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Pat Maroon To Retire After The Season

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Blackhawks winger Pat Maroon is in his 14th NHL season but there won’t be a 15th.  The veteran revealed to CHSN during today’s pregame show (Twitter link) that he plans to retire at the end of the season, citing a desire to start a new chapter with his family.

Maroon is in his first season with Chicago after signing a one-year, $1.3MM contract with them in free agency last summer.  He was brought in to play a mentoring role while taking a regular shift on the fourth line and has done just that, getting into 59 games this season where he has 16 points, 95 hits, and 81 penalty minutes in 11:37 of playing time per outing.

It felt like the 36-year-old was going to be a candidate to be moved at the trade deadline earlier this month to a team looking to add some extra depth and experience for the stretch run.  However, he indicated to the team last month that his preference was to remain with Chicago rather than be on the move for the second straight deadline.

Maroon was a sixth-round pick by Philadelphia back in 2006, going 171st overall.  He spent parts of four seasons in their farm system but never got a chance to play with the Flyers, eventually being traded to Anaheim in 2010.

While Maroon saw a bit of NHL action with the Ducks after the move, it took until the 2013-14 campaign for him to become a regular player for them at the age of 25.  He wound up spending parts of five years with them before he was traded to Edmonton at the 2016 deadline.  With the Oilers is where he had his best success offensively, notching 86 points in 154 games over parts of three years before being moved to New Jersey at the 2018 trade deadline.

Maroon then signed with St. Louis the following summer, winning a Stanley Cup with them in 2019 before moving on to Tampa Bay where he won two more in consecutive seasons.  Along the way, he went from being more of a second-line option as he was with Edmonton to more of an energetic bottom-six piece, one that spent parts of four years with the Lightning before being picked up at the deadline by Boston last season.

All told, Maroon has 125 goals and 195 assists along with 1,583 hits and 1,071 penalty minutes in 839 regular season games across eight different organizations heading into today’s action.  He also has suited up in 163 postseason contests, in the top 75 in NHL history in that regard where he has 53 points and those three Stanley Cup rings.   While Maroon has a few more weeks to add to those regular season numbers, it has certainly been a very solid career for someone who wound up being a late bloomer after working his way up from a long stint in the minors.

Photo courtesy of Perry Nelson-Imagn Images.

Despite Recent Struggles, Soderblom Still Pegged As Backup Next Season

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  • It has been a rough go as of late for Blackhawks goaltender Arvid Soderblom. He has won just one of his last ten games while posting a SV% of just .881, 20 points below his mark for the season at .901.  Despite that, Ben Pope of the Chicago Sun-Times notes that at the moment, the team is still operating under the plan that he’ll serve as Spencer Knight’s backup for next season.  Soderblom will be owed a $1MM qualifying offer this summer with salary arbitration rights and with 82 NHL games now under his belt, it’s possible that Chicago could feel the risk of a hearing is too great.  Accordingly, it wouldn’t be surprising to see them try to work on getting him signed before the tender deadline in June.

Big Hype Prospects: Fowler, McKenna, Lardis, Frondell

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Mid-March is rolling around and hockey seasons are entering their waning point. Many college seasons are already concluded, while plenty of players in junior hockey are beginning to prepare for long playoff runs or springtime international hockey. It’s the final wave of action before the season comes to an end, so let’s take the chance to once again borrow from MLB Trade Rumors’ Big Hype Prospect series to bring you four of the hottest U21 players in hockey.

