The Blackhawks officially kicked off training camp 2.0 on Monday at Fifth Third Arena and announced a full roster of 35 players, including five goaltenders. Only one of the 35 members did not participate and it's an important piece to the puzzle.
Corey Crawford was deemed "unfit to play," head coach Jeremy Colliton revealed after practice, and a timeline was not provided as to when he could return. The NHL is prohibiting teams from releasing medical information in Phases 3 and 4 to protect the privacy of the player, hence the careful language.
"The way we are handling this is we're looking at the guys that are here and ready to play," GM Stan Bowman said. "And when Corey's in that group, then we can talk about Corey. ... That's a tough one to speculate on."
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The plan, for now, is for the four other goaltenders to compete for a spot. Collin Delia and Malcolm Subban skated with the NHL regulars on Day 1 while Kevin Lankinen and Matt Tomkins were with the taxi squad members in the second group.
Colliton singled out Delia, Subban and Tomkins as the three netminders who will rotate in and out with the first group as training camp goes along and for however long Crawford is sidelined. Lankinen will likely stay in the second group because he underwent left shoulder surgery in March and was put on a four-to-five month timetable.
"It's an opportunity for those other guys to compete," Colliton said of the goaltending competition. "It's a great opportunity for them and for us to evaluate them. We expect a lot of competition, and we have confidence in all three of those guys that they're going to make it hard on us and play at a high level."
Corey Crawford misses Day 1 of training camp, deemed 'unfit to play' by Blackhawks originally appeared on NBC Sports Chicago
