Luke Richardson Stands Firm On Roster Decisions As Blackhawks Try New Gameplan

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Chris Gerics
October 14, 2024 (4:16 PM)

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Luke Richardson is trying to inject some life into his team after the first three games of the season, and while his moves have brought questions, he is staying put.

Although the Chicago Blackhawks have skated out to a 1-1-1 start, Luke Richardson is unhappy with how his offense has only scored eight goals so far this season. It's still young into the year but he thinks a change is necessary even with the firepower at his disposal like superstar Connor Bedard, Taylor Hall and Philipp Kurashev.

So on Monday's practice, Richardson made two big changes. First, he slid captain Nick Foligno on the wing alongside Bedard and Teuvo Teravainen to add some more punch and playmaking ability for his two snipers, then he added Andreas Athanasiou back into the fray to replace Craig Smith on the fourth line with Patrick Maroon and Ryan Donato.

Richardson was staunch in his decision to keep Smith out of the lineup, criticizing the forward for his turnover in the most recent game, and his praise for Smith was superseded by his desire to have Athanasiou play instead. Smith, drafted by the Nashville Predators in the fourth round of the 2009 NHL Entry Draft enjoyed an incredible stretch of play with the Predators in his nine seasons with the club.

Scoring 162 goals and 168 assists over 661 games with Nashville, Smith was an energetic bottom-six scorer who had 20+ goals in five of those nine seasons but quickly diminished in his production after leaving for Boston. With only 78 points in 170 games, Smith never regained his output and has bounced between Washington and Dallas before settling into Chicago this season. Athanasiou was drafted by Detroit in 2012 and has been comparable to Smith in his career, scoring 154 points in 294 games for Detroit including reaching 30 goals in 2018-2019. He then headed to Edmonton before signing with Chicago in the summer of 2022.

It will be interesting to see how Richardson employs his offense if the team isn't able to give him the results he expected, and it could lead to a lot more shuffling in the coming weeks for the Blackhawks.