Brandon Saad ‘ready to go,’ could return for Blackhawks against Maple Leafs

TORONTO — Almost a month after his ugly-looking ankle injury Dec. 19 in Winnipeg, winger Brandon Saad returned to full practice Friday.

He could rejoin the Blackhawks’ lineup Saturday against the Maple Leafs.

“I’m in good shape and ready to go,” Saad said.

Coach Jeremy Colliton said a decision hadn’t been made but implied it’s highly likely he’ll play in at least one of the three games before the All-Star break.

Saad, 27, had never missed more than four games in any of his seven previous NHL seasons, so the 12-game-and-counting absence proved to be an unfamiliar — and not particularly pleasant — experience.

“It’s tough, sitting and watching from home,” he said. “Mentally, the biggest thing is staying in the season. You’re going to the rink every day, you’re doing your rehab [and] you’re away from the guys, so it almost feels like you’re in summer training or the season’s over. But there’s still lots of hockey to be played.”

The Hawks fared well without him, winning eight of those 12 games. Saad was the other wing for the first weeks of the Jonathan Toews-Dominik Kubalik first line, too, and that duo has erupted even more — into one of the hottest in the league — without him.

Nevertheless, the Hawks clearly will benefit from Saad’s return. He arguably had been the team’s most reliable puck-carrier and chance-generator through the first two months.

Saad still leads Hawks forwards in on-ice shot-attempt ratio and ranks second (behind Kubalik) in on-ice scoring-chance ratio.

“He’s been great all year,” Colliton said. “Really strong on the puck, and he can carry it from zone to zone. It’s a big benefit to us defensively, just because when he does get it anywhere above the dots — in ‘D’ zone typically — it [always] does enter their end somehow. That really helps us, and he’s been producing. No matter who he plays with, he produces.”

That last point is important because it seems unlikely that Saad will rejoin the first line. Colliton, in fact, called him “a good piece to move around.”

The third-line wing alongside Kirby Dach and Alex DeBrincat, which has been occupied quietly by traditional center David Kampf, is one logical landing spot.

Drake Caggiula, who missed two months with his concussion, said his time off helped him work on his game in a way that he wouldn’t have had time for if healthy. Saad didn’t enjoy as lengthy a period of practicing as Caggiula did, but he was able to work on his upper-body strength.

“You really don’t have that much time during the season — it’s more maintenance — so I feel strong, I feel good,” Saad said. “And then getting back out on the ice, you’re working with the skills coach and that aspect of the game. So it is different avenues; you just try to improve what you can.”

The impact on team morale that Saad’s return will have might be just as big as the tangible effect.

“We’ve made some great strides as a team,” Toews said. “When we start getting some of our key guys back in the lineup — [Saad] being one of them — it’s only going to give us another boost.”

Note: The Hawks recalled rookie forward Brandon Hagel, 21, from the AHL on Thursday. He could make his NHL debut before the break.

“[We] definitely brought him here with the intention that he would get in at some point,” Colliton said.