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David Carle Withdraws From Consideration For Blackhawks Head Coaching Position

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The Blackhawks are one of a handful of teams looking to find their next head coach.  Among their perceived top candidates was Denver University bench boss David Carle.  However, they’ll have to turn their sights elsewhere as Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports (Twitter link) that Carle has withdrawn from consideration for the position, adding that Chicago made an aggressive pursuit for his services.

The 35-year-old has been a mainstay at Denver since his playing days unexpectedly came to an end when he was diagnosed with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy just before his draft year.  The school honored his scholarship offer and he worked with the team as a graduate assistant coach for four years before he moved to the USHL, joining Green Bay as an assistant coach.

That only lasted parts of two seasons before Carle rejoined Denver in 2014 where he has been ever since.  He was an assistant with them until the 2018-19 when he took over as their head coach and his stock has been on the rise since then.

During his time with the Pioneers, Carle has three NCHC titles along with a pair of NCAA championships.  Internationally, he led Team USA to gold medals in each of the last two years.  With nothing left to prove at the collegiate level, Carle has been a speculative candidate for pretty much every coaching search thus far.

It’s unclear as to why Carle pulled his name out of the mix with the Blackhawks who would have been an intriguing fit for him as a young team that’s still developing but has plenty of young players including seven who played for him either in college or at the World Juniors, including top youngsters Frank Nazar, Oliver Moore, and Sam Rinzel.

It’s possible that another team has emerged as a front-runner for Carle, resulting in the withdrawal as he focuses on finalizing a contract.  Alternatively, Carle could have withdrawn after not liking Chicago’s offer or wanting to go through what’s likely to be a couple more years of a rebuild.  It’s also possible that Carle decides to stay at Denver which has become a top program and is likely to add more quality prospects for next season.

In the meantime, Blackhawks GM Kyle Davidson will have to turn his focus elsewhere in terms of finding his next head coach.  At the moment, there aren’t any candidates who are known to have interviewed with Chicago while interim bench boss Anders Sorensen remains in consideration for the full-time position.

Offseason Checklist: Chicago Blackhawks

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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.

Last summer, Blackhawks GM Kyle Davidson upped his spending, bringing in several veterans with an eye on raising the floor of the current group while allowing some of their prospects to get more time in with AHL Rockford.  It accomplished the latter but not the former as they finished second last for the second straight year while being in the bottom three overall for the third consecutive campaign.  As a result, there’s another busy to-do list for Chicago this offseason.

Hire A Head Coach

One of the first items that Davidson will need to do is get his coaching situation sorted out.  Following a slow start to the season, Luke Richardson was let go after the team played to just an 8-16-2 record.  Anders Sorensen was then promoted from AHL Rockford on an interim basis but couldn’t get much more out of the group as Chicago was 17-30-9 the rest of the way while former Blackhawk blueliner Seth Jones bemoaned the lack of progress the team had made just a few days before he was dealt to Florida.

While Sorensen is expected to receive consideration for the full-time head coaching position, it would be a surprise to see him get the role given the lack of improvement following Richardson’s dismissal.  More likely is that he remains with the organization either as an assistant or returning to the IceHogs.

There are a couple of options that Davidson can go here.  He can opt for another first-time head coach that can focus on player development or look for a more experienced one to try to give them a short-term boost to get them out of the basement in the standings.

On the first-time coach front, Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli reported last week on CHSN (Twitter link) that Denver University head coach David Carle sits atop their wish list of candidates.  Carle’s coaching experience is predominantly limited to his time with Denver (spanning more than a decade) aside from a brief assistant coach role with USHL Green Bay previously and running USA Hockey’s World Junior team the last two seasons.  While that’s not necessarily the typical route for a coach to take before going to the NHL, Carle is widely considered to be one of the top options available this year.  They could also look to some AHL bench bosses if they want to go with more of a development coach.