Four Big Hype Prospects

Jacob Fowler, G, Boston College (NCAA Hockey East, ’23 Montreal Canadiens)
32 GP – 24-5-2 – 0.941 Sv% – 1.62 GAA

Another season is coming to its end, which means it’s time for Jacob Fowler to receive his annual flowers. He’s won MVP awards and (or) championship rings in every single season of his junior hockey journey, and this year proved no exception. Fowler posted an incredibly .941 save percentage this season, the second highest in all of college behind 24-year-old junior Alex Tracy (.944). That masterclass performance was recognized on Thursday when Fowler unanimously won the Hockey East goalie of the year award. He beat out fantastic competition, namely Maine’s brick wall Albin Boija. The 20-year-old Fowler took a major stride forward from his 32-6-1 record and .926 Sv% last season – which was itself a continuation of the pair of above-.920 seasons he posted in the USHL. Fowler now holds the record for U17 save percentage in the USHL, won the USHL playoff MVP in a 2023 championship run, and now just matched Connor Hellebuyck’s save percentage in his age-20 season. Fowler is cool, calm, collected – and above all else – amazingly consistent. He’s proven to be a star at Boston College, and likely won’t be long from trying to do the same in the NHL.

Gavin McKenna, C, Medicine Hat Tigers (WHL, 2026 NHL Draft)
53 GP – 34 G – 80 A – 114 TP – 17 PIM – +51

This is now Gavin McKenna’s third mention in our big hype prospects series – but there is simply no other player worth such acclaim. McKenna has continued to show his superstardom, dazzling even without standout centerman and Columbus Blue Jackets prospect Cayden Lindstrom and Calgary Flames prospect Andrew Basha. He extended his active scoring streak to 37 games on Friday, tying thee Sidney Crosby for the second-longest point streak among CHL players since 2000-01. He’s only behind Toronto Maple Leafs prospect Easton Cowan, who stretched his streak to 65 games. McKenna has taken to a more prominent center role this season, to great effect. It’s pushed him to be more physical, or find even niftier ways to beat defenders. He’s slick on the puck and makes incredibly intelligent plays – capable of beating defenders with some of the simplest, but most effective, punch stops and quick cuts. There’s been no doubt that McKenna was going to be the first-overall selection in the 2026 NHL Draft – but his performance this season, and namely this calendar year, have cemented that fact in a way that hasn’t been rivaled since Rasmus Dahlin, Auston Matthews, and Connor McDavid. McKenna is thee clear-cut star of his age group – and still has a year of junior (or collegiate) hockey to find yet another gear to his game.

Nick Lardis, LW/C, Brantford Bulldogs (OHL, ’23 Chicago Blackhawks)
63 GP – 71 G – 44 A – 115 TP – 16 PIM – +20

Continuing the conversation of record-setting seasons is Blackhawks wing prospect Nick Lardis, who sits just one goal back from all-time heights. His 71 goals this season are the second-highest in the OHL since 2000 – and just one back from what former exceptional status superstar John Tavares managed in the 2006-07 season. Lardis has taken an incredible stride forward after potting 29 goals and 50 points in 37 games last year; and 25 goals and 46 points in 33 games of 2022-23. He’s developed a knack for the scoring imbalance, finding more goals than assists on the back of great positioning around the net, hard-nosed puck battles, and a killer wrist shot. Lardis simply can’t be left alone in the lower two-thirds of the offensive zone – which has proven a major challenge considering defenders also have to monitor teammate and fellow Blackhawks prospect Marek Vanacker. The mix of Vanacker’s nifty hands and ability to control space, and Lardis’ hot-shot scoring, has been simply too much to bear for OHL defenses. With both players in their pipeline, Chicago has a real chance to ensure that their chemistry remains overwhelming for NHL opponents as well.

Anton Frondell, RW/C, Djurgardens IF (HockeyAllsvenskan, 2025 NHL Draft)
29 GP – 11 G – 14 A – 25 TP – 16 PIM – +11

Health has been the obstacle for star 2025 NHL Draft prospect Anton Frondell. He’s missed big chunks of games in October, November, December, and February of this season – intercut with spot starts. But when he’s healthy, there may be no international talent that rivals Frondell in this draft class. He has a simply jaw-dropping 14 points in his last eight games in the HA – Sweden’s second-tier pros. That scoring includes a four-point night and a three-point night in what is a very competitive, and often low-scoring, pro league. Finally, with his feet and his health under him, Frondell’s offense is exploding. He may be dancing a little too late for the crowd, but his ability to control the puck and work through space on the boards is incredible. Frondell has a powerful frame and drives hard to the slot – or steps back for hard wrist shots when defenders block his lanes. He’s a lethal threat north of the red line, with the positioning and grit to stay effective on the defensive side as well. Frondell will – or, should – be a top-10 pick in the upcoming draft. If he keeps up this recent performance, that number could rise north of top-five. The World U18 Championships will be his best chance to prove his worth to NHL brass. That tournament begins on April 23rd.

