ANAHEIM, Calif. -- Chicago Blackhawks defenseman Kyle Cumiskey hasn’t played in a Stanley Cup playoff game since 2010, but it seems that drought will end Tuesday night in Game 2 of the Western Conference finals. Opening faceoff is 9 ET.

It would be a long-anticipated return for a player who not long ago feared his NHL career was fading away.

Cumiskey once surpassed expectations, rising to the NHL as a 20-year-old just a year and a half after being a seventh-round draft pick by the Colorado Avalanche, in 2005. He played in 132 games for the Avalanche over five seasons.

However, Cumiskey suffered a couple of concussions during the 2010-11 season and was traded to the Anaheim Ducks in October 2011. He wasn’t recalled by the Ducks and played the entire 2011-12 season in the AHL. He was frustrated, his confidence was shaken, and his career was in doubt.

“It’s never a good feeling when you feel like you don’t know if your career is headed in the wrong direction, if it’s going downhill, or if you could be done in a year or two,” Cumiskey said.

The Ducks still owned his rights, so Cumiskey's options were limited. He and his agent, Ross Gurney, decided Europe was his best bet, and Cumiskey didn't report to Anaheim for the 2012-13 season. The Ducks would later file a grievance against him, and he would ultimately be released from his contract during the 2013-14 season.

Gurney knew some people in Sweden who he thought could get Cumiskey back on track. Cumiskey agreed to a contract with MoDo Hockey in Ornskoldsvik before the 2012-13 season.

“It just gave him an opportunity through people we trusted,” Gurney said. “It gave him an opportunity to play again. Confidence is such a funny thing. He’s got unique ability, but I was putting him in a position to be successful.”

Markus Naslund was among those people Gurney had faith in. Naslund, who is Swedish, had played in more than 1,100 NHL games and was MoDo's general manager when Cumiskey decided to come overseas.

Naslund understood where Cumiskey's game was when he arrived in Sweden and had an idea of how to get him back to where he was earlier in his professional career.

“I think the biggest key for us was trying to build his confidence and kind of let him get the feeling of knowing that he’s a good player,” Naslund said. “His skating might be the best I’ve ever seen. It really shows on the big ice surface. Even though guys are good skaters over here, he was on a different level.

"I think we tried and the coaches tried to just emphasize that he needed to have confidence and trust in his instincts and all that. It’s obviously a different game over here, but that was probably the biggest thing for him, to enjoy the game and get the quality ice time and be the key defensemen out there every night and stuff."

The plan worked as they all hoped. Cumiskey flourished on the large ice surface and his confidence returned. He had seven goals and 25 assists in 46 games in the 2012-13 season, and had four goals and 24 assists in 45 games the following season.

"That was one of the successful outcomes that came out of going to Sweden," Cumiskey said. "A big thing was I thought my confidence was definitely down for a bit. Going over there definitely helped me regain that."

Overall, life was pretty good. His hockey career wasn't fading away any longer, and he also enjoyed the different culture of living in Sweden. It wasn’t as if he was desperate to get back to North America and the NHL.

"It was really neat living over there," Cumiskey said. "It’s a lot different than living over here. People are real nice. It was a good experience. ... I didn’t know for sure if I would come back. I had it in the back of my mind that was what my plan was. I thought there’s a chance I could end up staying over there the rest of my career. If that would happen, that would have been fine."

After last season, Gurney let people know Cumiskey was open to the idea of returning to the NHL. Interest was expressed by multiple teams, including the Blackhawks. While Chicago had four established defensemen in Duncan Keith, Brent Seabrook, Niklas Hjalmarsson and Johnny Oduya, there were some questions about the team's final two spots, especially given the trade rumors surrounding Nick Leddy. In addition, Cumiskey had played for Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville while with the Avalanche.

Believing there was an opportunity to crack the Blackhawks’ lineup, Cumiskey signed a one-year deal with Chicago in July. Leddy was traded before the season, but Cumiskey wasn’t the one to replace him and became the last defensemen cut from the Blackhawks’ NHL roster.

Cumiskey stayed positive while playing with the Blackhawks’ AHL affiliate, the Rockford IceHogs. He took advantage of his time in the AHL and worked to improve his game. IceHogs coach Ted Dent’s focus was getting Cumiskey to play a more basic game and not try to do too much.

“Through the course of the year, we’ve worked on simplifying his game and making a good first pass and just following up the play on a second wave instead of trying to lead the rush by himself at times," Dent said.

Cumiskey stuck to that throughout much of the season and was named the IceHogs’ defenseman of the year. He had two goals and 18 assists and was a plus-6 in 54 regular-season AHL games. He also played in seven regular-season games for the Blackhawks in February.

“Coming back here makes me feel like I made the right choice even more, knowing that I could play at the top level,” Cumiskey said. “I’m happy with my decision this year, for sure.”

Cumiskey was with the IceHogs until the Blackhawks recalled him before the playoffs. He was a healthy scratch for the Blackhawks’ first 11 playoff games, but it appears he will make his season playoff debut in Game 2 of the Western Conference finals against the Ducks on Tuesday.

Blackhawks captain Jonathan Toews was confident Cumiskey would be up for the challenge if inserted into the lineup.

“I think that’s what it takes to win in the playoffs and win a Stanley Cup, is some guys like that paying the price that go a couple of months unheard of, but they’re working just as hard as anybody and they’re contributing just as much as anybody,” Toews said. “So for a guy like Kyle, yeah, absolutely, he’s an amazingly skilled player. If he happens to get the chance to step in ... we have confidence in a guy like that, so we’ll see what happens.”

Cumiskey isn’t a man of many words and doesn’t show much emotion, at least to the media. He wasn’t certain he would be in the lineup come Tuesday, but he was hopeful.

“I think every guy wants a chance to play, let alone in the playoffs,” Cumiskey said. “It’s an exciting opportunity for me.”