But after three years of being in the bottom three, there’s an expectation that Chicago should be starting to move to the next phase of its rebuild, one that makes them much more competitive.  In that case, they could be inclined to look toward a more experienced coach, one with a track record of getting more out of their team quickly.  This wouldn’t necessarily have to be the long-term hire for the rebuild but rather someone to help take them through the next phase of being more competitive.  With other teams having openings now, Davidson will have to move fairly quickly if he has a top target or two to try to land.

Bedard Extension Talks

While Connor Bedard’s first two NHL seasons may not have quite lived up to the lofty expectations that were placed upon him, they were still pretty good.  After putting up 61 points in 68 games in his rookie year, he picked up 23 goals and 44 assists in 82 games this season, leading the Blackhawks in scoring for the second straight season.  Thrown to the wolves in terms of getting top minutes and the toughest defensive assignments, the good more than outweighed the bad even with the 2023 top pick struggling a bit more often than expected.

Nonetheless, there’s no reason to think that Bedard isn’t going to be a significant part of their long-term core.  Even if he doesn’t become the next elite NHL superstar, he appears well on his way to being an impact top liner.  Basically, he’s already there at age 19.  Accordingly, there should be no hesitation in trying to lock him up to an extension as soon as possible.

In this case, as soon as possible is July 1st as that’s when Bedard officially begins the final year of his entry-level contract which makes him extension-eligible.  He has made it clear that he wants to remain with Chicago long-term so both sides will almost certainly be focusing on trying to get a deal done this summer.

As is often the case in these situations, there’s a lot of projecting that will need to be done on both sides in terms of trying to extrapolate how much more Bedard can do offensively.  Based on his output the last two years, his likely AAV would come in around $8.5MM.  But it’s unlikely Bedard would sign for that on a long-term deal at this point; it would make more sense for him to wait and see if he has a big boost in production that could up his price tag considerably in the 2026 offseason.  With that in mind, it’s going to take a fair bit more than that to get something done now.

The projected cap increases make older comparisons a little less usable now but high-end picks were often coming in between 9.5% and 11% of the cap when they were signed.  Bedard should feasibly be in that range.  Based off the NHL’s tentative target of a $104MM Upper Limit for 2026-27, that would put Bedard’s range between $9.88MM and $11.44MM.  Connor McDavid’s second deal was an outlier but checked in at 15.74% which would be $16.37MM in 2026-27 dollars.  That would be the richest deal in league history so Bedard’s unlikely to land there but something toward the top of that 11% range could very well be what’s needed to get something done in the months ahead.

Restart Donato Discussions

Going back to before the trade deadline, one of the discussions going on was with forward Ryan Donato.  The pending UFA was in the midst of a career year and the hope was that they could get a deal done and avoid any speculation of moving him by March 7th.  That didn’t happen but Davidson elected to set a very high asking price, one that no one was willing to meet so Donato stayed put for the stretch run.

Now that the season is over, it’s time for those talks to get rekindled.  Before the deadline, Scott Powers of The Athletic reported (subscription link) that the deal that the team put on the table was a three-year offer worth somewhere around $4MM per season.  Considering the 29-year-old made $2MM the last two years, that’s a fairly significant improvement while giving him some medium-term stability which is notable considering he’s played for five teams in his eight-year career.

However, a price tag around there isn’t exactly commensurate with the season Donato just had.  He finished second to Bedard in team scoring with 31 goals and 31 assists in 80 games while even spending a bulk of the season at center, a position that’s in high demand on the open market.  Other players with a track record of that type of production could command $7MM or more a few months from now.

Of course, Donato doesn’t exactly have that track record of production.  Before this season, he had only reached 30 points twice while his personal bests in goals and assists were 16 and 18, respectively.  As a result, this season was quite the outlier for Donato and that is certainly factored into Chicago’s offer to retain him.  Their offer is a relatively low-risk one given that they have ample cap space and several veterans coming off the books in 2026.

Donato will need to assess if he’s better off staying in a situation that he has clearly had success in or testing the market to see if someone’s willing to make a more lucrative and/or longer-term offer, assuming there isn’t much wiggle room in what the Blackhawks currently have on the table.  There’s still lots of time to get something done but after getting their new head coach in place, this should shift to the top of Davidson’s short-term priority list.

