Blackhawks’ roster remains in flux, but not enough to make Caleb Jones play forward again

Patrick Kane avoided major injury and might play Friday against the Coyotes. AHL call-ups Lukas Reichel and Brett Seney will definitely play, too. That means the Hawks won’t need to get as creative with their roster as they did Tuesday.

SHARE Blackhawks’ roster remains in flux, but not enough to make Caleb Jones play forward again
Blackhawks defensemen Caleb Jones skates with the puck.

Blackhawks defensemen Caleb Jones (seen here in a different game) masqueraded as a forward Tuesday.

Jay LaPrete/AP

Alarm bells kept ringing in Caleb Jones’ head every time he pushed deep into the offensive zone Tuesday.

As a defenseman, he indeed would’ve been far out of position. But he repeatedly reminded himself he was actually playing forward. Technically, he was the Hawks’ third-line left winger.

“There’s a few times on the clips I could see myself backing up and not coming up,” he said Thursday, laughing. “I started skating backwards — that was the defenseman in me, for sure. But better safe than sorry in that situation. That was my mindset: I’d rather not be too aggressive and just come back.”

Jones originally was going to be a healthy scratch against the Lightning. He wasn’t planning to go out for warmups — and therefore not doing his usual pregame stretching — when the Hawks let him know around 6:30 p.m. that they’d need him to dress.

And he didn’t realize that playing meant playing forward — essentially in the place of Tyler Johnson, who’d come down sick — until coach Luke Richardson told him at the last minute.

“I said I could probably play a couple shifts up there,” Jones said. “Then before the first puck drop, Luke said, ‘I’ll probably just keep you up there the whole game.’ It was definitely a new experience, but I made a couple good defensive plays and had a couple O-zone shifts.

“I know our ‘D’-zone [system], like what our forwards are supposed to do and what their jobs are, so I didn’t feel too nervous about any positional stuff. . . . But when you just have to go in and play, sometimes you can actually have a good game, not thinking too much.”

He ended up logging 13:48 of ice time over 15 shifts with decent results. The Hawks outshot the Lightning 5-3 during his five-on-five ice time; neither team scored during it. Richardson praised him for taking advantage of the opportunity and doing “whatever we asked him to do.”

Roster puzzle

It’s probably for the best, though, that Jones won’t have to masquerade as a forward a second time. The Hawks’ roster remains in heavy flux entering the game Friday against the Coyotes, but not in enough flux to necessitate that degree of creativity.

The Hawks called up forwards Lukas Reichel and Brett Seney from the AHL, and both will be in the lineup. It’ll be Reichel’s second appearance of the season, presenting another chance for the top prospect to finally translate his offensive upside to the NHL. He’ll be playing wing, not center.

Seney isn’t exactly a prospect at age 26 but has earned this opportunity nonetheless. The former Devils and Maple Leafs depth winger is the AHL’s second-leading scorer this season with 38 points in 32 games. Rockford coach Anders Sorensen said Seney plays at a fast pace and gets to the net well.

Patrick Kane, meanwhile, is a “maybe.” He’ll test his lower-body injury in the morning before doctors make a determination. Either way, though, it doesn’t sound like a major long-term issue.

“There was no sense to flare it up today,” Richardson said. “It’s just settling down. If he can . . . let the inflammation get out of there, and if he feels good [Friday], he’ll definitely try and push through.”

Johnson returned to practice Thursday, but Andreas Athanasiou contracted his illness and missed practice.

MacKenzie Entwistle and Jujhar Khaira were put on injured reserve retroactively with right wrist and lower back injuries, respectively, although both are eligible to be activated at any time. Entwistle and Jarred Tinordi (facial surgery) skated individually Thursday; Khaira did not.

NOTE: Seth Jones was named to the NHL All-Star Game for the fifth time in his career. He’s the first Blackhawks defenseman to be selected to the event since Duncan Keith in 2017. 

The Latest
Woman is getting anxious about how often she has to host her husband’s hunting buddy and his wife, who don’t contribute at all to mealtimes.
For as big of a tournament moment as Terrence Shannon Jr. is having, it hasn’t been deemed “madness” because, under the brightest lights, he has been silent.
This year, to continue making history, the Illini will have to get past No. 2-seeded Iowa State.
The Emmy winner’s TV career has spanned more than 60 years, and her latest role is opposite Kristen Wiig in the Apple TV+ series “Palm Royale.”