The Chicago Blackhawks, despite the addition of a generational talent in Connor Bedard during the offseason, managed to have a teamwide regression following their disastrous 2022-23 campaign, with a franchise-worst points percentage of 31.7% or 52 standings points on the season. More notable in Chicago’s teamwide regression was their inability to score goals, seen in their paltry 171 as a unit, somehow worse than the San Jose Sharks whose most reputable offensive weapon was 48 games of an injury-riddle Tomas Hertl. Kyle Davidson went into the 2024 offseason with a hearty amount of cap space and draft capital to put both short term additions and long-term pieces in place to rebuild the Blackhawks’ roster around Bedard.

               Davidson did not make many notable moves via trade in the offseason, but he did make one worth talking about, which was a deal that sent a 2027 4^th round pick to the Vancouver Canucks for Sam Lafferty, Ilya Mikheyev, and a 2027 2^nd round pick. Lafferty opted not to sign with Chicago (His UFA rights were traded in this deal) and instead chose to join the Buffalo Sabres. Mikheyev is an interesting acquisition, as he has shown flashes of being both a respectable 2^nd line scoring winger (21 goals with Toronto in 2021-22) and of being a viable defensive 3^rd line winger (+3.7 Defensive GAR in 2023-24) but has yet to be able to do both at once. If Luke Richardson can coach and utilize Mikheyev properly. He could be an asset for a team who struggled to both score and prevent goals a year ago.

               With their inactivity in the trade market, the Blackhawks were very active in free agency via notable additions in Tyler Bertuzzi, Alec Martinez, TJ Brodie, Teuvo Teravainen, Craig Smith, Pat Maroon, and Laurent Brossoit. The headlining forwards of the bunch are Bertuzzi and Teravainen. Bertuzzi signed a 4 year $5.5M AAV contract, and it will be interesting to see whether he’ll live up to the expectations of the deal. A four-time 20+ goal scorer, Bertuzzi will be looked to as a both a play driver and finisher on the Blackhawks’ roster, and if he his recent career trend continues (11.8 GAR 2022, 9.7 GAR 2023, and 8.5 GAR 2022) he’s more likely to be shuffled with Taylor Hall regularly on the top line with Bedard as they both try to find their scoring touch from younger years. Similar to Bertuzzi, Teravainen is also a four-time 20+ goal scorer, joining Chicago following a career-high 25 goal season in Carolina. The difference between these additions is that Teravainen is consistent value addition both in the offensive AND defensive zones, making him a more viable and reliable winger for Bedard to take risks in the offensive and neutral zones. Brodie joins the Blackhawks following his most trying season since 2017-18, which was the only other time in his career where he played 70+ games and had a SPAR below 1.0. Brodie will likely serve in a bottom-pairing/7^th defenseman role mentoring the younger defenders on the Blackhawks’ roster. Martinez is likely to see more meaningful minutes than Brodie, as he can still make a noticeable impact in the offensive zone (+5.5 Offensive GAR in 2023-24) but will still likely see lower deployments following an injury-plagued season at 36+ years old. Brossoit stands to be the most interesting of all of Chiago’s NHL-roster additions of the offseason. At 30 years old, Brossoit has only started 118 games, but over the past three seasons between Vegas and Winnipeg he has posted a 91.5% save percentage, which should give him the chance to be a true 1B with Petr Mrazek.

               The Blackhawks had three 1^st round picks in 2024 and used them on Artyom Levshunov, Sasha Boisvert, and Marek Vanacker. Levshunov was the 2^nd overall pick in this year’s draft, and following a strong season at Michigan State, he was one of the top two (per my evaluation) RHDs in the draft alongside Zayne Parekh (mentioned in my Calgary Flames recap). In his draft eligible season, Levshunov recorded 35 points in 38 games, and showcased his fluid mobility to create and prevent breakouts at every level of all three zones. His closest comparable at this stage in his development is Edmonton Oilers’ standout Evan Bouchard, meaning that if the Blackhawks handle his development properly, they could have a remarkable top pairing of Levshunov and Korchinski by the end of the 2025-26 season. Boisvert, the 18^th overall pick, had 36 goals among 68 points in 61 games for the Muskegon Lumberjacks last season. Boisvert is a strong-bodied goal scoring centerman who will play his next season at the University of North Dakota. The biggest question about Boisvert, and I say this a lot, is how his scoring ability and physicality adjust to playing against stronger and faster competition at the next level. Depending on the answer to that question, he’ll either be a Kyle Palmieri or a Curtis Lazar. Vanacker has 82 points in 68 games for the Brantford Bulls in his draft eligible season. Vanacker is the most intriguing prospect of Chicago’s three first round picks due to his floor being higher than Boisvert due to having better defensive and transitional hockey IQ in the way he’s able to leverage his skating ability to kill opposing breakouts in the neutral zone, but not having as effective of a shot as Boisvert. Vanacker, if developed correctly, could be the Huberdeau-type left winger to complement Bedard (as JH did for Sasha Barkov).

               Overall, the Blackhawks offseason was inconsistent. Their free agent haul will make the team better due to it being virtually impossible for them to be worse, but the term and dollars on the Bertuzzi contract are a yellow flag for me, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he did not finish that contract in Chicago. The prospect pool continues to deepen with high-end value as players like Frank Nazar, Oliver Moore, and Sam Rinzel inch closer to being NHL and AHL regulars. Their offseason gets a B- from me, due to congestion they’ve caused in their middle-six and bottom-four. Lukas Reichel and Wyatt Kaiser will likely see less meaningful development with their free agency additions, which makes me wonder why Davidson doesn’t trade them for pieces he’s actually going to invest in.