Make A Splash

Last summer, the Blackhawks had plenty of cap space, leading some to wonder if they might take a big swing.  Instead, they spent on bringing in plenty of veterans, highlighted by Tyler Bertuzzi and Teuvo Teravainen up front and Alec Martinez on the back end.  There were varying degrees of success with those signings; Teravainen wasn’t far behind Donato for second on the team in scoring while on the other end, T.J. Brodie struggled so much that he might be a buyout candidate in June.

That approach worked with this being another year where expectations weren’t particularly high.  Their prospects got more development time in Rockford, again, to varying degrees of success.  But while they got away with this strategy last summer, it feels like they need to something much more substantial to at least drag the rebuild forward.

Chicago needs to find a way to land an impact talent or two.  In a perfect world, they outbid teams for one of the top players up front, giving Bedard a running mate to see if that helps him take the next step forward toward living up to his lofty potential.  With a little over $30MM in cap space, per PuckPedia, the money is certainly there to spend this summer.  Meanwhile, even with Bedard heading for a big-ticket contract in 2026, it should be affordable with the Blackhawks having a deep prospect pool, allowing them to have most cost-controlled players over the coming years.  The time feels right for Chicago to take a big swing this summer.

Photo courtesy of Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images.

Blackhawks Assign Colton Dach To AHL

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Colton Dach’s first NHL season came to an early end when he suffered an elbow injury last month.  However, it appears that injury has healed as the Blackhawks announced that the forward has been assigned to AHL Rockford.  The assignment couldn’t have been made until he received a clean bill of health.

The 22-year-old was a second-round pick by Chicago back in 2021, going 62nd overall.  After injuries took out most of his final WHL season, Dach was limited to just 48 games in his first professional season, spent entirely with the IceHogs.  Nonetheless, he put up a respectable 11 goals and 16 assists in those outings.

This season, Dach got off to a strong start with Rockford, earning himself a recall in early January.  Aside from a pair of brief stints in the minors after that, he spent the bulk of the second half with the Blackhawks, getting into 25 games where he had two goals and five assists while logging a little over 12 minutes a night.  Meanwhile, with the IceHogs, Dach had a strong half-season, tallying 12 goals and 14 helpers in 33 outings.

Dach was papered down at the trade deadline, keeping him eligible to play in the minors for this very reason.  Rockford took the opener of its best-of-three series on Wednesday and will look to punch their ticket to the next round with a win on Friday.

Blackhawks Assign A.J. Spellacy To AHL

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The Blackhawks have assigned forward prospect A.J. Spellacy to AHL Rockford to finish his season in the Calder Cup Playoffs, the latter club announced.

Spellacy’s Windsor Spitfires of the OHL were eliminated last night in the second round after blowing a 3-0 series lead against the Kitchener Rangers. The 19-year-old missed Games 2 through 5 of that series with injury and only managed to play in five of the Spitfires’ 12 playoff games as a whole, recording a goal and two assists.

Selected in the third round of last year’s draft, Spellacy’s post-draft season was remarkably similar to his draft year. The 6’3″, 205-lb winger is a great skater and heavy forechecker but doesn’t have a particularly high offensive ceiling. He scored 18-19–37 in 62 games with Windsor this year after posting a 21-17–38 scoring line in 67 games last year, slightly upping his points per game pace.

The Ohio native had a strong camp showing with the Hawks last fall and will now get his first taste of professional hockey with Rockford as the IceHogs begin their play-in series against the Chicago Wolves tonight. He’ll presumably head back to Windsor next season for a fourth and final season of major junior hockey unless he makes a surprise run at a Blackhawks roster spot. He’ll still be too young for a full-time AHL assignment in 2025-26. His entry-level contract, which Chicago signed in January, carried a $906,667 cap hit at signing, but that will decrease since his $97.5K signing bonus for 2024-25 was paid out. The deal is slide-eligible for both this year and next if he plays fewer than 10 NHL games in 2025-26.

