Blackhawks forward Jason Dickinson’s frustrating 2024-25 season has come to a premature end.
Dickinson will miss the rest of the year with a wrist injury suffered Saturday in St. Louis, interim coach Anders Sorensen said Tuesday.
The 29-year-old center finishes with just seven goals in 59 games, having scored his last one on Dec. 23. That represents an enormous decline from last season, when he erupted for 22 goals in 82 games — tying Connor Bedard for the team lead.
He’s an even bigger loss defensively as the team’s best and most relied-upon defensive forward; he deservedly earned some Selke Trophy votes last season for his impact there.
The second half of Dickinson’s season was significantly disrupted by a high-ankle sprain that cost him more than four weeks and now this injury, which he suffered fighting Blues forward Jake Neighbours after a collision with Hawks defenseman Alec Martinez.
“He has had some bad luck throughout the season [and] missed extended time,” Sorensen said. “[Penalty killing] is one thing, but we know in terms of shutting other teams’ top lines down, he’s done a good job the last couple of years here. It’s a loss, but it’s an opportunity for other players to step up here.”
Dickinson, arguably one of the smartest players in the league, had been unhappy with how things were going.
“[I’m] not contributing, and it’s driving me nuts,” he said last week. “I expect a lot more of myself, and it’s increasingly frustrating. [I’m] feeling OK physically and good enough to go that I should be contributing a lot more than I have been.”
Martinez is day-to-day with an upper-body injury, Sorensen said, while rookie forward Colton Dach — who has already missed the last two games with an elbow injury — will be “be out for a little bit, too.”
The injuries do potentially open spots in the lineup for prospects like Ryan Greene, Oliver Moore and Sam Rinzel to fill after their NCAA postseason runs with Boston University and Minnesota conclude.