The Chicago Blackhawks just played their 99th season, and year two of a full rebuild did not go as planned. This season was a step backward with team struggling to find chemistry on the way to 25 wins, 46 losses and 11 overtime shootout losses. But there are reasons to remain optimistic.
They added goaltender Laurent Brossoit, defenseman T.J. Brodie and three-time Stanley Cup champion Alec Martinez. Three-time Stanley Cup champion Pat Maroon along with forwards Craig Smith, Tyler Bertuzzi reunited with Teuvo Teräväinen, who was part of the 2015 Stanley Cup Chicago Blackhawks team.
The Blackhawks were doomed from the start by instability on the coaching staff. The Hawks fired head coach Luke Richardson after 26 games, during which his team had a pathetic 8 wins and 16 losses. After that, they brought in Anders Sorensen as interim head coach, who failed to right the ship, as the Blackhawks finished the season with 17 wins, 30 losses and 9 shootout overtime losses for 43 points during that span. We will have to wait and see who will coach the Blackhawks in the 2025-2026 season. A few candidates I would like to see be the head coach are Claude Julien, Marian Hossa and Barry Trotz.
The Blackhawks were just plain bad on both sides of the puck.
Their defense allowed far too many shots and goals, leaving Petr Mrázek, Arvid Söderblom and Spencer Knight out to dry. Their defense was mostly young guys like Alex Vlasic, Kevin Korchinski, Artyom Levshunov and Sam Rinzel who were not experienced enough to be up to the task. They did have veterans on defense, such as Martinez (now retired), Brodie, Connor Murphy and Seth Jones, but that core still allowed a ton of scoring chances. Jones was traded to the Florida Panthers. Clearly, that trade did not work out for the Blackhawks.
The offense was almost just as bad. Connor Bedard increased his point total from 61 to 67 points, and Ryan Donato had a career year with 31 goals and assists for 62 points. Teräväinen had 58 points in his first season back with the Chicago Blackhawks after spending eight seasons with the Carolina Hurricanes. had a solid first season with the Hawks. Vlasic and Lukas Reichel had career highs in points with 30 and 22. While they did not have anyone on the team with 70 or more points, I do think the Hawks’ offense will get better next year.
After a disappointing year two in the Bedard era, the potential is still there by next season he will break the 80-100 point mark. I still have hope that the Chicago Blackhawks will be a successful franchise again soon. Next season they will have more talent on defense and offense to give Bedard some help. They will have really good goaltending with Drew Commesso to help Knight. What they really need is to find a new head coach who can lead the Hawks back to the playoffs. We will be seeing playoff hockey and Stanley Cups back on The Madhouse on Madison. The Chicago Blackhawks team with Bedard leading the way will be special.
