Prague.
The various bubble players sent to Rockford almost certainly will receive NHL opportunities as the season goes on. Expect Wedin, Gilbert and Delia — in addition to Adam Boqvist, Aleksi Saarela and Philip Holm, among others — to earn call-ups in the coming months.