Blackhawks Assign Marek Vanacker To AHL

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The Blackhawks have assigned 2024 first-round pick Marek Vanacker to AHL Rockford, per Charlie Roumeliotis of WGN Radio 720. The 19-year-old left-winger will get to make his professional debut in the Calder Cup Playoffs.

Chicago traded up to select Vanacker last offseason, sending a pair of second-round picks to the Hurricanes to acquire the No. 27 overall pick. Unfortunately, the Ontario native is coming off a difficult post-draft season with the Brantford Bulldogs of the Ontario Hockey League. His point production dipped back below the point per game mark (24-18–42 in 45 GP) after he managed well over the threshold in 2023-24. He led the Bulldogs in scoring by a wide margin last year with 36-46–82 in 68 games, but missed time due to injuries this year and ended up finishing in sixth. He did end the season on a high note with 11 points in 11 postseason games, though.

With Brantford’s season ending in a Game 6 loss to the Oshawa Generals in the second round of the playoffs, he’s now free to join Rockford. Vanacker just turned 19 earlier this month, though, so he won’t be eligible for a full-time assignment to the IceHogs next season. It’s either Chicago or Brantford again for him in 2025-26 with the latter seeming far more likely given his regression this season.

Vanacker was the last of three first-round selections Chicago made last year and ranked as the No. 7 prospect in their system in Scott Wheeler of The Athletic’s midseason rankings. He is the top left-winger in the Blackhawks’ system. With no NHL games for him this season and none expected next year, his entry-level deal will presumably slide to the 2026-27 campaign before taking effect. He still earned $97.5K in signing bonuses from the Hawks this year and will do so again next season, though.

Blackhawks Notes: James, Bedard, Sörensen, Brossoit

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It seems unlikely that the Chicago Blackhawks will sign one of their collegiate prospects to an entry-level deal. Relayed by Scott Powers of The Athletic, Blackhawks General Manager Kyle Davidson shared in the team’s end-of-season press availability that prospect Dominic James will likely pursue other options for his professional career and become an unrestricted free agent on August 15th.

Normally, a former sixth-round draft pick becoming a collegiate free agent wouldn’t be newsworthy. However, James has established himself as a particularly capable two-way winger in the NCAA, possessing a defensive and offensive maturity that NHL teams would be interested in.

Although last year was mired by injury, James scored 30 goals and 77 points in 111 contests for the University of Minnesota-Duluth over the past four campaigns. He’s unlikely to earn a full-time role in the NHL out of training camp next year, but cleaner paths toward the NHL should emerge for him this offseason.

Other notes from Chicago:

  • Although he’s ineligible for unrestricted free agency for some time, the Blackhawks can sign Connor Bedard to a long-term extension on July 1st. It doesn’t sound like he’ll have any issues if that came to pass, as Ben Pope of The Chicago Sun-Times quoted Bedard saying, “I love it here, and I have a great relationship with Kyle and everyone… I know that I want to be here for a long time.” It wouldn’t be surprising, especially considering the past several years, to see a former first-overall selection sign an extension relatively quickly with the club that drafted him.
  • After another disappointing campaign, it’s understandable that Chicago would want to explore different coaching options this summer. Still, that doesn’t mean interim head coach Anders Sörensen wants to leave the organization. Pope reported that Sörensen is open to taking another role within the organization. Before being named the team’s interim head coach on December 5th, he served as head coach for the AHL’s Rockford IceHogs since 2022-23.
  • Despite being signed to a two-year, $6.6MM contract last summer, netminder Laurent Brossoit didn’t appear in a game for the Blackhawks this season due to injury. Still lacking clarity regarding the seriousness of his injury, Pope shared that Chicago was hopeful Brossoit “may” be healthy for next season, and could battle for a roster spot out of training camp. Regardless of Brossoit’s status, the Blackhawks already have their tandem for next year in Spencer Knight and Arvid Söderblom.

