2024-25
Record: 25-46-11, 8th in Central Division
Playoffs: Missed Stanley Cup Playoffs
Key Losses
Pat Maroon (F – Retired), Philipp Kurashev (F – Signed with SJ), Joe Veleno (F – Traded to SEA, Signed with MON), and Alec Martinez (D – Retired)
Key Additions
Andre Burakovsky (F – Trade with SEA), Sam Lafferty (F – Trade with BUF), and Jeff Blashill (Head Coach – Hired)
2025-26 Preview
Continued Growth
For the Chicago Blackhawks, the 2025-26 season will be another long season as the team continues to grow and allow their youth to gain experience. One difference going into this season though is new head coach Jeff Blashill.
Blashill, who takes over from interim head coach Anders Sorenson, looks to inject some new energy into the Blackhawks. “Jeff is an incredibly smart and talented coach who boasts more than 25 years of coaching experience across developmental leagues, the NHL and the world stage,” Blackhawks general manager Kyle Davidson said. “He’s thrived when in a position to develop young players and has shown he’s capable of blending that into overall team success, a vision and philosophy we share for where we are today and where we see our team in the future. We couldn’t be more excited for what’s to come under Jeff’s direction.”
One challenge facing Blashill this upcoming season is the continued growth of star forward Connor Bedard, and guiding him through the rebuild process back to a contender once again. There were times throughout the past season where Bedard showed frustration with the losing, and the pressure of being the face of the franchise.
Veteran Leadership
With the retirement of both Pat Maroon and Alec Martinez, the Blackhawks lost Stanley Cup caliber veteran leadership in the locker room. While they did pick up forward Andre Burkovsky via trade from Seattle, there is still a lack of veteran leadership. Nick Foligno will enter his second season as captain, and will need to do a lot more heavy lifting with the loss of both Maroon and Martinez.
On defense, the Blackhawks only have one player who has played in over 200 games in Connor Murphy (745). The depth on the blue line is lacking in both NHL experience and veterans who can help guide the younger players coming into the lineup.
Overall, this will be another challenging season for the Blackhawks as they continue their rebuild.
Projected Lineup
Offense
Ryan Donato — Connor Bedard — Teuvo Teravainen
Tyler Bertuzzi — Frank Nazar — Andre Burakovsky
Nick Foligno — Jason Dickinson — Ilya Mikheyev
Lukas Reichel — Sam Lafferty — Oliver Moore
Defense
Alex Vlasic — Sam Rinzel
Wyatt Kaiser — Connor Murphy
Kevin Korchinski — Artyom Levshunov
Goalies
Spencer Knight
Arvid Soderblom
Resources
- Blackhawks, PR. Jeff Blashill Named 42nd Head Coach in Blackhawks History, May 22, 2025. https://www.nhl.com/blackhawks/news/release-jeff-blashill-named-42nd-head-coach-in-blackhawks-history.
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