Malcolm Subban will get the first chance to take ownership of the Blackhawks net after coach Jeremy Colliton named him the starter for Wednesday night’s season opener against the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Colliton made the announcement while addressing media following Wednesday’s morning skate as the Blackhawks formalized the 18 skaters and two goalies who’ll take the ice against the defending Stanley Cup champions.
Those players are:
Forwards: Ryan Carpenter, Alex DeBrincat, Matthew Highmore, Mattias Janmark, David Kampf, Patrick Kane, Dominik Kubalik, Brandon Pirri, Andrew Shaw, Dylan Strome, Pius Suter, Lucas Wallmark
Defensemen: Adam Boqvist, Calvin de Haan, Duncan Keith, Ian Mitchell, Connor Murphy, Nikita Zadorov
Goaltenders: Collin Delia, Malcolm Subban
The six-man taxi squad is loaded with younger players, especially on the blue line:
Taxi Squad: Nicolas Beaudin (D), Lucas Carlsson (D), Brandon Hagel (F), Wyatt Kalynuk (D), Philipp Kurashev (F), Kevin Lankinen (G)
Based on all that information, Ben Pope of the Sun-Times offered this likely lineup for Wednesday’s game:
Given this taxi squad roster and Colliton's comments, here are the Blackhawks' projected lines for tonight:
DeBrincat-Strome-Kane
Janmark-Wallmark-Shaw
Kubalik-Suter-Pirri
Highmore-Kampf-Carpenter
Keith-Murphy
Zadorov-Boqvist
de Haan-Mitchell
Subban https://t.