The Depth Chart Nobody Wanted to Write

Chicago's four-man injury list — Bedard, Levshunov, Ellis, Grzelcyk — has been the persistent footnote to an otherwise energetic offseason, and at some point a footnote becomes the story. I've written about this twice already. It hasn't gotten smaller.

The defensive side is where it bites hardest. Levshunov averaged over 19 minutes a night last season and was one of the few blueliners who held up structurally during a year when the team allowed goals in bunches. He's out. Ellis is on IR. Grzelcyk is out. Byram was acquired specifically to anchor the back end, and now he may be doing it with considerably less help around him than anyone planned for.

Up front, the load falls to Bertuzzi, Burakovsky, and Teravainen — three players who combined for solid secondary production last season but were never designed to be the top line. Kane provides veteran presence and some offensive credibility, and Frank Nazar showed enough last year to suggest he can handle a bigger role. But Bedard was averaging better than a point a game when healthy, and there is no replacement for that.

The rebuild was always going to require patience. The injury situation just moved the timeline further right before a single puck has dropped.