WINNIPEG, Manitoba — The Blackhawks responded to rookie defenseman Wyatt Kaiser’s recent struggles with a demotion Saturday to the AHL for the first time.
The surprising — if probably justified — move was part of a big shake-up to the defensive corps that felt imminent the last few days.
Isaak Phillips, whose season has been split between nine NHL and eight AHL appearances, also was reassigned to Rockford. Jarred Tinordi was activated off injured reserve, and Louis Crevier was called up to the Hawks for the first time.
Tinordi, who hadn’t played since Nov. 9 because of an oblique injury, and Nikita Zaitsev, who had been a healthy scratch in seven of the last eight games, formed the third pairing in the Hawks’ 3-1 loss to the Jets. Zaitsev had a solid game, blocking four shots and clearing a puck off the goal line in the third period.
Crevier, whom Hawks coaches watched play for Rockford on Friday against the Manitoba Moose in a convenient scheduling overlap, might make his NHL debut in the next few days. A 2020 seventh-round pick, Crevier, 22, is a towering 6-8.
“[He has] taken a really big step here in his second year [as a] pro,” Rockford coach Anders Sorensen said. “He’s really developed in terms of his positioning, his stick habits and his ability to break up plays because he’s so rangy.”
The most interesting news, however, regarded the simultaneous demotions of Kaiser and Phillips. They had been paired together for several weeks in the NHL, during which they endured some ups and downs.
“We didn’t have the luxury of giving each of them a veteran guy to lean on out there,” Hawks coach Luke Richardson said. “They had to work through things on the fly themselves. They’ve had some really good things at times, but, right now, we think it’s best for them to go work on their game a little bit in the American League.”
Kaiser was impressive during training camp, entering it as a roster-bubble guy and leaving it safely locked into a spot. But his play had declined gradually over the last two months, culminating in a rough performance Thursday against the Red Wings.
Richardson recently had given him feedback about being more aggressive and sagging less on his gaps when defending opponents’ zone entries. But when he stepped up along the blue line Thursday, Robby Fabbri undressed him for a highlight-reel goal.
Kaiser’s 42.3% scoring-chance ratio ranks fifth out of seven Hawks defensemen, ahead of only Tinordi (41.9%) and Zaitsev (40.9%) and behind Kevin Korchinski (47.6%), Phillips (45.5%), Connor Murphy (43.8%), Alex Vlasic (43.4%) and Seth Jones (43.2%).
He’s 21 and has only 30 games of professional experience — all in the NHL after coming out of Minnesota-Duluth last spring — so the idea is some time in the AHL could help him rebuild his confidence. The Hawks have shown many times how patient they’re willing to be with prospects.
“He can play here,’’ Richardson said. ‘‘It’s just, for a young defenseman, can you do it every night and not get your confidence shattered a little bit? It’s hard to get it back in this league. [He’s] going down to work on that and handling the puck a little bit more and . . . making simple plays, not making it too difficult. His skating ability gets him out of a lot of trouble, but it also can get him into trouble.”
Phillips, meanwhile, always seemed likely to go back down when Tinordi returned, but one could argue that he earned the right to stay in the NHL with his play during this stint.
He made goal-saving plays Nov. 16 and Nov. 19 against the Lightning and Sabres, respectively, then helped the Hawks kill the Kraken’s critical five-on-three power play Tuesday.
