The Blackhawks are continuing to rebuild to return to their glory years. They won the Stanley Cup in 2010, 2013 and 2015, with center Jonathan Toews and forward Patrick Kane as the centerpieces of the franchise.
Each has moved on and others from that era have as well. This is a new time in Chicago, who went 25-46-11 last season and missed the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the fifth consecutive season.
The Blackhawks have had a quiet offseason. They acquired forward Andre Burakovsky from the Seattle Kraken on June 21 and forward Sam Lafferty from the Buffalo Sabres on July 1.
That was the plan.
“Our young players are ready,” General manager Kyle Davidson said. “We do have enough of them that there will be a competition there, and they’re not all going to jump in, but we do think that a number of them can run and grab spots, combined with some of the veterans we’ve got already in the system.
“We didn’t want to put any players in front of some of the young guys that we do think are ready. Now we have enough young players that there aren’t enough spots for all of them to play. So, there will be battles there and they’ll keep each other accountable, keep each other honest on earning spots here in the NHL. But we do feel that a couple of them are ready to really take a role and run with it and be a positive impact on the team.”
The Blackhawks have 11 first-round picks from the past four seasons in their system. This year they selected Frondell, Nestrasil and West. Last year, they picked Levshunov, Boisvert and Vanacker. In 2023, they selected Bedard and center Oliver Moore (No. 19), and in 2022 defenseman Kevin Korchinski (No. 7), center Frank Nazar (No. 13) and defenseman Sam Rinzel (No. 25).
Bedard has been the star of that crop. He led the Blackhawks last season with 67 points (23 goals, 44 assists) in 82 games and in 2023-24, when he had 61 points (22 goals, 39 assists) in 68 games and won the Calder Trophy, awarded annually to the League’s top rookie.