According to Charlie Roumeliotis of NBC Sports Chicago, the Chicago Blackhawks have assigned forward Cole Guttman to their AHL affiliate, the Rockford IceHogs.
Guttman, 24, was a healthy scratch for the Blackhawks’ past two games and has seemingly played his way back to the AHL in the early part of this season.
The five-foot-nine pivot has skated in three NHL games this year for head coach Luke Richardson, tallying one goal.
The Blackhawks signed Guttman as a college free agent after his productive final collegiate season, and he had an impressive debut season as a pro last year. But despite the early success he had as a professional, especially in the AHL, he’s been passed this season on the Blackhawks’ center depth chart.
Guttman began the year as Richardson’s third-line center, skating between Boris Katchouk and Andreas Athanasiou.
He’s since lost that job to Mackenzie Entwistle, who offers far more size at the position, but scored just four more points than Guttman last season despite playing in 52 additional NHL games.
With Lukas Reichel entrenched as the team’s second-line center (despite his early-season struggles) and Connor Bedard untouchable on the Blackhawks’ top line, there simply isn’t much room for Guttman in the lineup outside of that third-line center role.
It’s seemingly been made clear with the consecutive games spent as a healthy scratch that the Blackhawks want to see more from Guttman in order for him to retain a regular spot in their lineup. With this reassignment, the next step for him will be to play some impactful games for the IceHogs so he can earn a recall to Chicago and re-enter their lineup on stronger footing.
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