Raanta Reassigned to Rockford

photo from calgaryherald.com

Late last night, Stan Bowman reassigned back up goaltender Antti Raanta to the Rockford Icehogs, and recalled Scott Darling.

Last season, Raanta played parts of twenty five games for the Blackhawks and had a record of 13-5-4. He started fifteen straight games when Corey Crawford was injured last season, and won eleven of them (including his first career NHL shutout). When Raanta gets a chance to play, he's excellent.

However, when Crawford was healthy, Raanta started just seven games that season, and only won two of them. It's understandable, when you have a young, inexperienced back up like Raanta (last season was his first North American season, not just his first NHL season). What he needs is to be playing games, not sitting on the bench, if you want him to develop.

This season is Scott Darling's first NHL season, and it's starting out well. Called up when Crawford suffered an upper body injury early in the season, he started three straight games, and won two of them. He impressed everyone in training camp, and has played outstandingly so far this season in Rockford (a record of 5-1-0, with a .939 save percentage and 1.79 GAA).

This move makes a lot of sense. Chicago wants Raanta on the ice, and they're not going to be able to do that with Crawford healthy and playing as well as he is. Darling also has a slightly better record this season than Raanta, and that might make Quenneville happier to play him. Raanta hasn't played since October 25th, against the Blues. Crawford has started every game since returning from his injury (seven straight starts, including both games in a back to back). That can't continue for the entire season. Chicago needs to have a backup goalie they can trust to win games, but they also need to think about the development of their younger goalies. Having Raanta in Rockford starting the bulk of the games down there can only be a good thing in terms of his development.

Other News

• Yesterday the Blackhawks reassigned Peter Regin to Rockford, and then called up Joakim Nordstrom. Regin had one point in four games so far this season. Last season, Nordstrom had three points in sixteen regular season games for Chicago. This season with Rockford he has eight points in thirteen games.
• Daniel Carcillo looks set to make his return to the roster for tonight's game against Dallas. He has missed ten games with a lower body injury suffered in the October 25th loss to St. Louis.