NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — The Chicago Blackhawks recalled top prospect Frank Nazar from the minor leagues on Friday.
Chicago also placed defenseman Alec Martinez on injured reserve, retroactive to Dec. 7. Martinez, who signed a $4 million, one-year contract with the Blackhawks in free agency, has a neck injury.
The 20-year-old Nazar had 11 goals and 13 assists in 21 games with Rockford of the American Hockey League. He said he tried not to think about a possible promotion while he was playing with the IceHogs.
“Just play my game, focus on myself and obviously help the team win, best I could do, and let the rest come,” he said.
The move reunites Nazar with Anders Sorensen, who was coaching Rockford before he got the interim job with Chicago when Luke Richardson was fired on Dec 5.
“It's definitely really nice just to have someone that I know and trust and have a good relationship with,” Nazar said. “I know that he's going to give good feedback and everything like that, and just help out in areas where I need it.”
Nazar was selected by Chicago with the No. 13 pick in the 2022 draft. After starring for the University of Michigan, the forward agreed to a three-year contract with the Blackhawks in April.
Nazar skated in three games with Chicago at the end of last season, scoring on his first shot on goal in his NHL debut on April 14 against Carolina.
The Blackhawks were active in free agency, so they had Nazar begin the season with Rockford to continue with his development. But he made a strong case to rejoin the NHL team with his fast start in the minors.
“Frank’s played very well,” general manager Kyle Davidson said last week when asked about Nazar being promoted. “He’s been a real bright spot for us and his performance has been really exciting.”
Chicago (9-18-2) has dropped six of seven going into Saturday's game at New Jersey. It begins a three-game homestand on Sunday against the New York Islanders.
Nazar is expected to skate on a line with Taylor Hall and Tyler Bertuzzi against the Devils. Sorensen said his advice for Nazar is to trust his instincts.
“He's been playing real well down there,” Sorensen said. “He can drive a puck and just kind of play his game, right? And then as we go, after the game we'll talk more.”
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FILE- Chicago Blackhawks center Frank Nazar participates in the team's NHL hockey camp Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast, File)
CHATHAM, N.J. (AP) — That buzzing coming out of New Jersey? It's unclear if it's drones or something else, but for sure the nighttime sightings are producing tons of talk, a raft of conspiracy theories and craned necks looking skyward.
Cropping up on local news and social media sites around Thanksgiving, the saga of the drones reported over New Jersey has reached incredible heights.
This week seems to have begun a new, higher-profile chapter: Lawmakers are demanding (but so far not getting) explanations from federal and state authorities about what's behind them. Gov. Phil Murphy wrote to President Joe Biden asking for answers. New Jersey's new senator, Andy Kim, spent Thursday night on a drone hunt in rural northern New Jersey, and posted about it on X.
But perhaps the most fantastic development is the dizzying proliferation of conspiracies — none of which has been confirmed or suggested by federal and state officials who say they're looking into what's happening. It has become shorthand to refer to the flying machines as drones, but there are questions about whether what people are seeing are unmanned aircraft or something else.
Some theorize the drones came from an Iranian mothership. Others think they are the Secret Service making sure President-elect Donald Trump’s Bedminster property is secure. Others worry about China. The deep state. And on.
In the face of uncertainty, people have done what they do in 2024: Create a social media group.
The Facebook page, New Jersey Mystery Drones — let’s solve it, has nearly 44,000 members, up from 39,000 late Thursday. People are posting their photo and video sightings, and the online commenters take it from there.
One video shows a whitish light flying in a darkened sky, and one commenter concludes it’s otherworldly. “Straight up orbs,” the person says. Others weigh in to say it’s a plane or maybe a satellite. Another group called for hunting the drones literally, shooting them down like turkeys. (Do not shoot at anything in the sky, experts warn.)
Trisha Bushey, 48, of Lebanon Township, New Jersey, lives near Round Valley Reservoir where there have been numerous sightings. She said she first posted photos online last month wondering what the objects were and became convinced they were drones when she saw how they moved and when her son showed her on a flight tracking site that no planes were around. Now she's glued to the Mystery Drones page, she said.
“I find myself — instead of Christmas shopping or cleaning my house — checking it,” she said.
She doesn't buy what the governor said, that the drones aren't a risk to public safety. Murphy told Biden on Friday that residents need answers. The federal Homeland Security Department and FBI also said in a joint statement they have no evidence that the sightings pose “a national security or public safety threat or have a foreign nexus.”
“How can you say it’s not posing a threat if you don’t know what it is?” she said. “I think that’s why so many people are uneasy.”
Then there's the notion that people could misunderstand what they're seeing. William Austin is the president of Warren County Community College, which has a drone technology degree program, and is coincidentally located in one of the sighting hotspots.
Austin says he has looked at videos of purported drones and that airplanes are being misidentified as drones. He cited an optical effect called parallax, which is the apparent shift of an object when viewed from different perspectives. Austin encouraged people to download flight and drone tracker apps so they can better understand what they're looking at.
Nonetheless, people continue to come up with their own theories.
“It represents the United States of America in 2024,” Austin said. “We’ve lost trust in our institutions, and we need it.”
Federal officials echo Austin's view that many of the sightings are piloted aircraft such as planes and helicopters being mistaken for drones, according to lawmakers and Murphy.
That's not really convincing for many, though, who are homing in on the sightings beyond just New Jersey and the East Coast, where others have reported seeing the objects.
For Seph Divine, 34, another member of the drone hunting group who lives in Eugene, Oregon, it feels as if it’s up to citizen sleuths to solve the mystery. He said he tries to be a voice of reason, encouraging people to fact check their information, while also asking probing questions.
“My main goal is I don’t want people to be caught up in the hysteria and I also want people to not just ignore it at the same time,” he said.
“Whether or not it’s foreign military or some secret access program or something otherworldly, whatever it is, all I’m saying is it’s alarming that this is happening so suddenly and so consistently for hours at a time,” he added.
Associated Press reporter Hallie Golden in Seattle contributed to this report.
This photo provided by Trisha Bushey shows the evening sky and points of light near in Lebanon Township, N.J., on Thursday, Dec. 5, 2024. (Trisha Bushey via AP)
