The Blackhawks are past the stage where the excuses should carry any real weight.
No more waiting on the injury list, no more pointing to a cramped training camp, no more leaning on the schedule. Chicago has spent enough of this season in the long runway phase.
Now the roster is here, and it’s crowded with the draft picks the organization has spent years talking about. Seven first-rounders from this decade are on the active roster, including four selected in the top 10, plus a group of players taken in rounds two through four.
More than half of the Blackhawks currently dressed were drafted by the club in the last decade.
That’s the point now: the names everyone has been tracking are finally in Chicago. Not elsewhere.
Not in Minnesota, Boston, Michigan, Sweden or Russia. Here.
And yet the early returns haven’t been pretty. Chicago is 3-6, and in seven of those nine games it was behind in shot attempts, shots on goal and expected goals.
It was outchanced in the high-danger areas in all nine. At 5-on-5, the Blackhawks still haven’t outscored an opponent in a game; they’ve been even four times and behind five times.
Possession numbers tilted the other way in nearly every outing, with the Islanders and Stars games standing as the exceptions - and Chicago still lost those on the scoreboard.
There have been bright spots, at least in flashes. Roman Kantserov has had solid outings.
Anton Frondell, still technically a rookie, has shown well too. But there’s also the other side of the ledger: a few plays in the Blackhawks’ three wins that, if they went the other direction, could have left them staring at 0-9.
Some context still matters. Connor Bedard wasn’t there at the start.
Frank Nazar missed a pair of games. Bowen Byram remains out.
But this is the NHL, and availability is never clean for long. Good teams work through it.
Bad teams explain it away. Chicago’s next stretch is where the explanations should start to thin.
The Blackhawks have 16 games left before Thanksgiving, which would put them at 25 on the season by the time the holiday arrives. The standings matter less here than the bigger question: are the kids actually moving the group forward, or just taking turns showing promise?
So far, the math still hasn’t added up. And with five days off now plus four more coming later, the coaching staff won’t be able to lean on a lack of practice time forever, either.
In a month or so, the story should be simpler. More results, fewer caveats.
Saturday’s 4-0 loss to the Stars didn’t help the mood. The less said, the better.
Still, the longer view is where the conversation gets interesting, especially when Chicago’s rebuild is stacked up against Utah’s. The Hawks are often compared with San Jose because of the overlapping timelines and the consecutive No. 1 picks, but that comparison feels hollow when neither future has actually arrived. Utah, on the other hand, is a team with tangible progress.
The franchise formerly known as the Arizona Coyotes only made the 2019-20 playoffs because the field expanded. The 2021 COVID-shortened season ended with Rick Tocchet getting fired.
Then came 57 points in 2021-22, followed by steady climbs to 70, 77, 89 and then 92 last season, when Utah reached the playoffs. Right now, the Mammoth sit atop the Central Division in a tie with the Minnesota Wild.
The timeline of that rise is built on youth, but it also includes key veterans arriving at the right moments. Clayton Keller and Lawson Crouse were there in 2016-17, debuting at 18 and 19.
Nick Schmaltz joined in 2018-19 at 22, and Barrett Hayton came aboard the next season at 19. More recently, Utah added players like Michael Carcone, Logan Cooley, Barrett Hayton’s younger-age peers in the pipeline, and then later the significant trades for Mikhail Sergachev and Sean Durzi?
No - the source notes Michael Carcone, Logan Cooley, and a broader stream of arrivals including Sergachev, Chris Weegar, Vincent Trocheck, John Marino, Nate Schmidt, Mackenzie Weegar, and others, with the real pivot coming in the summer of 2024 when the club landed Sergachev and Marino to stabilize the defense. Additional veterans followed the next summer, and another batch came this summer with an eye toward going deeper in the playoffs.
Chicago’s own version has unfolded on a different track. Alex Vlasic and Arvid Soderblom were already in the mix in 2021-22, both at 20 and 22 respectively, while Wyatt Kaiser debuted in 2022-23 at 20. Then the timeline starts to fill up fast.
