The Blackhawks have locked up another young piece on the back end, agreeing Saturday afternoon to a two-year deal with restricted free agent defenseman Kevin Korchinski.
Chicago said the contract carries a $1.325 million NHL cap hit and runs through the 2027-28 season. Korchinski, 22, split the 2025-26 season between the NHL club and the AHL’s Rockford IceHogs, appearing in 13 games for Chicago and collecting two assists while averaging 13:38 of ice time.
Korchinski’s path with the Blackhawks has been uneven since they took him No. 7 overall in the 2022 NHL Draft, one of the three selections acquired from the Ottawa Senators in the Alex DeBrincat deal. The 6’1″ left-shot defenseman spent his entire junior career with the WHL’s Seattle Thunderbirds, where he won a league championship and reached the Memorial Cup final in 2023.
He jumped straight to the NHL in 2023-24 and put up five goals and 15 points in 76 games, but the minus-39 rating underscored how rocky that first full season was. Since then, his time in Chicago has thinned out. He played 16 games for the Blackhawks in 2024-25 and then 13 more in 2025-26, spending most of those two seasons in Rockford.
With the IceHogs, Korchinski posted 27 points in 56 games in 2024-25, then followed that with 26 points in 53 games last season. He also added two goals and two assists in four playoff games in 2024-25.
Now entering his fourth professional season, Korchinski’s place in the organization is still a bit cloudy. The Blackhawks made a major move to bring in Bowen Byram from the Buffalo Sabres earlier this summer, and beyond him, their blue line still carries plenty of uncertainty. Alex Vlasic is the only other regular defender signed beyond the 2026-27 season.
Chicago still has a cluster of young defensemen with upside in Artyom Levshunov, Sam Rinzel, Wyatt Kaiser, and Korchinski. But there’s a catch now: beginning in 2026-27, Korchinski will no longer be exempt from waivers, which means he could be exposed to the other 31 NHL teams if he doesn’t win a spot out of training camp.
In Other News...
Blackhawks Just Got A New Central Division Reality Check
The Central Division picture is already getting a little clearer for the Blackhawks, and it starts with the kind of headline Chicago cannot ignore. Colorado locked up one of the NHLs premier defensemen on a long-term deal, a move that reinforces how high the bar still sits in a division that figures to shape the Blackhawks path for the 2026-27 season. For a Chicago team still measuring itself against the top of the bracket, these are the sorts of decisions that matter well beyond one franchises roster sheet.
Elsewhere on the Blackhawks orbit, former forward Reese Johnson found a new landing spot after re-signing with the Toronto Marlies on a two-year AHL contract. It is a reminder that Chicagos recent cast of players continues to ripple through the league and its affiliates, even as the bigger question remains the same for the Hawks: how much ground can they close on the teams that keep setting the standard in their own division? [Read more 🡒]
Blackhawks Are Asking Bowen Byram To Prove Something Fast
Bowen Byram arrives in Chicago with a clear assignment attached to him: become the defenseman the Blackhawks can build around. After coming over from Buffalo, he is being counted on to fill a top-pairing role for a rebuild that needs impact talent to arrive quickly, and the organization is treating him as a central piece rather than a supporting one.
The move also gives Byram a different kind of opportunity than he had in Buffalo, where the path to being the No. 1 defenseman was blocked. Chicago is asking him to prove he can handle that responsibility fast, and the early answer will matter because the Blackhawks are leaning on him to help set the tone for what comes next. [Read more 🡒]
Sabres Fans Can Already See What Chicago Believes It Bought In Byram
Bowen Byrams move to Chicago already feels like one of the most significant bets Kyle Davidson has made in his rebuild. The Blackhawks did not bring him in as a depth add or a short-term fix - they moved with the expectation that he can grow into the kind of defenseman who changes how a blue line looks, especially on the offensive side of the puck and on the power play.
For that to happen, the next step has to be more than solid two-way play. Chicago is clearly banking on Byram becoming a true No. 1 defenseman, the kind of presence who can drive play, add structure to the breakout and give the offense another layer from the back end. The market price and the length of the commitment say plenty about how strongly the Blackhawks believe in the upside, and the real question now is whether that belief turns into the kind of impact they paid for. [Read more 🡒]