The Chicago Blackhawks are deep into the second month of the 2026-27 NHL season, and the results have been ugly enough to make one thing plain: this team is nowhere near contention.
Chicago entered the year trying to turn the page from long-term rebuilding to something more competitive. General manager Kyle Davidson made a major swing in the offseason, using both trade assets and cap space to bring in Bowen Byram as the club’s new franchise defenseman. But the early returns have done nothing to suggest the Blackhawks are ready to make that leap.
Instead, they’re sitting among the league’s worst teams. After their loss to the Florida Panthers on national TV in the United States, Chicago dropped to 31st in the NHL.
They are one of only two teams still stuck below 10 points in the standings, alongside the Vancouver Canucks. For a franchise that has cracked 80 points just once in the last 10 seasons, the start has only reinforced the same old concern: the rebuild still hasn’t produced a real step forward.
That was the backdrop for Thursday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, where host Tyler Yaremchuk and former NHL goaltender Carter Hutton dug into how bleak things look in Chicago.
Yaremchuk didn’t sugarcoat it, pointing to the Blackhawks’ loss and the larger pattern that has followed them all season. “This is a team that’s cracked 80 points once in the last 10 seasons… This team is no closer to being competitive than they were five years ago when the rebuild started, and man, doesn’t that ring true if you’re a Blackhawks fan? They’re 31st in the league, Hutts, they feel like they’re a step away from taking the step away that everyone was hoping that they’d take a year or two ago.”
Hutton agreed that the frustration comes from how long the organization has been trying to build toward this moment. He said there are still pieces worth believing in, but the team hasn’t put enough around them to make the progress show up in the standings.
“Yeah, I think that’s the problem here, is like you start to bank years, and you kind of get this window of grace period where you’re bringing in younger players to make that step forward, and there have been some good takeaways too, there’s a lot of things to build off with some of their guys… Last night you fall behind 3-0 early. I think that’s the pressure to be better in those situations, but even last night, for me Frank Nazar scores two against Florida.
Connor Bedard a couple assists. Roman Kantserov, he scored his team-leading seventh, so there’s bright spots, but then you start to look management-wise of like, depth and players and where you bring in guys to help a little bit, because that’s a factor.
I think with Spencer Knight you have a legit No. 1 guy who can get there; I think right now it’s just the support system and that cast around you.”
Bedard’s situation only sharpens the spotlight. He is now carrying a $15 million cap hit after the team got nothing accomplished while he was on his entry-level deal, and with him in his fourth season, the Blackhawks still look stuck in the same place. The talent is there in flashes, but the overall picture remains as bleak as the standings say it is.
In Other News...
Blackhawks Suddenly Have A Troubling Bowen Byram Situation
Bowen Byram arrived in Chicago with plenty of expectation after the Blackhawks acquired him on June 23, then locked him up with a six-year extension on July 1. He opened preseason well enough to suggest he could be a meaningful part of the blue line right away, but the first stretch of the regular season has been far bumpier, with limited offense and a minus-7 rating raising some early questions about how quickly the fit was coming together.
Those on-ice concerns only got more complicated in mid-October, when Byram was ruled day-to-day with an upper-body injury and the messaging around his status started to drift. The Blackhawks now have a situation that goes beyond simple recovery time, because the teams handling of his availability has turned into a bigger storyline than anyone expected this early in the season. [Read more 🡒]
Blackhawks Road Problem Keeps Getting Harder To Ignore
The Blackhawks left Amerant Bank Arena with another reminder that the road has become a problem they cannot shake, falling 5-3 to the Panthers in a game Florida controlled from start to finish. Chicago did get a pair of goals from Frank Nazar, but the Panthers kept answering, with rookie Sandis Vilmanis driving the offense and Sam Reinhart sealing it with an empty-net goal late.
For a team trying to build any kind of early-season traction, the bigger concern is how quickly these away games are slipping away. Chicago has now dropped seven straight on the road to open the season, and the pattern is getting harder to dismiss as a one-off bad night. The Blackhawks will need more than a few flashes from their young talent if they want to stop the slide and make their next trip look different. [Read more 🡒]
Lightning Keep Winning But One Huge Story Isn't Going Away
The Blackhawks head into their Nov. 5 visit to Tampa Bay trying to steady themselves after a recent loss and still looking for their first road win. Chicagos lineup is thinner than usual, with Patrick Kane and Bowen Byram unavailable because of upper-body injuries, and the club has already turned to depth by recalling forward Dillon Boucher from Rockford to help patch the roster gaps.
Across the ice, the Lightning have been nearly untouchable at home and will try to keep that perfect record intact. Even with the on-ice focus on two teams chasing very different kinds of momentum, the biggest storyline around Tampa Bay has not gone away, as Nikita Kucherovs trade request continues to hang over the franchise and add another layer to a game that already carries plenty of intrigue. [Read more 🡒]