With Mrázek back on the roster, the Blackhawks' goalie crisis is almost at an end

The revolving door at goaltender for the Blackhawks could be coming to a stop.

The Blackhawks announced Monday morning that Petr Mrázek has been activated from injured reserve.

The Hawks have played with four different goalies in their last nine games, but finished that stretch with an above-.500 record.

Fifth-string goaltender Dylan Wells saw action Saturday after Arvid Söderblom left their game against the Jets with an injury.

"[My head] was kind of spinning," Wells said when he found out he was being signed by the NHL team. "Things just happen so quickly, it's tough to make sense of it right away. I had a feeling obviously it could happen and knew it was a possibility, but I'm super grateful to be here. I'm just settling in now, so it's just setting in, but it's exciting."

It's hard to imagine general manager Kyle Davidson and head coach Luke Richardson consider their goalie crisis as "exciting."

Mrázek was injured in the first period of the Hawks' game against the Red Wings on October 21.

Alex Stalock went into concussion protocol after the first period of the Islanders game on November 1 and has not returned.

Saturday's game took Söderblom, and since the AHL's Rockford IceHogs placed their starting goalie Jaxson Stauber in concussion protocol, Wells replaced Söderblom.

"It's been a whirlwind of not even 24 hours I guess," Wells said the morning after he was called up, "but I'm happy to be here."

Really, it's been a whirlwind of not even three weeks.

Stalock went 3-1-1 since Mrázek was injured, Söderblom went 1-2 and Wells recorded 12 saves on 13 shots against the Jets.

Starting with that Red Wings game, the Blackhawks had a three-game win streak and a four-game losing streak. Overall, they have been 4-3-2.

Although it's been a disaster in logistics and preparation, the results haven't been terrible, especially for a team that wasn't supposed to be winning even with their first-string goaltender. So, maybe this goalie dilemma has revealed something about this hockey team's fight.

If they are able to maintain a .500 record with a fifth-string goalie, there's a good chance that this team won't be finishing in the bottom-five of the standings this year.

There's a good chance that Davidson hired too good of a coach, and has accumulated too competitive of a team to get a top-three pick in the draft.

The Hawks have the 11th-best power-play percentage in the NHL, have allowed the 14th-most goals, have three wins when trailing first, and are currently 4th in the Central Division, 1 point behind the defending Stanley Cup champions, the Colorado Avalanche.

Those aren't exactly the most shell-shocking statistics in the world, and certainly not playoff numbers, but they're also not draft lottery numbers.

It's worth noting how early it is in the season, and that there's a lot of hockey left to be played, but if there's anything that this goalie situation has revealed about this team is that they aren't trying to lose.

And now, with Mrázek coming back and most likely playing against the Kings on Thursday, they have an even sturdier chance at winning some more games, even though the Blackhawks have demonstrated that it hasn't mattered who's in the net.

"At the end of the day, my job is to stop the puck," Wells said.