Evening Snapshots: Athanasiou, Bruins, Comrie

One of the most notable missing pieces in the team’s win tonight against the Vegas Golden Knights was Chicago Blackhawks’ forward, Andreas Athanasiou, who was a healthy scratch. Signed to a two-year, $8.5 MM extension after last year’s season, Athanasiou has not gotten off to a strong start this year with Chicago (Tweet Link).

Last season, as the team’s regular season schedule came to a close, Athanasiou was tied for the team lead in goal-scoring with Taylor Raddysh, earning him an extension over the offseason. In seven games so far this year, Athanasiou only has three assists, which is still good for sixth on the team in point production but has not incorporated the goal-scoring production the team is accustomed to.

There is no doubt that the relatively high salary the Blackhawks gave him over the summer had to do with the team reaching the salary cap floor for the season, but the team should still be seeking more production out of his play. In any case, even on a rebuilding team in Chicago, Athanasiou will need to raise his level of play to earn a full-time spot in the Blackhawks lineup.

Other snapshots:

• To comply with the salary cap, Mark Divver of the New England Hockey Journal reported that all the transactions made today by the Boston Bruins were ’paper’ transactions. For those that don’t know, ’paper’ transactions are simply callups and reassignments that qualify for salary cap compliance, but the players included likely will not see any minutes with their respective teams.
• In tonight’s game against the New Jersey Devils, the Buffalo Sabres announced that goaltender, Eric Comrie, will not return to the game after suffering a lower-body injury. It is unfortunate news for the Sabres after Comrie has had to start three of the last four games due to an injury from regular starting netminder, Devon Levi. If Comrie is expected to miss a significant amount of time, Buffalo’s third-string goaltender, Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen will likely see the majority of starts for the foreseeable future.