Kirby Dach is not one of 72 players taking part in the Saskatoon Blades’ training camp.

In fact, he’s not even in town!

“He’s in Chicago. He’s doing some of their rookie protocol…stuff that they put their players through at the N-H-L,” explained Blades’ President and General Manager Colin Priestner. “He’s going to be going right to Traverse City (Michigan for an N-H-L rookie tournament)…(Blades’ left winger) Riley McKay will be joining him there. From there, he’ll be going to their main camp and I don’t expect we’re going to see Kirby until early November, if we see him at all.

“It’s just the situation we’re in,” continued Priestner. “(The Blackhawks) don’t tell us a whole lot and they’re not going to know themselves until the real bullets fly in the regular-season.”

Stay tuned for further developments with this story. Otherwise, the Bridge City Bunch breakdown at camp is eight goalies, 24 defencemen and 40 forwards. Or, four overage players…of which only three can be kept…eight, 19-year-olds; seven, 18-year-olds; 16, 17-year-olds; 14, 16-year-olds and 23, 15-year-olds…an age group that can only play five games. Tuesday will have four more scrimmages and the awarding of the Kirkness Cup…after which the roster will be pared significantly.