The Blackhawks’ youth movement is about to hit another big marker.
By the end of the 2026-27 season, Chicago could have six more players reach the 100-game NHL milestone, a sign of just how many recent draft picks and young pieces are now taking hold at the league level.
At the front of that line is defenseman Artyom Levshunov, who already has 86 games under his belt. He needs just 14 more, and if he stays in the lineup every night, he’d get there on Oct. 31 against the Boston Bruins. Right behind him is forward Ryan Greene, who sits at 83 games and would be only three games later in early November.
Sam Rinzel and Oliver Moore are next in the queue. Rinzel has played 63 games, while Moore has 60, and both Minnesota natives - who also played together at the University of Minnesota and signed their entry-level contracts with the Blackhawks on the same day - should land their 100th game around the middle of the season. Late December or early January is the likely window, based on their current totals.
Ethan Del Mastro’s path looks a little different. He’s been in the organization for three full seasons, but more of that time has come with the AHL Rockford IceHogs than with Chicago.
He still hasn’t signed his second contract with the Blackhawks, and even if he does, he might not be in the everyday lineup. That makes 100 games this season a real achievement.
He’s at 45 now, so he has 55 to go.
Nick Lardis would be the last of the group to get there. He split time pretty evenly between the Blackhawks and IceHogs last season, but all signs point to him being with the big club this year, possibly even in the top-six forwards. He’s at 41 games, leaving him 59 short of 100, which would put the milestone sometime in February.
What makes this even more striking is that these six wouldn’t be the only young Blackhawks to clear a major number recently. Last season, Spencer Knight, Wyatt Kaiser, Louis Crevier, Frank Nazar, Arvid Soderblom, Kevin Korchinski and Landon Slaggert all reached 100 NHL games. That’s seven more names added to the list.
A few of those players are already pushing toward the next benchmark. Kaiser needs 25 more games to get to 200.
Knight, if he makes 50 starts in net after appearing in 55 contests last season, would also hit 200. Nazar would need 78 games to reach that mark.
Then there’s the older end of this youth wave. Connor Bedard has played in 219 games, and Alex Vlasic has 260.
Bedard, who is dealing with an injury and will miss the start of the season, likely won’t get to 300 this year; he still needs 81 games. Vlasic is in a much better spot and is very likely to play in 40 matchups and reach 300.
There are also three Blackhawks who are still aiming at 100 games, but not until the 2027-28 campaign: Anton Frondell, Sacha Boisvert and Roman Kantserov.
Frondell already logged 12 games last season and looked like the real deal. He appears set to be an important part of the top-six, and maybe even the top-line center while Bedard is out. Even if he plays all 84 games this season, he’d still finish four shy of 100.
Boisvert played in seven games last season, but unlike Frondell, he seems likely to begin 2026-27 with the IceHogs. His 100-game arrival is still ahead, though the exact timing remains to be seen.
Kantserov, meanwhile, has not played a game for the Blackhawks yet. That changes this season, when he is expected to add to the forward group. There’s plenty of excitement around the 21-year-old Russian prospect.
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