AP - 10/17/2009

It is nice to see Troy Brouwer getting some love by the print media – Chris Kuc specifically. On a side note, Kuc is slowly becoming my favorite Blackhawks writer of the three Chicagoland newspapers. Anyway, I have mentioned a couple times at least this season that I like the player that Brouwer is developing into, and there are a few other bloggers that have alluded to his improvement as well.

Brouwer is already the player that the Blackhawks organization has been trying to mold the oafish Dustin Byfuglien into. He is great around the net (see Monday’s goal vs. the Wild), brings a physical game and can create scoring chances in the offensive zone. In the last four games Brouwer has three goals.

I am probably getting ahead of my self here – something I can to do when I write about the Blackhawks – but I always felt that Brouwer could develop into a Ryan Malone type player. When the organization is forced to evaluate their salary-cap situation at the end of the season, Bowman could move a bigger contract in favor of Brouwer and his $1M cap-hit next year.

Injury Updates: Brent Seabrook and Marian Hossa skated in today’s practice, but Jonathan Toews was a no-show. Seabrook could play tomorrow night in Nashville, Hossa was limited to no contact drills and Toews will likely miss the next two games with the concussion-like symptoms.