Offseason Checklist: Chicago Blackhawks

The offseason has arrived for half of the league’s teams that aren’t taking part in the playoffs.  Accordingly, it’s now time to examine what they will need to accomplish over the coming months.  Next up is a look at Chicago.

It wasn’t supposed to go quite like this again for the Blackhawks in 2025-26.  With the team hiring Jeff Blashill as their new head coach last spring, the hope was that he’d be able to raise the floor of the group.  Instead, they cratered in the second half of the season to finish 31st overall.  GM Kyle Davidson received a vote of confidence in the form of a contract extension but his checklist this offseason looks a lot like last year’s.  This time, expectations will be higher that some of these will be achieved.

Determine Consolidation Options

This is going to tie into two of the items later on in the column so let’s get it out of the way first.  One thing Davidson has done well in his role is accumulate assets.  They’ve gone from a team that had one of the weaker prospect pools in the league to one of the strongest young upcoming cores.  For all the losing they’ve had to endure, at least there’s some light at the end of the tunnel.  With two extra second-round picks this year and two extra first-round selections next year, they’re going to only further add to that stockpile.

But at some point, they’re heading for a ‘how much is too much’ situation.  Let’s look at centers, for example.  Connor Bedard is their number one of the present and future.  They’re expecting Anton Frondell to be their second.  They also have Frank Nazar who spent most of the year down the middle and is locked up on a team-friendly long-term deal.  Then there are Oliver Moore, Ryan Greene, and Sacha Boisvert, all quality youngsters in their own right.  It’s great to have that depth but would they be better off moving one of those three to fill a weak spot?  With the demand for good centers, they’d probably get a significant return.

There are other potential logjams down the road at other positions as well, though those aren’t as pressing on the current roster.  But as more of these prospects and future draft picks turn pro, there’s going to be a point when youngster supply vastly outweighs the few roster spots that will be open.

All things considered, this is a great ‘problem’ to have.  But while Davidson could play it safe and wait for the logjams to become an issue, he could also be proactive and determine which of those pieces could be expendable.  Combining a promising center, a good draft pick, and more would get them in the mix for some of the better players on the trade front this summer.  And if they’re going to take that next step forward, they need to find a way to land one of those better players.

Re-Sign Bedard

Last summer, the Blackhawks were eligible to sign Bedard to a long-term extension but didn’t do so.  Considering that he was coming off a quieter-than-expected sophomore year, that wasn’t too much of a surprise.  Now, Bedard has played out the final season of his entry-level deal and will be a restricted free agent on July 1st.

The decision not to sign early proved to be the right one for the 20-year-old.  After seeing his point-per-game output drop in his sophomore year (though his point total increased), he bounced back this season, leading the way in scoring with 30 goals and 45 assists despite missing 13 games due to injury.  Over a full 82-game season, that’s an 89-point pace.  Given the pedigree he had coming into the league, it’s reasonable to expect that Bedard will eventually hit and surpass that mark.  That has to be factored into what this next deal is going to cost; it won’t just be about what he has done over his first three seasons.

To that end, AFP Analytics projects a $13.21MM AAV on an eight-year deal.  Chicago can still sign Bedard to an eight-year contract through mid-September before the new CBA fully kicks in.  That date will stand as a soft deadline for a lot of negotiations this summer as a result.  That would be the richest post-entry-level contract handed out, beating Connor McDavid’s $12.5MM price tag for eight years and would make him the fifth-highest-paid player in the league.  But with Bedard having extra leverage if Chicago wants to get the eighth year on there, it wouldn’t be entirely shocking to see a deal come in at that price tag.

While Bedard is eligible for an offer sheet, he’s not necessarily a viable candidate for one.  The Blackhawks have more than $40MM in cap room for next season, per PuckPedia, so they’d be able to match any offer that were to come his way.  Bedard has already spoken about hoping to get something done before too long so it wouldn’t be shocking to see both sides take a real run at this over the next couple of months before other offseason moves start to be made.

Add A Top-Line Winger

Speaking of those other offseason moves, finding Bedard an impactful winger to ride shotgun alongside him needs to be high on Davidson’s to-do list.  While it’s possible that an internal option could one day emerge in that role, that hasn’t happened yet and probably won’t for another couple of years, at least.  They likely don’t want to wait that long so looking external is the way to go.

This is a spot that Chicago has tried to fill with placeholders.  Tyler Bertuzzi and Teuvo Teravainen were brought in on the opening day of free agency in 2024, hoping to give Bedard a bit of a boost.  Both have done reasonably well, though they aren’t top-line players.  They tried Andre Burakovsky this year in the hopes that a change of scenery would give him a lift and maybe be an option for Bedard.  That one didn’t work out so well.

Unfortunately for the Blackhawks, free agency isn’t likely to yield the solution.  Alex Tuch is a legitimate top-line option but he’s really the only one out there.  While it’s possible that he could pick Chicago, they shouldn’t be banking on that happening.  The next-best scoring wingers are Anthony Mantha (who has bounced around but seems likely to stay in Pittsburgh where things worked out this year) and Alex Ovechkin (who may or may not play next season and would only play in Washington).  Patrick Kane isn’t a viable long-term option at 37 but could be a short-term one and there would be a nostalgia element as well.  But they should be aiming for a better fit than that.

This is where the consolidation trade could come into play.  With so few options in free agency, the trade route is going to be the best way to try to fill that void.  With the potential package outlined earlier, that should be good enough to get into the bidding war for some of those wingers and give them a good shot at getting one who could fit in at least a top-six role for the next several seasons.

Add Impactful Veteran Defenseman

In recent years, Chicago has drafted some young defensemen in the first round of the draft.  Artyom Levshunov, Sam Rinzel, and Kevin Korchinski have all seen time with the big club already with varying degrees of success.  All three figure to be part of the long-term plans at a minimum with a chance to be big parts of their core down the road.

Meanwhile, Alex Vlasic and Wyatt Kaiser are a little further along in their development with Vlasic, in particular, now established as a legitimate shutdown defender.  They also have Ethan Del Mastro and Louis Crevier in the fold as younger players who have had a bit of success in the NHL already.

With what they have, there is the makings of a good future defense corps.  But it’s especially hard to fast-forward the development of young defenders.  It’s even harder to do with a largely inexperienced group.  Teams can get away with that when they’re rebuilding but when the time comes to flip the switch, an all-young back end probably isn’t going to get the job done.

That makes getting an impactful veteran a necessity this summer if Davidson wants to move his group forward.  Not someone like Connor Murphy (who filled a useful role for many years), someone who can play on the top pairing and in all situations.  That will take some pressure off the younger players and give them a chance to develop in slots on the depth chart that are a little better suited to their skillsets at this time.

The problem for the Blackhawks here is, again, there aren’t a lot of options available.  In terms of big-minute players, Jacob Trouba, John Carlson, and Rasmus Andersson are pending UFAs.  Other than maybe Andersson, none of the players ideally fit on a top pairing.  Yes, Darren Raddysh is out there but his track record isn’t as big and until this season, his minutes had been managed relatively carefully.  That could mean turning to the trade market again where the type of package mentioned earlier – perhaps augmented by a young roster blueliner to make the package more appealing – might be enough to bring in that type of player.

Davidson has swung some big moves as GM but between this need and the one up front, his biggest ones will be needed over the next couple of months.

Photo courtesy of Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images.