Blackhawks Assign Artyom Levshunov, Kevin Korchinski

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  • The Chicago Blackhawks have assigned top defense prospects Kevin Korchinski and Artyom Levshunov to the AHL after the end of their season, per a release from the Rockford IceHogs. Both players have manned dominant roles in the IceHogs lineup this season – Korchinski looking to find his comfort after a hard NHL role last season, and Levshunov looking to vindicate his second-overall selection in last year’s draft. They lead the Rockford blue-line in scoring, with Korchinski netting 27 points in 54 games and Levshunov scoring 22 points in 50 games. Levshunov proved the more productive in all three zones at the NHL level. He recorded six assists, eight penalty minutes, and a minus-13 in his first 18 games in the NHL. Korchisnki only scored two points in 16 NHL games this season, though his minus-five was the fourth-best on the Chicago defense. The duo will offer a well-rounded impact to Rockford’s playoff push – Korchinski bringing strong offense and Levshunov showing strong two-way play.

Blackhawks To Have Second-Highest Draft Lottery Odds

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  • The San Jose Sharks have mathematically clinched last spot in the NHL and earned the top odds at the upcoming draft lottery per Sheng Peng of San Jose Hockey Now. The Sharks will hold a 25.5 percent chance at securing first-overall for the second consecutive season, while the Chicago Blackhawks will hold a 13.5 percent chance and the Nashville Predators an 11.5 percent chance. Many have claimed OHL defenseman Matthew Schaefer as the consensus top pick, though he has only played in 17 games this season due to a collarbone fracture. If not Schaefer, the top pick is likely to go to OHL exceptional status forward Michael Misa or Boston College top center James Hagens. The NHL Draft lottery is set to be held on May 7th.

Blackhawks Sign Ryan Greene To Entry-Level Deal

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The Blackhawks have signed center Ryan Greene to a three-year, entry-level contract, a source tells Scott Powers of The Athletic. The deal begins immediately and he’s expected to make his NHL debut tomorrow against the Canadiens. Chicago quickly confirmed the deal, which carries a $950K cap hit.

Greene, 21, turns pro after three seasons at Boston University. A second-round pick by Chicago in 2022, he captained the Terriers to a berth in the national championship game but lost 6-2 to Western Michigan last night. The 6’2″ pivot finished his junior season with a career-best 13 goals, 25 assists, and 38 points in 40 games to rank third on the team in scoring.

The Newfoundland native is the No. 12 prospect in Chicago’s system, as ranked by Scott Wheeler of The Athletic, but that’s more a testament to the Blackhawks’ exceedingly deep talent pool. A good two-way piece, it’s unclear if he has the offensive ceiling to develop past a third-line role, but he should get an early audition in that spot here. This comes in advance of the Blackhawks anticipating Greene on their opening night roster next fall, Powers reports.

That puts him as Chicago’s third-line pivot for the foreseeable future behind Connor Bedard and Frank Nazar, who are both ending the season playing their natural center position while anchoring the Hawks’ first and second lines. Despite just signing his first NHL contract, Greene’s October 2003 birthday already makes him the oldest of the bunch. As for captain Nick Foligno, who’s played center for much of the year and is currently anchoring Chicago’s third line, he could shift to a fourth-line role in the final season of his contract next year or slide back over to the wing. There’s also 2023 first-rounder Oliver Moore as an option down the middle, but he’s taken frequent reps on the wing since making his NHL debut late last month.

Greene will remain bound by his entry-level contract through the 2026-27 season. He’ll be a restricted free agent the following summer, the same year Chicago will need to negotiate extensions for fellow RFAs Moore, Artyom Levshunov, Sam Rinzel, and Landon Slaggert.

Alec Martinez Announces Retirement

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Today will be Blackhawks defenseman Alec Martinez’s final NHL game, he told Chicago Sports Network’s Darren Pang during warmups (via Tab Bamford of Bleacher Nation). He joins teammate Pat Maroon in retiring following the season, but neither will travel for the team’s season-ending road trip through Montreal and Ottawa.