Blackhawks Activate Jason Dickinson From Injured Reserve

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Blackhawks forward Jason Dickinson will return to the lineup for tonight’s game against the Avalanche, Mark Lazerus of The Athletic reports. The team announced he’s been activated from injured reserve, and since the 23-man roster limit is no longer in effect after the trade deadline, no corresponding transaction is coming.

The 29-year-old has played center for the entire season but will shift to right wing alongside Connor Bedard in his return. He missed just over a month after sustaining a high ankle sprain against the Oilers on Feb. 5. The 4 Nations break limited the number of games he missed to 11.

Once a depth piece for the Stars and Canucks, Dickinson has emerged as a leadership piece for Chicago along with being one of their better two-way forwards. The alternate captain posted a career-high 22 goals and 35 points while playing in all 82 games last season, earning himself a two-year, $8.25MM extension in the process.

This year hasn’t been as fruitful offensively for Dickinson, who’s posted a more conservative 7-9–16 scoring line through 53 games. He’s averaging 15:56 per game, down slightly from last season, and has won 49% of his draws. After finishing 12th in Selke Trophy voting last season, his possession numbers have also dipped. He’s posted a minus-seven rating after logging a plus-four last year (on a team with a -111 goal differential), and his even-strength CF% has dropped by three percentage points from 46.4 to 43.4.

Now, he’ll head to Bedard’s wing while no doubt taking most of the faceoffs in an effort to help boost the 19-year-old’s two-way play. Bedard, Chicago’s most-used forward by a humongous margin at 20:22 per game, has a 43.4% shot attempt share at even strength that’s 0.6% worse than his off-ice share. Dickinson, despite his absence, still leads Blackhawks forwards in blocks (49) and ranks third in hits (93).

Per this morning’s line rushes, Pat Maroon heads to the press box to make way for Dickinson’s return. The veteran grinder had played in 13 straight games, recording 2-3–5 with a minus-one rating and five PIMs.

Jonathan Toews Pushing For NHL Comeback

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Former Chicago Blackhawks captain Jonathan Toews remains serious about an NHL comeback at the age of 37 even though he hasn’t played a professional hockey game in almost two years (as per Mark Lazerus of The Athletic). The three-time Stanley Cup Champion has been plagued by health issues for several years now but says he is in a good place both mentally and physically and has even begun skating in Arizona as he begins an attempted comeback.  Toews never officially retired when he wrapped up his time in Chicago and refers to his time away from the game as a “hiatus.”

With Toews ready to give hockey one last shot, many people will wonder about potential suitors for his services. One team that he will not play for is the Blackhawks as they have made it clear in the past that they were ready to move on from Toews and hand the keys over to their new core. Toews holds no hard feelings over this and acknowledged that he understands their reasoning.

Toews had skated just once since last playing in the NHL back on April 13th, 2023, dressing in a charity exhibition game in Slovakia. He returned to the United States last month and had his hockey gear sent to him in Arizona. Since then, he’s been doing skill work and conditioning skates but admits he doesn’t have his legs under him yet, which is understandable given the length of his absence. Toews tells Lazerus that he is excited to skate with other NHLers when their seasons end and will have a better idea at that time whether or not an NHL comeback is feasible.

Toews returning to the NHL would make for an exciting story, given the challenges he has dealt with. The Winnipeg, Manitoba native has nothing left to prove at any level of hockey but does admit that the desire to play in the NHL again is still burning strong.

