Teuvo Teravainen’s second season back in Chicago didn’t come close to matching the first, and that’s the big story here. After putting up 58 points in his return year, he finished this one with 35, a drop that left the Blackhawks searching for more from one of their pricier veterans.
The usage changed, and so did the results. Teravainen spent plenty of time with Connor Bedard and Frank Nazar in his first year back, but this season he was pushed mostly into the bottom six as the roster filled out around him. Andre Burakovsky getting a shot on the top line is part of that conversation, but no matter how you slice it, Teravainen’s offense took the hit.
The raw totals still look respectable on paper: 14 goals and 21 assists in 75 games. But for a player on one of the team’s top contracts, that wasn’t enough. Even with Bedard raising his level when healthy, Teravainen couldn’t turn that into the kind of production Chicago needed from him.
That doesn’t mean he stopped being useful. Teravainen is still a helpful player for the Hawks.
The issue is that other players have started to fill the space he once seemed destined to own, which has made him feel a little lost in the lineup. Unless the rest of the offseason changes the picture, he looks headed for a bottom-six role again.
And with this being a contract year for “Turbo,” the motivation is obvious: he’ll want to get paid at least one more time.
The grades reflected that uneven season. Blackhawks Cowboy gave Teravainen a C-, pointing to the sharp fall from 58 points to 35 and noting that the offensive slide came on top of already shaky defense. That assessment also mentioned that Teravainen still represented Finland in the Olympics, where the team won Bronze, even as trade rumours began to swirl.
Tony Marchese was even tougher, handing out a D+ and calling it a below-average year for a veteran who should be producing more. Ron Luce landed on a C-, too, citing the 35 points in 75 games and calling it Teravainen’s worst season since 2022-23.
Looking ahead, Teravainen’s path is pretty clear. He needs a stronger season if he wants to set himself up for another solid payday in free agency. With the younger players developing, his future in Chicago may not stretch much beyond next season, but a bounce-back year and more depth scoring would still help him a lot as he moves into the next phase of his career.
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