The Blackhawks are staring at a 4-9-0 start, but one of the quieter encouraging signs has come from Oliver Moore. After getting scratched once, the young forward has answered with back-to-back games that showed exactly why Chicago keeps betting on him.
Moore, 21, is still in the second full season of his NHL career, and the Blackhawks have already made a major commitment to him. General manager Kyle Davidson gave him a five-year, $21.5M contract extension in September, a clear sign the organization sees him as a big part of what comes next. He’s been used mostly in a third-line role, though he has the kind of speed and versatility that lets him move up and down the lineup.
That flexibility got tested on Oct. 25 against the Florida Panthers, when Moore was made a healthy scratch after Andrew Mangiapane returned from injury. At that point, Moore had three points in seven games.
Since then, he’s responded the way teams hope young players do.
Against the LA Kings on Oct. 27, coach Jeff Blashill changed up the top line and put Patrick Kane with Moore and Frank Nazar instead of keeping Kane with Connor Bedard. The move paid off in a big way.
Natural Stat Trick had that trio at 17-5 in corsi, 10-1 in shots, and even in goals at 1-0. The lone goal for the Blackhawks came from defenseman Wyatt Kaiser, who scored the game-winner in the third period.
Moore didn’t pick up an assist, but he still finished plus-1.
Kane noticed the bounce-back right away. “I thought Mango (Mangiapane) was great last game.
I think we got to acknowledge that, for sure. He was probably one of our best forwards, if not our best forward.
And Mooresy comes back in. I thought he was one of our best forwards tonight, too.
So I mean, there's a lot of depth through the lineup, and Mooresy is one of those guys, I think, especially before the season, that jumps out at you with his speed and his skill and his potential, and he's still such a young player. I think once he kind of learns the ins and outs of playing the game and just kind of where he fits in the lineup; I know it's tough when you're that young, and you're kind of all around the lineup, and you get a different role.
But, yeah, he's got a lot of potential, and I thought he was great tonight. He was flying.”
Two nights later, in the Oct. 29 loss to the Detroit Red Wings, Moore didn’t show up on the scoresheet, but he did something that stood out even in a rough result. He won 89 percent of his faceoffs, going 8-1 at the dot in 11:41 of ice time. For a Chicago team that has had its issues there, that kind of efficiency matters.
Moore has built his game on the details - speed, space creation, and the kind of work that doesn’t always jump off the box score. But when those pieces show up together, they can tilt a game. The numbers from the last two outings suggest he’s already doing that.
Blashill said after the Kings game that the response was exactly what he expected. “It was good, but I didn't expect anything less.
Like he actually was playing good hockey. I felt it was a moment where him and our team just needed to learn to make sure we learn these lessons and not beating ourselves.
But he's played good hockey. So it's not like he went through a stretch where he hadn't been playing well.
I thought he stepped right back in and did a good job. And the credit I give to Oliver... every time I talk to anybody that's been around him, they always rave about him.
Because he's that kind of person who's one: he's just so self-accountable, and yet I think has enough confidence and he's super comfortable in his own skin, too. So he can kind of shake that stuff off and go back at it.
And I thought it was a good step for him.”
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