Blackhawks piecing together roster as injury news begins to improve

For the first three months of this season, Rem Pitlick was buried on the Penguins’ AHL affiliate in Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, producing at a solid rate but not getting a chance to sniff the NHL.

One trade, one canceled flight and one successful flight later, he joined the Blackhawks on Tuesday to find himself not only smelling every NHL smell but also placed on the first forward line.

“From being here for an hour, everyone is positive and wants to work hard,” Pitlick said after his first Hawks morning skate.

The 26-year-old Ottawa native’s immediate placement alongside Philipp Kurashev atop the depth chart exemplifies just how pieced-together the Hawks’ roster is at the moment.

Defenseman Jaycob Megna, who made his fourth career Hawks appearance Tuesday against the Oilers after being claimed off waivers last Wednesday, is not even one of the two shortest-tenured players on the team anymore. Pitlick and Zach Sanford, who was claimed off waivers Saturday, hold those distinctions.

But with those reinforcements in town and the injury equation finally swinging from subtraction to addition, things are starting to stabilize — as much as they possibly can, at least, considering an official timeline for rookie star Connor Bedard’s recovery hasn’t yet been established.

“It’s just nice to have bodies at practice so we can have a full practice for a change,” coach Luke Richardson said. “There was a lot of excitement in the dressing room and on the ice today. I think the guys feel like our team’s getting healthier.”

Indeed, forwards Taylor Raddysh and Joey Anderson returned to action Tuesday after missing five and 10 games with groin and shoulder injuries, respectively. Raddysh immediately slotted on the first line alongside Pitlick and Kurashev, while Anderson reunited with Jason Dickinson — with whom he possesses some strong chemistry — and surging Colin Blackwell on the second line.

On his very first stride of the game Dec. 29 in Dallas, Raddysh tweaked his groin, arguably igniting the curse that seemed to linger over the entirety of the Hawks’ five-game road trip.

“The way it has been for us the last couple weeks, people have never seen that,” Raddysh said. “It’s kind of crazy. But I feel ready to go. The trainers have done a great job with me, getting myself the best chance to get back as quick as I can.”

Defenseman Seth Jones (shoulder) skated with the team Tuesday morning. Richardson said Jones will likely return within a week, which would give the Hawks a fully healthy defense at last. That allowed the Hawks to return Louis Crevier to Rockford on Tuesday, and there’s a good chance Isaak Phillips also heads there soon.

Andreas Athanasiou (groin), Anthony Beauvillier (wrist), Nick Foligno (finger), Tyler Johnson (foot), Taylor Hall (ACL) and of course Bedard (jaw) remain sidelined indefinitely, and the Hawks’ healthy roster remains hilariously weak compared to most NHL opponents.

Even small positives feel like large ones right now, though, and there are some silver linings to the situation.

“[When] you look up and down, everyone in here is getting a great opportunity,” Sanford said.

As far as Pitlick goes, the Hawks will hope to get the version of him that began the Canadiens’ 2021-22 season with 10 points in his first 14 games.

As he admitted Tuesday, there “definitely has been some up and down” in his career the past few years, but his career points-per-60-minutes average (1.90) actually exceeds that of linemates Kurashev (1.50) and Raddysh (1.49).

Richardson’s best explanation for why the Penguins had Pitlick buried in the minors is that his light 5-11, 186-pound frame doesn’t fit well in a bottom-six role, and a top-six role never opened up there. In Chicago, conversely, it certainly has.

“He’s a fast, dynamic player,” Richardson said. “I know him a little bit from Montreal, when he was there, and that’s what he can do.”