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Kashawn Aitcheson

Injury Notes: Blackhawks, Slavin, Aitcheson

at CDT | by 8 Comments

The Chicago Blackhawks have one more day of practice before their first preseason contest tomorrow night, and the jury is still out on who exactly will be available. In a series of injury updates from Scott Powers of The Athletic, the Blackhawks will have André Burakovsky back at practice this morning. However, defenseman Connor Murphy and forwards Brett Seney and Landon Slaggert will not participate.

As Powers noted, Burakovsky missed the team’s practice yesterday due to a lower-body injury, and there’s no indication he won’t be a full participant in today’s skate. The 30-year-old Austrian was acquired this summer in a salary dump trade with the Seattle Kraken. After signing a five-year, $27.5MM contract with the Kraken in the summer of 2022, Burakovsky struggled to stay healthy in his new environment, scoring 30 goals and 92 points in 177 contests.

Unlike the other three, it doesn’t appear Murphy is dealing with any injuries, and he’s only being held out for a maintenance day, which isn’t uncommon for veteran players during training camp. Seney and Slaggert are each dealing with undisclosed injuries, and there are no updates to their availability in tomorrow night’s contest against the Detroit Red Wings.

Other injury updates:

  • Following on the heels of last night’s report that the Carolina Hurricanes may hold out All-Star defenseman Jaccob Slavin from their preseason contests, it appears that will be the case. Outside of his absence from preseason action, there haven’t been any specifics regarding Slavin’s injury concerns at the time being. However, Chip Alexander of the Raleigh News & Observer reported this morning that Slavin is on the ice in a non-contact jersey.
  • The New York Islanders made a few cuts to their training camp roster this morning, and recent first-round pick, Kashawn Aitcheson, wasn’t one of them. According to Stefen Rosner of The Hockey News, Aitcheson is considered day-to-day with an undisclosed injury after last night’s contest against the Philadelphia Flyers. The belief is that the Islanders want to get one more look at him once he’s healthy before sending him back to the OHL’s Barrie Colts.

Islanders’ Kashawn Aitcheson Will Return To OHL

at CDT | by 4 Comments

Season plans have been revealed for New York Islanders first-round prospect Kashawn Aitcheson. Amid rumors of signing his entry-level contract or moving to the NCAA, Aitcheson will instead be returning to the OHL’s Barrie Colts for his age-19 season, Stefen Rosner of The Hockey News reports in his newsletter. Rosner adds that New York will wait to sign Aitcheson until next summer.

Aitcheson led Barrie’s blue-line in scoring in each of the last two seasons. He joined the Colts’ full-time in the 2023-24 season, at age 17, after a 23-game trial run in the prior season. It didn’t take long for Aitcheson to display a special lean towards feisty, aggressive hockey. He finished his first full OHL season with a team-leading 126 penalty minutes in 64 games, to go along with his defense-leading 39 points. The performance was a great show of the unique and overwhelming presence that Aitcheson brought to the lineup. Even more exciting was how he managed to build on that strong start this past season.

Through 64 games this year, a focus on staying poised and in-position boosted Aitcheson to an impressive 26 goals and 59 points, along with a restrained 88 penalty minutes. His goal-total is the third-most any OHL defenseman has managed in their draft year since 2000 — behind only Zayne Parekh (33) and Ryan Murphy (26). Aitcheson ranks just ahead of Evan Bouchard (25), Aaron Ekblad (23), and Ryan Ellis (22). That’s impressive company for the Islanders prospect, especially given that Ekblad is the only one of the bunch to also record more than 80 penalty minutes. Aitcheson’s performance was enough to earn the 17th-overall selection in this year’s draft.

An 18-goal leap from one season to the next will be hard for any player to sustain, though. Rather than couple that task with the challenge of a league change, Aitcheson will return to familiarity to really carve in his rut as a scorer. That will come as great news for Colts fans, who can almost certainly expect a near point-per-game season out of Aitcheson’s encore display. He’ll be joined by the return of Utah Mammoth first-round pick Cole Beaudoin, who scored 22 goals and 51 points in 52 games last season.

Islanders fans will have a list of places to follow their 2025 first-round picks on the back of this news. First-overall pick Matthew Schaefer will compete for a role on the NHL lineup, or join Aitcheson in a return to the OHL, after recently signing his first pro contract. New York’s patience with signing Aitcheson seems to indicate the runway Schaefer will receive. Meanwhile, Victor Eklund will return to Sweden’s SHL for next season, after he supported Djugardens IF to a promotion from the HockeyAllsvenskan last year.

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