Roenick Excited To Face His Old Pals Coyotes Star Returns To Chicago With A Much Heavier Wallet

For months, Jeremy Roenick insisted that he rarely thought about his former team.

He was lying.

“The time has come,” said Roenick, whose Phoenix Coyotes play at Chicago tonight in his first game against the Blackhawks. “It’s something I’ve been thinking about and I’m looking forward to it, just getting back in front of the Chicago fans who were always good to me. It’s going to be a special night.”

Roenick had 267 goals and 329 assists in 570 games over eight seasons with the Blackhawks. Twice a 50-goal scorer and three times a 100-point producer, Roenick was traded in August after his relationship with Chicago management deteriorated beyond repair.

“Everyone got put in a corner and there was no way out,” said Blackhawk Tony Amonte, a high school teammate and longtime friend of Roenick. “He should have played his whole career in Chicago. It was a perfect match. The fans loved him and he loved the fans and the city. But he felt his contract should have been done.”

It didn’t get done, so the Blackhawks sent Roenick to Phoenix for another restricted free-agent center, Alex Zhamnov. After a long holdout with the Coyotes, Roenick signed a five-year, $20 million contract.

In 28 games with Phoenix, Roenick has 10 goals and 17 assists, hardly $4 million numbers.

“It’s important to me,” he said of his return to Chicago, “but what’s more important is I get untracked and make this team as good as I can.”

It looks like he is taking positive steps in that direction. Since general manager John Paddock was fired Dec. 11, Phoenix has gone 7-2-0, improving to 17-17-4. Roenick has six goals in the nine games, and the Coyotes now are two points ahead of his former team.

The Blackhawks (15-20-6) are 5-14-4 since Nov. 14 and have reached the midway point of the season five games under .500 for the first time since 1988-89 - Roenick’s first season.

Zhamnov has done fine (nine goals in 34 games), but the Blackhawks miss the leadership and emotion Roenick provided.

Although Roenick’s production declined significantly his last two seasons in Chicago, he was popular as both a hard-hitting player and a member of the community who gave hours of his time to charitable causes.

“I’d been there for so long, I don’t think you can leave a place and not miss it,” Roenick said.

Roenick is anticipating his first on-ice meeting with Amonte.

“No question, I’ll run over him,” Roenick said. “That’s the fun part of the game. If you can’t play hard against your friends, it’s hard to play well against anybody.”

Amonte, who was with the New York Rangers before joining the Blackhawks in 1994, remembers one particularly hard hit Roenick delivered.

“I’m sure he’s going to take some good runs at me; that’s what he did when I was with the Rangers,” Amonte said. “He just better not hit me from behind like he did that one time.”