Blackhawks Practice: Korchinski Recalled, Martinez ‘Improving’

The 2024-25 Chicago Blackhawks season won’t be defined by their record or point total. This long grind of a season will be remembered for how the Blackhawks started the year as one of the oldest teams in the NHL and finished as one of the youngest. The roster got even younger on Thursday as the Blackhawks recalled defenseman Kevin Korchinski from the Rockford IceHogs.

Kevin Korchinski is Back in the NHL

Insider Frank Seravalli hinted about Korchinski’s recall during last night’s pregame show on CHSN, so this morning’s news was not a huge surprise. This is the young defenseman’s second stint in Chicago after spending all last season in the NHL. In 54 AHL games, he leads all Rockford defensemen with 24 assists and 27 points.

“It’s been good,” Korchinski said of his time in Rockford. “I’ve learned a lot, playing both ends of the puck and playing big minutes.”

The 20-year-old blueliner got nine games with the Blackhawks in December. He didn’t find the scoresheet but created seven scoring chances and two high-danger scoring chances at 5v5. The Blackhawks had a 46.9 Corsi for percentage (CF%) when Korchinski was on the ice, meaning the opponents held a 138-122 shot attempt advantage.

Korchinski said he used those nine games to pinpoint some aspects of his game he needed more work on when he returned to the IceHogs. Part of that mid-set helped him win MVP honors at the AHL All-Star Challenge in February.

The locker room is quite a bit younger than the last time Korchinski was in it. Gone are veterans like Taylor Hall, Seth Jones, Craig Smith, and Petr Mrazek, who have been replaced by players like Landon Slaggert, Artyom Levshunov, Spencer Knight, and now Korchinski. This isn’t only exciting for the fans, but the players in the room are enjoying it, too.

“It’s cool,” Korchinski said. “It feels kind of like Rockford up here, all the guys that I played with down there. So it’s cool seeing a lot of familiar faces and guys that are your own similar age, own age, and that you can do stuff off the ice with and kind of bond over.”

Interim head coach Anders Sorensen confirmed that Korchinski will be in the lineup Friday night against the Vegas Golden Knights. Since the Blackhawks held an optional skate today, there were no line rushes. If one were to make a logical guess, Louis Crevier is the likely candidate to come out of the lineup.

Sorensen has a unique perspective on Korchinski’s improvement, as he was the IceHogs’ head coach at the start of the season and worked with him there.

“I think his game has evolved a lot defensively in terms of him being quieter, holding his position better, knowing when to go, and knowing when to hold,” said Sorensen. “And I think offensively too; I think his awareness of when there’s a play to be made here or when I have just to live to fight another day and put a puck in an area. Playing a lot of minutes down there has helped in those situations because you have to manage your minutes, so to speak. That’s been a real positive development area for him.

No New Update on Alec Martinez

Sorensen was vague when asked about the condition of veteran defenseman Alec Martinez. All he would offer was that Martinez was “improving.” He would not provide any further details about his upper-body injury. Sorensen wouldn’t rule out a return before the end of the season.

Martinez was injured in the first period of last Saturday’s 4-1 loss to the St. Louis Blues when he was hit from behind by Jake Neighbours. To make matters worse, Jason Dickinson suffered a season-ending wrist injury in a fight sticking up for his teammate.