Better to let him develop in the AHL and by not having him you make the Hawks worse which helps with the 'Lose for Hughes' plan.. Lol

It's time to embrace the tank. 2 points more than Ottawa (last in the league) and 1 more point than 2nd last in league LA. 1 more game played than both of them as well. At this point you aren't going to make the playoffs even with how bad the Western Conf. bubble teams are. Right now the cutoff for the playoffs is 85 points. That means Chicago needs 41 points in 31 games to get to 86 and beat out the last wildcard team assuming none of them pick up the pace at all. Would need to go 20-10-1 or better. At this point, accept you're out of the playoffs and try to get a top 5 pick that will help out next season. Let Joker get big minutes in the minors.

its called tanking

Yes, It's the ugly side of tanking. I REALLY want to see him play for the Blackhawks night in and night out, but they still have Forsling/Gus/Dahlstrom/Slater that all need ice time. AND (3) of those guys are available for a trade. Heck, I'm almost thinking that Stan might part with Murphy if got the right price considering how well he's playing. Murphy...Right D, Right Shot, Stay at home...playing 65% in the Dzone…somehow the best +/- on the team with an actual "+" for a terrible team... those guys are gold right now. I don't think anyone on this site really values stay at home dmen as much as they should be. Just because they don't score shouldn't mean they're not valuable. blah blah blah, That's besides the point. I'll get off my soap box. Allow Henri to play 24+ min a game down there.

He's still just 19 and they can call him back up anytime later in the season. I checked the schedule and I saw only one more game vs Edmonton. It's fine he's down there for now. The Blackhawks do have a few defensemen like Gustafson, Murphy and even Dahlstrom that could be moved in the next few weeks. The Blackhawks on their Cup runs always picked up an extra veteran D and/or forward, so these three plus Kruger and Hayden will all have value at the TDL for teams that need to improve their bottom pair/bottom 6 and have more depth in case of injury.

Big picture is of course to try to secure a top 4 pick for 2019 draft. After Hughes there's 2 wingers and a center that would be great picks for the Blackhawks. If Edmonton is in the lottery I'm not betting against them for the #1 pick, lol.

He has a clause in his contract if he plays 40 NHL games this year, he becomes a UFA at the end of his contract. He's at 37 games so this is part of the move. The other part is to see what the Hawks are going to do with RFA's Forsling, Dahlstrom, Koekk, and I'm sure scouts from other teams are looking at these 3 as potential trades. None of this reflects on Jokiharju's abilities or play.