Blackhawks defenseman Brent Seabrook was hoping that after undergoing three surgeries last season that ended his 2019-20 campaign early, he would be ready to go in training camp. That didn’t happen and the veteran has yet to play this season with very little information coming out about how long he’ll miss. Speaking with Ben Pope of the Chicago Sun-Times, GM Stan Bowman indicated that Seabrook won’t be coming back anytime soon and that there is some concern about his future:
He’s been a warrior for us. Think of his time in Chicago — he never really missed any games. But now we’re realizing he was playing through a lot of pain those years, and it’s caught up to him.
He was dealing with his shoulders and his hips to the point where he probably should have had [the surgeries] done years ago, but that’s how he’s always been driven — to keep moving forward, don’t worry about injuries, play through it. So, yeah, we are concerned for him. We certainly hope he can get past it.
Seabrook had planned to be in Chicago’s training camp before tweaking his back which has kept him out since then. He has managed to skate lightly on his own in recent weeks but nowhere near a level where he’d be considered close to returning. Pope likens Seabrook’s situation to that of teammate Zack Smith who also had a back injury, had planned to be ready for training camp, then wound up on the injured list and has yet to play this season.
The Blackhawks have used four blueliners on entry-level contracts so far this season and with it appearing that Seabrook won’t be back anytime soon (if at all this year), they will be able to get a longer look at some of those younger prospects. In the meantime, Seabrook and his $6.875MM AAV can be placed on LTIR if Chicago needs the cap room although they’re safely in cap compliance for the time being with Jonathan Toews on there and no word on how much longer he’ll be out.
The Hossa clause all over again…Only for those teams specially selected by Bettman to have cap penalty immunity.
Um except seabrook just had major hipAND shoulder surgery plays a hard physical defensive game. Hossa had a skin condition that if he really wanted to continue probably could have worked with the league to figure something out.
You have zero idea what you are talking about. Do your research before posting.
@pawtcuket congrats for winning today’s MLBTR Boneheaded Comment of the Day!
All you had to do was watch Seabrook play the past few years to know that he wasn’t right. The amount of games he played and played through while injured too cut years off his career more than likely. Seeing the precipitous drop off from him being an elite Defenseman to barely being able to hold his own out there was sad to see. Whether he’ll be able to come back at some point who knows. My guess is that they’ll pay Seattle to take his contract whether for him to play or just to bury his contract until it expires. Unfortunate ending for one of the great Hawks players.
Seebs has a NMC.
– Teams must protect players with no-movement clauses in their contracts, unless the player elects to waive the clause. They do not have to protect players with only no-trade clauses.
– Players with potential career-ending injuries who have missed more than the previous 60 consecutive games may be exempt from being selected with league approval.
So what your saying is there’s likely a chance that Seattle can take the contract with the hawks attaching some sort of compensation, if seabrooks career is over I highly doubt he cares who is signing his checks, however if he thinks he can be back I find it unlikely he would be interested in waiving his clause