Blackhawks Notes: Donato, Soderstrom, Sorensen

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On Friday, the Blackhawks rekindled discussions about a possible contract extension with pending unrestricted free agent forward Ryan Donato and while an agreement wasn’t reached, Chicago elected to hold onto him anyway.  Scott Powers of The Athletic reports (subscription link) that the deal that the team put on the table was a three-year offer worth somewhere around $4MM per season.  That would effectively double his current price tag while the term is low enough that he’d be off the books when some of their younger core will be heading toward pricey second contracts.  The 28-year-old has a career-best 23 goals and 25 assists through 62 games this season despite not even averaging 16 minutes a night.  He’ll now have to weigh if he can do better than that on the open market or if he’s better off staying in a place he knows he fits with.

More from Chicago:

  • Also from Powers’ piece, he notes that the Blackhawks will look at signing defenseman Victor Soderstrom for next season. Acquired as part of the trade that saw Chicago pick up Shea Weber’s contract earlier this week, the 24-year-old returned to play in Sweden this season and has fared quite well, tallying 36 points in 48 games with Brynas.  Soderstrom has 53 career NHL games under his belt with Phoenix (who drafted him 11th overall in 2019) and 170 outings in the AHL.  But if Chicago views him as more of a depth option on a two-way deal, Soderstrom could elect to stay and play a prominent role at home.
  • During his post-deadline press conference (video link), GM Kyle Davidson noted that with the deadline now gone, they will turn their focus to a decision on their head coach. Anders Sorensen is the interim bench boss following the early-season dismissal of Luke Richardson but the team doesn’t have an inclination of what route they intend to go with Sorensen just yet.  The team has played to a 12-19-7 record, good for a .408 points percentage compared to the .346 they were at before the change.

Blackhawks’ Artyom Levshunov Recalled, Expected To Make NHL Debut

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The Chicago Blackhawks have recalled top prospect Artyom Levshunov to the NHL roster. This marks the second call-up of the 2024 second-overall pick’s young career. He is expected to immediately step into the Hawks lineup, per Ben Pope of the Chicago Sun-Times.

Levshunov’s last call-up came on February 3rd, in the days leading up to Chicago’s two-week break for the 4-Nations Face-Off. He stuck around the NHL roster for two days worth of practices, but was returned to the minor leagues before he had a chance to break into the Blackhawks lineup. Levshunov has nine points in 12 AHL games since being reassigned – a major uptick on his 13 points in 38 games prior. With 22 points in 50 games across the full season, Levshunov ranks ninth among AHL rookie defensemen in scoring.

The Blackhawks controversially opted for Levshunov’s stout defense over the dynamic scoring of winger Ivan Demidov and the physical presence of center Cayden Lindstrom with their top pick in last year’s draft. The decision came after Levshunov fought his way into the role of number-one defenseman for the Big Ten’s Michigan State University, after transferring from the USHL to college hockey late into the 2023 summer. The quick move was just one year after Levshunov moved from Belarus’ juniors league to the USHL’s Green Bay Gamblers. He adjusted quickly to both junior hockey and collegiate hockey – and now seems to be bringing along his scoring at a pro level too.

Chicago will get a chance to bank on Levshunov’s hot streak with this recall. The Blackhawks have a glaring hole on right-defense after trading star defender Seth Jones ahead of the Trade Deadline. Jones’ minutes have been filled by Louis Crevier and Connor Murphy in the immediate wake of the deal, but have allowed an average of 37 shots-against in their four games since the Jones trade. That’s a ton of pressure for new acquisition Spencer Knight in net, and while he’s handled it well – finding a way to stop up the barrage of shots will be a top priority for Chicago’s remaining season. The stout two-way play of Levshunov could be exactly what Chicago needs, and gives the Blackhawks an even better chance to lean into their future amidst a punted season.

Laurent Brossoit Not Expected To Return This Season

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Laurent Brossoit’s first year with the Blackhawks hasn’t gone well, to say the least.  Signed to a two-year, $6MM contract last summer to try to give Chicago some stability between the pipes, he has yet to play for them this season.  It doesn’t look like he will either as Ben Pope of the Chicago Sun-Times relays that goalie coach Jimmy Waite recently indicated that he doesn’t expect the netminder to be able to return this season.

