The Blackhawks have assigned forward Philipp Kurashev to the Rockford IceHogs of the American Hockey League and recalled forward Josiah Slavin, the team announced Monday night.
Kurashev, 22, has zero goals and five assists in 19 games with the Blackhawks this season and had been a healthy scratch in Tuesday's 5-2 loss to Calgary. He logged only 6:25 of ice time in the Vancouver game prior to that.
"I needed to get a guy back in and I think he was fighting it a little bit," interim head coach Derek King said of the decision to scratch Kurashev. "Sometimes it's good to watch a game from up top."
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Kurashev had a fine rookie season with eight goals and eight assists in 54 games but hasn't quite taken that next step in his development. He could probably benefit from a stint in Rockford, where he will surely play top-six minutes and on the first power-play unit to get his confidence back up.
The Blackhawks calling up Slavin is a testament to just how far he's come since being taken in the seventh round (No. 193 overall) of the 2018 NHL Draft. He is the younger brother of Carolina Hurricanes defenseman Jaccob Slavin.
Josiah Slavin, 22, was tied for third on the IceHogs in points (eight) and first with a +7 rating. He has four goals and four assists in 15 AHL games this season and is likely to make his NHL debut at some point during the three-game road trip.
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