Martinez’s NHL dream began in 2007 when the Kings selected him in the fourth round out of Miami University. He had been passed over in the 2005 and 2006 drafts but was selected following a strong sophomore showing with the RedHawks. His post-draft season saw him record a career-high in points and CCHA Best Defensive Defenseman honors, earning him an entry-level contract with Los Angeles the following summer. He spent most of the 2008-09 and 2009-10 seasons with their AHL affiliate, then the Manchester Monarchs, but made his NHL debut with a four-game trial in the latter campaign.

After a strong start to 2010-11 in Manchester, the Kings recalled him in November, and he never looked back. He scored his first NHL goal in his first game of the season and stuck around as a bottom-pairing fixture, posting 5-11–16 in 60 games with a +11 rating as the Kings made the playoffs but lost to the Sharks in the Western Conference Quarterfinals.

In 2011-12, Martinez spent the first half of the year as a frequent healthy scratch but got regular reps after L.A. traded rearguard Jack Johnson to the Blue Jackets for Jeff Carter. Of course, that trade was one of the most consequential of the decade – Carter flourished in a top-six role as the eighth-seeded Kings dominated the 2012 postseason en route to the franchise’s first Stanley Cup. Martinez played in all 20 playoff games, now a third-pairing regular with Johnson out of the picture, and posted three points with a plus-five rating while averaging 14:28 per game.

That’s not the Cup run Kings fans will remember Martinez for, though. Now established as a consistent championship contender, Martinez posted a career-high 22 points in the 2013-14 regular season before scoring two overtime series-clinching goals – one to send the Kings to the 2014 Stanley Cup Final and the other to win it over the Rangers a couple of weeks later. Those were two of the five goals Martinez scored during that playoff run, the same number as star blue-liner Drew Doughty, as he forever established himself as a legend in Los Angeles sporting lore.

In his late 20s, Martinez began taking on consistent top-four minutes as the Kings’ championship window drew to a close. His most divisive season came on a 2016-17 Kings club that missed the playoffs, posting a career-high 39 points in 82 games while finishing with a career-worst -17 rating.

While Martinez’s point totals began to dwindle in the late 2010s, he remained a shot-blocking extraordinaire with a well-rounded defensive game. Amid his fifth consecutive season averaging over 20 minutes per game, his time in Los Angeles came to an end when they traded him to the Golden Knights ahead of the 2020 deadline.

The trade to Vegas breathed new life into Martinez’s two-way game. He made multiple deep playoff runs with the club, including his third Stanley Cup ring in 2023, while continuing to serve as a top-four presence, commonly alongside Alex Pietrangelo. He also had the best offensive campaign of his career in 2020-21 with 0.60 points per game – 0.12 above his previous career high – but the COVID-shortened season prevented him from setting a career-high in points outright. In Vegas’ first Stanley Cup championship in 2023, Martinez’s +13 rating ranked fifth on the team, and he naturally led the club with 57 blocks in the postseason.

Injuries also began to stunt Martinez’s availability, though. After making just 26 appearances in the 2021-22 season, multiple injuries cost him a significant chunk of the 2023-24 campaign. With his ice time and normally staunch possession impacts dwindling, Vegas opted not to re-sign him with his three-year, $15.75MM contract coming to a close.

The Blackhawks stepped up to offer the respected veteran a one-year, $4MM commitment on the open market, and the 37-year-old Martinez arrived in Chicago to help anchor one of the league’s most inexperienced blue lines. Groin and neck injuries limited him to 43 appearances, but he served as an alternate captain and contributed 12 points with a -15 rating while averaging 18:45 per game. Of course, his 5.95 blocks per 60 minutes finished second on the team behind Connor Murphy.

Martinez finishes his career with an 88-201–289 scoring line in 861 games. Among 2007 draftees, he ranks 17th in games played – of course, tremendous value for a fourth-round pick. His career +73 rating also ranks sixth in the class. Only five players – Pietrangelo, John Carlson, Mark Giordano, Ryan McDonagh, and Kris Russell – have blocked more shots than Martinez since he debuted.

All of us at PHR wish Martinez all the best as he ends the playing phase of his hockey career and congratulate him on his spectacular career.

Image courtesy of Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images.

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