With the first game of the 2022-23 NHL season just one day away, it’s time to start examining the players who’ll be taking the ice for the Blackhawks this season. Up next are the forwards who’ll occupy the bottom two lines to start this season.
When NHL teams are at their best, the third and fourth lines are often occupied by the players who become cult heroes. Plenty of those examples exist with the Chicago Blackhawks teams of old: Dave Bolland, Bryan Bickell, Andrew Shaw, etc.
This Blackhawks team is not at its best, so the bottom-six is occupied by players who are going to see ice time because of the nature of this team’s present situation and would likely struggle to compete for an NHL spot on several other teams in the league.