COLORADO — The Blackhawks acquired forward Jason Dickinson from the Vancouver Canucks on Friday, but he won't be with the team for the start of the regular season due to visa issues.
Head coach Luke Richardson said after Monday's practice in Denver that Dickinson is expected to miss the first two games and the Blackhawks are "hoping" he could join them for the final game of the road trip in San Jose. If not, his team debut will likely be the home opener on Oct. 21.
Dickinson, 27, registered five goals and six assists for 11 points in 62 games with the Vancouver Canucks last season. He had 38 points (13 goals, 25 assists) in 221 games over the course of his first six NHL seasons with the Dallas Stars.
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Dickinson is a former 2013 first-round pick but has since made his living as a defensive specialist. He will likely be in a shutdown-type role and be part of the penalty kill with the Blackhawks, although his game changed a bit when he went from Dallas to Vancouver.
"Dallas, the way they played, had a pretty wide-open game plan a few years ago and they had a pretty offensive team, it was pretty potent," Richardson said. "Him playing with those styles of players helps. And then going to Vancouver, maybe they're thinking bigger body, guy that can skate, fill in roles that they've lost that have been in those checking, penalty killing roles those last few years. They probably figured he'd fit in and it just didn't work so it'll benefit us."
Dickinson has two years left on his contract at a $2.65 million cap hit, and it was the main motivation behind the trade for Vancouver. The Canucks needed to shed salary to get under the ceiling by Monday's 4 p.m. deadline and did so by shipping Dickinson to Chicago for defenseman Riley Stillman, whose cap hit is $1.3 million less than Dickinson's.
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The cost of doing business for the Canucks was a second-round pick in 2024, which the Blackhawks acquired. The Canucks were also looking for a defenseman after Tyler Myers went down with an injury, so it made sense for them to go out and get a depth defenseman in Stillman.
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