The Blackhawks sent two players to Rockford on Monday. Sam Rinzel and Landon Slaggert were in different situations, but wound up in the same place.
Slaggert was enjoying the press box buffet for the past couple weeks, getting healthy scratched almost every night. His season got off to a delayed start because of injury and illness and he was still trying to find his groove. Going back to Rockford is the right move for Slaggert. Regular ice time in every situation will help him be ready for when he’s needed back in the NHL.
Rinzel, on the other hand, started the season as a guy getting mentioned for the Calder Trophy. He was expected to be the Blackhawks’ top-pair right-handed defenseman, run the top power play, skate 24+ minutes every night and look like a guy who’s been in the league for a decade… even if he’d only appeared in nine NHL games before this season.
He’s been moved off the top pair, off the top power play unit, got a healthy scratch and now gets to visit Rockford for a bit. Going to Rockford (for the first time) is the right move for Rinzel, too. He needs to get his confidence back and work on some things without the pressure of the NHL.
Oliver Moore started this season in Rockford. It served him well. Wyatt Kaiser has been up and down a few times. It’s been good for him, too. I’m not worried about either of these guys at all. I think they’ll both be good contributors for the Blackhawks’ NHL roster in the future. But, right now, they need to be the best version of themselves and they aren’t doing that on the NHL roster.
ICYMI: in the wake of Hockey Canada naming their preliminary roster for the World Junior Championship, I curated what some of the experts and analysts said about Blackhawks prospect Marek Vanacker being left off the list.Experts Discuss Blackhawks Prospect Marek Vanacker Getting Left Off Canada’s WJC Roster #blackhawks t.co/nu33nFqmb9
— Bleacher Nation Blackhawks (@BN_Blackhawks) December 9, 2025 A quick two cents because the cynics in the crowd (largely on the artist formerly known as Twitter) are celebrating the Blackhawks having a top prospect left off the list because they’ll still take any chance they can get to crap on GMKD’s rebuild. The fact that the comments about Vanacker — who leads the OHL in scoring — largely had him as a potential bottom-six forward option for Canada isn’t any kind of a projection for what he might be in the NHL. It’s more of a statement of how good this crop of Canadian players is this year. Furthermore, this is a moment to take a step back and acknowledge as well that there are only six spots open in the top six. I know, a revolutionary concept! There are going to be good players who somehow don’t make it into the top six for a deep team like Canada at this year’s WJC and, in a couple years, the Blackhawks because of the amount of talent, speed and skill coming thru the pipeline. If, in three years, the Blackhawks’ third line is Vanacker, Ryan Greene and Nathan Behm, I think the Blackhawks are in really, really good shape. And there’s a chance a couple power forwards who can score like Vanacker and Behm find their way into those roles because of the other pieces in the pipeline. Which, again, is not a derogatory comment about their ability. It’s more of a statement about the depth in the pipeline. I pointed out this morning that the last time a team won a World Juniors gold without a player already drafted by the Blackhawks was 2020. In 2022 and 2023 — before he was drafted by the Hawks — Connor Bedard won gold with Canada. He was a teammate of Ethan Del Mastro‘s on both of those Canada rosters. Good stuff here from Ben Pope on Bedard getting better at faceoffs. I was told many times in the comments here that he was too small and needed to be moved to the wing because, at 18 and 19 years of age, he wasn’t winning enough faceoffs to think about maybe giving him more time to develop. To the shock of some, he’s still a center and he’s getting better at the dot, too.Connor Bedard deserves credit for his improvement with faceoffs:2023-24: 38.9%2024-25: 38.3%2025-26: 48.1%"I’m trying to keep that consistency, and I feel like I’ve done a better job of that this year."That's part 2 of this Bedard up t.co/td7mZemMgt
— Ben Pope (@BenPopeCST) December 8, 2025 Patrick Kane has scored 497 regular-season goals in his brilliant NHL career. He’s always put on a show in Chicago — both for the years he was the centerpiece of the Blackhawks’ offense and, of course, when he returned and spoiled Chris Chelios’ night with the dramatic game-winner. As a reminder: the Red Wings are in Chicago on Saturday of this week. They’re giving away Chelios bobbleheads that night. Stay tuned! This is a magnificent read on Kane as a Red Wing. Highly recommend.Patrick Kane is on the verge of scoring his 500th goal and passing Mike Modano on the all-time U.S.-born scoring list. Here's @m_bultman on how Kane has written a second chapter to his storied career in, of all places, Detroit: t.co/hlcSHKBzNx
— Mark Lazerus (@MarkLazerus) December 8, 2025 We’ve got college hockey tonight! John Mustard, Julius Sumpf and Providence are at Brown at 6 PM. Blackhawks legend Craig Smith called it a career on Monday. Heckuva run. Some fans might barely remember him for his brief time in Chicago, but Smith was one of the guys in Nashville who gave the Blackhawks fits for years. Terrific player in his prime.pic.twitter.com/BEniRsON0S
— Magnuson Hockey Agency (@Magnusonhockey) December 8, 2025 The Tampa Bay Lightning placed goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy on injured reserve. Tough blow for Utah: Logan Cooley is out indefinitely.INJURY UPDATE@utahmammoth forward Logan Cooley will be out indefinitely (lower-body)
— Utah Mammoth PR (@UtahMammoth_PR) December 8, 2025BLEACHER NATION: Go Ad Free | Subscribe to the BN Newsletter
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