The Chicago Blackhawks have announced that defenseman Wyatt Kaiser has been signed to a two-year, $1.7MM AAV contract. Yesterday, we covered how the Blackhawks and Kaiser hadn’t made much progress on a new deal. The fact that he’s signed his new contract today is a testament to just how quickly things can change in the hockey world.
Kaiser, 23, will see his compensation rise sharply compared to last season, when he carried a $916K cap hit. Kaiser is a 2020 third-round pick who enjoyed his best professional season to date in 2024-25. Kaiser got into 57 NHL games last season, a large increase compared to 2023-24, when he played in 32 NHL contests. Kaiser averaged 18:07 time-on-ice per game, which ranked fifth among regular Blackhawks defensemen. That 18:07 mark includes a 1:33 per-game average in short-handed situations, which ranked fourth among the club’s blueliners.
The Blackhawks have a large number of talented young defensemen in their system as things currently stand, and despite his solid 2024-25, he’ll need to fend off challenges from those players in order to retain his roster spot. Sam Rinzel, who earned a nine-game cameo at the end of last season, is all but guaranteed a lineup spot, and 2024 second-overall pick Artyom Levshunov could pose a serious threat for a spot as well.
In addition to those two names, who are both right-shot blueliners, Kaiser will also have to compete with several talented left-shot blueliners for a lineup spot on his natural side. Nolan Allan, the club’s 2021 first-round pick, got into 43 NHL games last year and offers real defensive ability, while Kevin Korchinski is the 2022 seventh-overall pick who holds quite a bit of organizational investment.
But despite the presence of numerous quality defensive prospects to compete with for a lineup spot, the fact remains that Kaiser has more NHL experience than almost all of them. With this new contract in hand, Kaiser will now be able to focus entirely on training camp and securing his spot on Chicago’s opening-night roster.
All this holding out for a 2-year $1.7 mil AAV deal?