Jokiharju battles for roster spot
There’s little question Henri Jokiharju is a future NHL player. It’s just a matter of the Blackhawks determining whether his future is now.
Jokiharju, the Hawks’ firstround pick in the 2017 draft, was already in the mix to make the roster before veteran defenseman Connor Murphy was lost for eight weeks to a back injury. The opening could provide a window for Jokiharju to have a tryout of sorts before the Hawks decide to keep him or send him for more seasoning.
It’s not clear if Jokiharju, 19, is age-eligible to play in the AHL for the Rockford Ice Hogs. But it’s possible that might not matter.
“He might be one of those guys who could find a way,” coach Joel Quenneville said. “He made leaps and bounds progress from his prior year from a pretty decent level initially. The thing with him is he’s competitive. He’s feisty in some ways, and he’s got a lot of different attributes to his game. But offensively, he likes to go.”
Jonathan Toews also is impressed with Jokiharju, who is the same age Toews was when he reached the NHL.
“He’s smart and he’s skilled,” Toews said. “Even for a guy his age he’s in good shape, he’s a powerful skater. In a lot of ways he’s ready to go and could make a pretty good run at trying to secure a job on our team.”
No sudden movements: Hawks fans were a little frustrated general manager Stan Bowman didn’t make any flashy moves this summer. And they became even more ornery watching Western Conference teams that finished ahead of the Hawks last season seemingly get stronger.
The Central Division appears to be loaded. The Predators and Jets are again expected to contend for the Stanley Cup while the Blues traded for center Ryan O’Reilly and signed free-agent forwards David Perron, Tyler Bozak and Patrick Maroon.
Just this week, the Golden Knights and Sharks traded for an Eastern Conference captain, with Vegas adding Max Pacioretty from the Canadiens and San Jose snaring Erik Karlsson from the Senators.
Despite those moves, Bowman isn’t feeling pressure to make a trade.
“I don’t think that’s the way to handle it,” Bowman said. “If you’re reactionary, you’re doing something because you’re trying to keep up with another team. Those typically don’t go well. You have to do what makes sense for your team.
“It’s our job to try to make our team better. If it’s with this group, talking to our coaches, they’re going to do everything they can to make this team the best version it can be. And if there’s ways we can bring in different players, then we’ll look at that too.”
Scrimmage highlights: Jonathan Toews’ Red Team defeated Patrick Kane’s White Team 6-4 in Saturday’s scrimmage at the United Center before approximately 15,000 fans. Dylan Sikura had a pair of goals, but the two best plays came from goalie Kevin Lankinen, who twice moved far to his right to turn away pointblank shots into what appeared to be an open net.
“Unbelievable,” Quenneville said.
Lankinen, 23, signed a twoyear deal after playing in Finland’s top pro league the last four seasons.