While Chicago won’t have newly acquired center Joe Veleno in the lineup tonight against Utah, they will get another forward back. The team announced that Philipp Kurashev has been activated off injured reserve. He had missed the last week and a half with a hand injury.
After a breakout showing last season, it looked as if Kurashev’s stock was on the rise and that he’d be a fixture in Chicago’s lineup for a while. After all, a 54-point season from a then-24-year-old made it appear that he could be a key cog in their top six.
But things haven’t gone anywhere near as well this season. Kurashev has just six goals and four assists through 42 games while his -29 plus/minus rating is tied for the fourth-lowest in the league. Instead of being a top liner like he was a year ago, his playing time is down by nearly five minutes a game while he has been healthy scratched at times.
As a result, his long-term outlook with the organization has certainly changed. Instead of looking like a fixture for the foreseeable future, Chicago was shopping him earlier in the season and couldn’t find a suitable trade.
A pending restricted free agent, Kurashev will be owed a $2.25MM qualifying offer this summer while he’ll also have salary arbitration rights. Considering how things have gone this year, it seems unlikely he’ll be tendered that offer so he’ll need to use this final six-week stretch of the season as a showcase for what’s likely to be his first trip through unrestricted free agency in July.