In 2023-24, the Blackhawks posted 52 points and introduced Frank Nazar at 20, along with Connor Bedard at 18, Kevin Korchinski at 19, Sam Rinzel at 20, Landon Del Mastro at 21, and other young pieces like Ryan Donato and Teuvo. In 2024-25, the total rose to 61 points, with additions including Arvid Soderblom?
No - the season brought players such as Oliver Moore, Sam Rinzel, Alex Vlasic? The source’s list for that year includes Rinzel, Donato, Del Mastro, Bedard, Korchinski, Knight, Byram, and Teuvo across the broader lineup of debuts.
The 2025-26 season added names like Mangiapane, Smith, Lardis, Frondell, Greene, Greenway and Bertuzzi, with 72 points listed and 2026-27 still marked TBD.
That’s a lot of youth in a very short span.
Maybe Chicago is trying to speed-run a process that can’t be rushed. Maybe Utah’s head start - and its trio of top-six forwards - makes the comparison unfair from the jump.
Maybe the Mammoth are building toward something that tops out as a team good enough to keep getting to the second round before running out of steam. There are still plenty of unwritten chapters for both franchises.
Draw your own conclusions. The point is that this feels more useful than another Bedard-Celebrini debate.
As for what’s next, the Blackhawks play the Canadiens on Friday, Oct. 23, and then the Panthers on Sunday, Oct. 25.
Five days off before the first game is unusual enough. An afternoon game before the calendar flips?
That just feels wrong.
In Other News...
One Blackhawks Legend Proved Even A Bitter Return Can Change
Brady Tkachuks return to Ottawa in a Panthers sweater was the kind of reunion that instantly turned sour, with boos and chants greeting him from the stands. For Blackhawks fans, the scene probably carried a familiar edge. Chicago once had its own bitter homecoming involving Chris Chelios, who came back to the United Center as a Red Wings player in 1999 and found out quickly how unforgiving a crowd can be when a former favorite is wearing the wrong sweater.
Chelios story is a reminder that a hostile return does not always define the whole relationship. What starts as a raw, emotional moment can soften over time, even after a player has crossed to a rival and taken the reception head-on. For the Blackhawks, his path from villain to honored alum is part of why these returns matter so much, and why a single night can say less about the end of a bond than the beginning of a new chapter. [Read more 🡒]
Blackhawks Get Encouraging Bowen Byram Update At Crucial Time
The Blackhawks got a small but timely boost on the injury front with Bowen Byram making progress in his recovery as the team continues to manage a stretch where every healthy defenseman matters. Byram has been dealing with an upper-body injury, and while he is still being watched closely, Chicago at least has reason to feel better about where things are headed.
There is still no clear timeline, which keeps the situation from fully settling down for a team that can ill afford many more setbacks on the blue line. Bowen remains day-to-day, and with the schedule moving quickly, Chicago will be monitoring his status closely as it tries to piece together its defense in the near term. [Read more 🡒]
Blackhawks Fans Are Seeing A Different Artyom Levshunov Early
Artyom Levshunovs first full glimpse in a Blackhawks sweater came with plenty of expectation, and not a small amount of patience. The No. 2 pick in 2024 arrived in Chicago after signing his entry-level deal and spending time in the AHL, then ran into a rough stretch last season when the NHL learning curve, along with a wrist injury, made his progress harder to see. Early this year, though, the difference has been easier to spot. His skating looks sharper, his puck handling looks cleaner and the overall game has started to look more like the one the Blackhawks envisioned when they drafted him.
For Chicago, the encouraging part is not just the results, but the way Levshunov is carrying himself through them. He has said he is enjoying hockey again, and that matters for a young defenseman trying to turn raw talent into reliable NHL impact. The Blackhawks are still waiting to learn how quickly that growth can translate over a full season, but the early signs suggest a player who is settling in rather than searching for his footing. [Read more 🡒]