Blackhawks place veteran defenseman on IR

The Blackhawks have made a pair of moves on their back end before Sunday’s matchup against Vancouver. The team announced that defenseman Seth Jones was placed on injured reserve. Taking his place on the roster is blueliner Wyatt Kaiser who has been recalled from AHL Rockford.

Jones is dealing with an upper-body injury and his placement is dated retroactive to Dec. 10. That means he’ll be eligible to be activated after missing Sunday’s game. Earlier on Saturday, head coach Luke Richardson told reporters including Scott Powers of The Athletic (Twitter link) that there is no timetable for how long his top blueliner will be out.

The 29-year-old is still looking for his first goal of the season but has 11 assists in 27 games along with 64 blocked shots. He’s also logging 25:25 per game, ranking fifth in the NHL in ATOI among all players so Richardson will have to get creative to fill those minutes.

As for Kaiser, the 21-year-old is in his first full professional year and has spent most of the year with Chicago, suiting up in 21 games where he has four assists along with 27 blocks while averaging 16:34 per night.  Earlier this month, the Blackhawks opted to send him to Rockford to get him some more playing time; he got into five games with the IceHogs and was held off the scoresheet.