The 31-year-old underwent meniscus surgery in late August that was initially expected to carry a five-to-seven-week recovery timeline.  While that would mean he’d miss training camp, the thought was that he’d be ready to play early in the regular season and he was originally thought to be ready to debut partway through their opening road trip.  Then in late October, he was supposed to begin skating and would need a few weeks to ramp up.  Two weeks later, his timeline was changed to being out indefinitely.

Brossoit then underwent a second procedure on his knee at the end of November with no timeline for a return although GM Kyle Davidson was hopeful back in late January that his new netminder would be able to play this season.  Clearly, that’s no longer the case although Brossoit recently expressed some optimism to Waite about his recovery which could be a good sign for next year.

Brossoit posted a 2.00 GAA and a .927 SV% in 23 games with Winnipeg in 2023-24, a solid bounce-back performance after being in the minors at times the year before.  That made him one of the bigger wild cards heading into free agency but even with his inconsistent track record, he still landed the biggest financial commitment of his career and looked to be part of Chicago’s short-term plans at the very least.

But that fit is much less certain now.  Arvid Soderblom, who Brossoit was likely signed to replace in the goaltending platoon, has bounced back quite well after a disastrous performance last season, upping his save percentage by 25 points along the way.  In doing so, he’s back to being in at least the shorter-term plans in goal as well with prospects Drew Commesso and Adam Gajan not ready for full-time NHL duty just yet.

Meanwhile, Chicago also picked up Spencer Knight from Florida as a key part of the return in their trade for Seth Jones earlier this month.  At 23, he’s now their goalie of the present and future so he figures to be the top option in their tandem with Soderblom as the backup.

Chicago was able to move Petr Mrazek on Friday to avoid an extended stretch of carrying three netminders but assuming Brossoit is able to play next season, they’ll be in that situation once more.  But Davidson at least has some time to come up with a plan for how to handle that situation as now with Brossoit effectively ruled out for the rest of this season, it won’t be an issue until training camp in the fall.

Blackhawks Activate Philipp Kurashev

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While Chicago won’t have newly acquired center Joe Veleno in the lineup tonight against Utah, they will get another forward back.  The team announced that Philipp Kurashev has been activated off injured reserve.  He had missed the last week and a half with a hand injury.

After a breakout showing last season, it looked as if Kurashev’s stock was on the rise and that he’d be a fixture in Chicago’s lineup for a while.  After all, a 54-point season from a then-24-year-old made it appear that he could be a key cog in their top six.

But things haven’t gone anywhere near as well this season.  Kurashev has just six goals and four assists through 42 games while his -29 plus/minus rating is tied for the fourth-lowest in the league.  Instead of being a top liner like he was a year ago, his playing time is down by nearly five minutes a game while he has been healthy scratched at times.

As a result, his long-term outlook with the organization has certainly changed.  Instead of looking like a fixture for the foreseeable future, Chicago was shopping him earlier in the season and couldn’t find a suitable trade.

A pending restricted free agent, Kurashev will be owed a $2.25MM qualifying offer this summer while he’ll also have salary arbitration rights.  Considering how things have gone this year, it seems unlikely he’ll be tendered that offer so he’ll need to use this final six-week stretch of the season as a showcase for what’s likely to be his first trip through unrestricted free agency in July.

Blackhawks To Reassign Colton Dach, Ethan Del Mastro

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  • Strictly as a paper move, Ben Pope of the Chicago Sun-Times reports that the Chicago Blackhawks have reassigned forward Colton Dach and defenseman Ethan Del Mastro to their AHL affiliate, the Rockford IceHogs. Both players will remain in the Blackhawks’ lineup for the rest of the season before they are returned to AHL Rockford at the end of the season, should they qualify for the 2025 Calder Cup playoffs. Dach has scored two goals and six points in 18 games with Chicago, while Del Mastro has registered two goals and three points in 12 contests.

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