Hawks do some roster shuffling
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The Blackhawks’ roster continued to take shape for the return from the all-star break Saturday when rookie winger Jimmy Hayes was returned to Rockford.
Hayes was sent down to make room for Brendan Morrison, acquired Friday from Calgary, and for the likely return of Jonathan Toews and Patrick Sharp from injured reserve.
General manager Stan Bowman expects Toews to play Tuesday at Vancouver after the captain missed the last game before the break and the All-Star Game because of a left-hand injury.
“Jonathan been getting his treatments and the last I heard he was on target to play Tuesday,” Bowman said. “It was a short-term thing. We only expected him to miss the one game.”
It’s believed Toews is closer to playing than Sharp, whom the Hawks hope can play at some point next week one he regains range of motion in his broken left wrist.
If Sharp can’t play Tuesday it would leave the roster at 22, one below the maximum, making it possible for Hayes or another forward to be brought back from Rockford.
Hayes was impressive in his 13-game stint with 4 goals and 3 assists.
Ready to roll:
Brendan Morrison won’t have to travel far to meet up with his new Hawks teammates in Vancouver on Monday.
Morrison was spending the all-star break at home in British Columbia when he got the call that he had been traded from the Flames to the Hawks.
Morrison knows he is stepping into one of the best rivalries in the NHL in his first game with the Hawks taking on the Canucks.
“I don’t think you could ask for a better first game, really,” Morrison said. “It’s going to be a playoff-style game. These teams have battled hard the past couple years in the playoffs, they’re intense games and as a fan or a player these are the games that you like to watch because it is such an intense battle.”
Morrison spent his best seasons playing for the Canucks from 2000-08, mostly centering the top line for Markus Naslund and Todd Bertuzzi.
View from Calgary:
According to Flames GM Jay Feaster, he decided to trade Brendan Morrison because he couldn’t see him playing on their top two lines the rest of the season and because the veteran will be an unrestricted free agent.
“As we projected our lineup going forward, we felt it was going to be difficult for us to find a spot for Brendan or get him significant ice time,” Feaster said. “Given his pending UFA status and the fact that we were not going to re-sign him, we felt it important to try to move him for another asset.”
