As the 2020s progressed, the Chicago Blackhawks (12-11-6, 30 pts.) fell out of the NHL’s top ranks and into irrelevancy. The 2024-25 season was another to forget, as the Blackhawks won just 25 out of their 82 games.
However, at the end of that season, the team found a sense of identity. Chicago took three of its last four games. This included a 4-3 overtime win over the Ottawa Senators in the season finale.
Going into the 2025-26 season, it was expected that the Blackhawks would go through growing pains with an inexperienced roster in season five of general manager Kyle Davidson’s tenure. In addition, he needed to hire a new head coach to right the ship.
Davidson chose former Detroit Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill to lead the young team through the back half of the rebuild. He set the tone from the drop of the puck with hard practices, and players admired his push to win.
‘‘There’s an understanding of, ‘This is where you have to get to,’” said forward and team captain Nick Foligno to Ben Pope of the Chicago Sun-Times. “He stops practice, and we skate if we don’t make passes.’’
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Youth movement
When Davidson drafted forward Connor Bedard first overall in the 2023 NHL Entry Draft, fans had reasons to be excited. In his third season, as of Monday, he leads the team in goals (18) and points (40), and has already scored two hat tricks through 29 games.
“Connor has been consistently … committed to winning hockey,” Blashill said to Pope. “He’s competed extraordinarily hard. He’s done all the winning things … He has been rewarded offensively because of it, and we’ve been rewarded as a team because of it.”
A good chunk of Chicago’s forwards are under the age of 25, including Ryan Greene, who scored in back-to-back home games over Thanksgiving weekend. On the other side of the spectrum, Frank Nazar started hot with five goals in October, but has gone ice cold, not scoring in over a month.
In goal is another young gun: Spencer Knight. Acquired in a trade with the Florida Panthers, the 24-year-old could prove to be the next franchise goaltender. Knight has started more than two-thirds of the Blackhawks’ games so far this season.
Most of the back end lacks experience as well. Defensemen Artyom Levshunov, Alex Vlasic, Louis Crevier and Wyatt Kaiser, while all talented, still need time to mature. This will come with time, and it will happen through mentorship.
Veterans to guide
One of Davidson’s best acquisitions came in 2024: forward Tyler Bertuzzi. At age 30, his excellent netfront presence and physicality along the boards have led to many scoring chances. Bertuzzi netted a hat trick in the Blackhawks’ 5-2 win against the Vancouver Canucks, helping end an 11-game skid against it.
“How he gets his body along the boards, and he leads with his stick and then he somehow separates the man from the puck with a long stick (or) one hand on his stick,” said Chicago Sports Network color analyst Darren Pang on Daily Faceoff of Bertuzzi’s strengths. “No one makes a play with one hand on his stick, or his knees, better than Tyler Bertuzzi.”
Forwards Tuevo Teräväinen and Andre Burakovsky bring Stanley Cup-winning experience and top-six talent to the team. Forward Ryan Donato also started strong. He scored back-to-back game-winning goals against the Anaheim Ducks and Tampa Bay Lightning earlier this year. The veteran has cooled off significantly since, scoring only two goals in November.
The longest-tenured Blackhawk, Connor Murphy, plays defense. He has been with the team since 2017 and is a mentor to the rest of the young blue line.
Getting back on track
In recent weeks, the Blackhawks suffered some big snags, including two six-goal blowouts to cap off a disastrous West Coast swing. These losses are the latest in a stretch where Chicago has lost eight of its last 10.
The 6-0 and 7-1 results prove that there is still work to be done. A factor in these lopsided affairs could be that Blashill often trotted out 11 forwards and seven defensemen, which led to extra shifts for some forwards.
In a recent transaction, the team sent defenseman Sam Rinzel and forward Landon Slaggert to the AHL Rockford IceHogs for reset stints, as they were struggling to find their place in Chicago. Veteran forward Sam Lafferty will likely slot into the fourth line with Donato and Colton Dach.
With two of the next three games in the confines of the United Center, it could be time for the Blackhawks to get themselves right with a more conventional lineup of 12 forwards and six defensemen, and prepare for a weeklong road trip through eastern Canada.
