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Kris Versteeg Back in Peak Form for Chicago Blackhawks

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By @seansarcu

Kris Versteeg Chicago Blackhawks

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After a middling regular season and an atrocious postseason in 2013-14, Kris Versteeg‘s future with the Chicago Blackhawks was (and remains) up in the air. With Chicago needing to make one and perhaps several moves for salary cap purposes in the near future, there is no guarantee that Versteeg will be on the roster when the Blackhawks meet the Dallas Stars in Texas on October 9th.

With that said, those close to the situation are indicating that Stan Bowman would prefer to deal away a defenseman — probably Nick Leddy or Johnny Oduya — rather than trade Versteeg. Chicago’s coaching staff and upper management have expressed their belief that Versteeg’s disappointing 2013-14 was an anomaly, citing the winger’s torn ACL in March 2013 as an excuse.

This line of reasoning has considerable merit. The prevailing wisdom with ACL tears is that it typically takes the afflicted athlete a full season of game action to truly get back into the swing of things and return to his previous level of play. We’re at precisely that point with Versteeg now, and the early returns have been promising.

Versteeg himself has noted that there’s a big difference between a summer of rehab (2013) and a summer of training (2014). He dominated Chicago’s training camp scrimmages and has appeared comfortable and noticeably faster in preseason action thus far. All signs point to the winger being much improved in 2013-14, great news for a Blackhawks forward core that is already the team’s clearest strength.

Sean Sarcu is a Chicago Blackhawks writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter or add him to your network on Google.

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