The Blackhawks got a breather on Tuesday after a heavy early stretch of camp, but the calendar isn’t easing up for long. Chicago is already halfway through its four-game preseason schedule, and after five straight days of practice plus Monday’s home preseason opener against the Minnesota Wild, the group finally had a day off before jumping back into another packed run.
The Hawks return to practice this morning, and Thursday brings another game day in St. Louis. With the 2026-27 NHL regular season drawing closer, the next six days are set to keep the pace rolling.
There’s movement on the roster front, too. Defenseman Derrick Pouliot cleared waivers on Tuesday and will report to Rockford for the first day of minor-league training camp. Chicago’s NHL training-camp roster now sits at 37 players after the team’s second round of cuts on Monday sent nine players to the IceHogs.
Rockford’s camp opens today, and the IceHogs’ preseason opener is only three days away.
One of the more eye-catching bits of Blackhawks chatter came from ESPN’s Greg Wyshynski, who made a bold call on Anton Frondell. Wyshynski projected Frondell to finish among the NHL’s top-three rookie scorers in 2026-27. That puts Frondell in a crowded race that also includes Gavin McKenna, Ivar Stenberg, and Porter Martone for the Calder Trophy conversation.
Chicago also got some buzz from the college ranks as next Friday marks the start of the 2026-27 NCAA Men’s campaign. The USCHO released its first preseason poll, and the Blackhawks have six prospects headed into the year with top-20 programs.
Monday’s preseason opener had its own headline-grabber in defenseman Bowen Byram, whose unofficial team debut turned into the “Bo Show.” Byram scored a hat trick, then finished it off with an overtime winner in the Blackhawks’ 4-3 victory over Minnesota. His three goals and postgame comments from him and his teammates were part of the night’s biggest takeaway.
Around the league, the Minnesota Wild locked up Bill Guerin with a multi-year contract extension on Tuesday. Sportsnet noted that since taking over in 2019, Guerin has done well as GM, and the Wild were comfortable extending him even without a new deal in place for star defenseman Quinn Hughes.
The Anaheim Ducks also named a new captain. Mikael Granlund gets the job, replacing Radko Gudas after Gudas was traded to the Florida Panthers this summer. Granlund wore the captain’s “C” for Team Finland at the 2026 Winter Olympics, where Finland won bronze.
And Ottawa Senators owner Michael Andlauer made a pointed remark about Brady Tkachuk’s departure this offseason, saying: “ blood is thicker than water, and let’s just say that his father and his brother got in his kitchen.”
Elsewhere, Pittsburgh captain Sidney Crosby took a few extra hits in Tuesday’s preseason loss, and his teammates made sure he wasn’t left to handle it alone. The Penguins stood up for Crosby on the ice and talked about it afterward, too.
In Other News...
Bowen Byram Just Gave Blackhawks Fans A Rare Scoring Night To Savor
Bowen Byram gave Blackhawks fans a jolt in the preseason with an unusual burst from the blue line, scoring three goals against the Minnesota Wild and reminding everyone how rare it is for a defenseman in Chicago to take over a game like that. Nights like this do not come around often for Blackhawks blueliners, and the historical context around it only adds to the novelty, with the franchise having gone years between the kind of scoring outburst Byram delivered.
The performance fits a broader pattern around defensemen who can flip a game with offense, especially for an Original Six club where those moments tend to stand out even more. Byrams night was the sort of quick-hit scoring display that gets attention for more than just the final score, even if the larger takeaway for Chicago is still less about the preseason result and more about what it says about a player trying to make an impression. [Read more 🡒]
Blackhawks Prospects Are Landing In Big NCAA Roles That Matter
The college hockey pipeline around the Blackhawks is in pretty good shape heading into the season, and the latest USCHO preseason top-20 poll helps show why. Seven Chicago prospects are spread across NCAA rosters this fall, and six of them landed with teams in the preseason rankings, giving the organization a pretty deep footprint at places like Michigan State, Providence, UMass-Amherst and Boston University.
What makes that especially relevant for Chicago is not just where those players are headed, but how quickly they may matter once the puck drops. These are not mostly hidden depth pieces on anonymous rosters. The Blackhawks have draft picks and recent selections stepping into programs with real expectations, which usually means bigger minutes, tougher matchups and more pressure to produce. For a team still building its future, the next step is seeing which of those college roles turn into real progress. [Read more 🡒]
Blackhawks Need More From Their Young Core At The Worst Time
The Blackhawks have reached a familiar stage of the rebuild, where promise is no longer enough and the next step has to come from the young players already in place. Looking ahead to the 2026-27 season, the organization is trying to turn a roster with real upside into one that can actually take advantage of it, and that means getting more out of the group around Connor Bedard during a stretch when the team cannot afford to wait around for progress to arrive on its own.
Artyom Levshunovs growth on the blue line, Teuvo Teravainens production in the middle six, and Frank Nazars continued rise entering his third NHL season all sit at the center of that push. Chicago still has a chance to build something meaningful, but the margin for patience is getting thinner, especially with Bedard working through an injury and the rest of the core being asked to carry more of the load while the roster tries to keep moving forward. [Read more 🡒]