The Chicago Blackhawks are taking on the Seattle Kraken on Thursday night. It is going to be a celebration of Jeremy Roenick who was just recently put into the Hockey Hall of Fame. It is sure to be a wonderful night of celebrating in the final home game before the holiday freeze.
The Seattle Kraken are going to have a little wrinkle added to their lineup following a big trade that took place. On Wednesday night, the Kraken traded Will Borgen, a third in 2025, and a sixth in 2025 to the New York Rangers.
In return, the Kraken landed Kaapo Kakko who was the second overall pick in the 2019 NHL Draft. Hawks fans may remember when Chicago took Kirby Dach one pick later. Things haven’t worked out for Kakko in New York and it was time for him to be moved.
Now, Kakko will make his Kraken debut against the Chicago Blackhawks at United Center. It’s an exciting opportunity for him to do big things with his new change of scenery.
Kakko was a big-time scorer as a prospect but he was forced to change into a defense-first kind of forward when he got to the NHL. The Kraken hopes to unlock some of that offense from him in the coming years. The skills are there.
As for the Blackhawks, they have Petr Mrazek activated for the game. He will back up Arvid Soderblom who has been very good this season when getting the call to play. It won’t be long before Mrazek is back to starting games again.
The rest of the lines will stay the same from Tuesday’s win over the Washington Capitals. That means Connor Bedard will stay with Nick Foligno and Ryan Donato. Frank Nazar’s third game of the season will have him centering Tyler Bertuzzi and Taylor Hall. Jason Dickinson will center Ilya Mikheyev and Teuvo Teravainen who have been dynamite together lately.
This depth has helped the Hawks in two games in a row. They haven’t won 3 in a row since drafting Connor Bedard. Patrick Kane’s last three games as a Blackhawk were also the previous three consecutive wins that the team has had. They’d love to change that in this one.
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