Six days after being assigned to the Rockford IceHogs of the American Hockey League, No. 3 overall pick Kirby Dach has been recalled by the Blackhawks, the team announced late Friday night. He is not eligible to play in the AHL full-time this season, but he was allowed to stay in Rockford for up to 14 days on a conditioning stint, according to CBA rules.
Dach, who was sidelined for the first week of training camp with a concussion, appeared in three games with the IceHogs and was held off the scoresheet in each of them. He started on the fourth line in the first game, got promoted to the third in the second and played on the first line with Matthew Highmore and Dylan Sikura on Friday night against the Chicago Wolves.
The Blackhawks are coming off a 3-2 overtime victory over Columbus to improve to 2-0-1 in their past three games, and that helps ease Dach into the equation with the team riding some positive momentum. The next game is on Sunday at 6 p.m. against the Washington Capitals, which is possibly when he'll make his NHL debut.
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Where Dach fits into the four-line rotation is unclear and will be interesting to monitor. It's possible he starts on the wing, especially with the third line of David Kampf, Dominik Kubalik and Brandon Saad clicking. Before Dach was assigned to Rockford, he was taking practice reps with Jonathan Toews and alternating on the wing with Drake Caggiula and Alex DeBrincat.
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