What I’m hearing about the Blackhawks this offseason: Söderblom arbitration and more

The mostly quiet portion of the offseason is upon us. There might be a few surprises that trickle out in the coming months, but beyond a handful of contracts, including possibly Anton Frondell’s entry-level contract, there isn’t likely to be a lot of Blackhawks’ news.

Nonetheless, we’ll still have some stories for you in the coming weeks and months. Before we get to those, here’s one final roundup of what I’m hearing about the team.

It was a little surprising to see Arvid Söderblom file for arbitration. You can’t blame him, though. He sees the Blackhawks give Petr Mrázek $4.25 million, give Laurent Brossoit $3.3 million and be willing to take on Spencer Knight’s $4.5 million cap hit. Söderblom probably wants his piece of the pie, too.

Söderblom is projected to get about $1.7 million on a two-year contract, based on AFP Analytics’ contract projections. My understanding is that number is probably lower than what Söderblom is hoping to get. It’ll probably end up closer to $2.5 million.

The key for the Blackhawks will be not committing too much term to him just yet. While he had a bounce-back season, the Blackhawks will want to see a larger sample size before handing him a larger deal. There’s also the fact that the Blackhawks’ net could see many combinations of goalies in the next few years, with Söderblom, Knight and Drew Commesso all being 25 or younger.

The Blackhawks will work out Söderblom’s contract one way or another, whether it’s through arbitration or not. The one that doesn’t have a definite endpoint and could yield some interesting negotiations is Wyatt Kaiser’s deal.

Kaiser doesn’t have arbitration rights, meaning he doesn’t have a ton of leverage, but there is always the possibility of a holdout. It doesn’t sound like Kaiser is threatening that. It could make sense for Kaiser to bet on himself on a one-year deal and prove he’s the player he was late last season, positioning himself for a significant contract next summer. The Blackhawks are hopeful Kaiser is a top-four defenseman, but it probably doesn’t make sense just yet to pay him like one.

Blackhawks prospect Jack Pridham’s original plan was to go from the BCHL to the NCAA after Chicago took him in the third round of the 2024 draft. Once the NCAA announced it would allow OHL players to play college hockey, however, Pridham, who is from the Toronto area, decided to include the OHL in his development plan while keeping his commitment to Boston University.

Now, after playing last season with the Kitchener Rangers in the OHL, Pridham has decided to alter his development plan again. He de-committed from BU and hopes to earn a contract with the Blackhawks out of training camp.

“After a long decision with my family, I decided I’m not going to go to Boston anymore,” Pridham said at Blackhawks development camp. “I liked my game in Kitchener this year and I want to put my best foot forward to try to earn a contract with Chicago, and if not, then the plan will be back in Kitchener for one more year.”

The Blackhawks do like Pridham and were impressed by how well he played in the OHL last season. Odds are probably against him earning an NHL contract out of camp, but you never know. The Blackhawks do technically own his NHL rights until August of 2029 because they drafted him out of the BCHL.

One prospect you can probably not expect to see in the NHL next season is Sacha Boisvert. He had a strong freshman season at North Dakota and transferred to Boston University. Chances are he spends next season at BU before making a jump similar to the ones Oliver Moore and Frank Nazar made after their sophomore seasons.

It certainly sounded like Boisvert was ready for that, too. He spoke at development camp about how far he thought he was from the NHL.

“I think not too far away,” Boisvert said. “I think it’s mental. It’s also physical, but I think a lot of it’s mental. I think I’ll be ready to play soon enough.”

What sort of quarterback prospect was Blackhawks 2025 first-round pick Mason West? In talking to a friend at one recruiting service, it sounds like West once seemed like a big-time prospect due to his size, but interest subsided over the last few years. He does have offers from Kent State, Marshall, Miami (Ohio) and South Dakota, according to 247Sports.

The Blackhawks still believe once West commits completely to hockey that he’s going to become a next-level player because of his size, athleticism and vision. The plan is for him to play high school football, then finish out his senior year playing hockey in the USHL. He’s committed to playing hockey at Michigan State for the 2026-27 season.

Chicago doesn’t have any major fears about him playing high school football either.

“High school football vs., say, playing in the USHL, you may be more apt to get hurt playing in the USHL,” Blackhawks assistant general manager of player development Mark Eaton said. “I mean, you can take that approach with everything. You can get hit by a bus crossing the street. You’re still going to cross the street. We love the athlete in him; we love that he has a desire to go back and lead his football team to win a championship.”

Eaton is back to his old job after stepping in as head coach of the Rockford IceHogs last season. He does think last season’s experience will benefit him as he moves back into player development.

“At least on the amateur side, when you’re working with these guys, it’s more sporadic,” Eaton said. “Maybe it’s every week or every couple of weeks, going to see them play and every few weeks. But being around them every day, six days a week for an entire season, if anything it reaffirms that a lot of what we’re doing on the amateur side, what we’re doing here this week, we’re focusing on the right things because that’s what a lot of these guys need as first-year pros is stuff away from the rink, learning how to be pros, taking care of themselves, nutrition, that kind of stuff. … Being able to work with them on the ice on a daily basis was real rewarding, beneficial and something that will help me going forward.”

Marcel Marcel, a 2023 fifth-round pick by the Blackhawks, will be back with the IceHogs this season. Before he could officially sign that contract, he had to go through this year’s NHL draft.

His draft rights expired in June after the Blackhawks decided not to offer him an NHL contract. Since he’s from Europe and still 21, he had to enter the NHL draft again. He didn’t get selected, which then allowed him to sign an AHL contract with the IceHogs.

The Blackhawks are still considering bringing in another goalie as Commesso’s backup in Rockford. There are two goalies — Mitchell Weeks and Owen Flores — under AHL deals next season, but they’re likely playing for the Indy Fuel or only in net with the IceHogs if another goalie is injured. Chicago could explore Europe for another goalie, which has paid off for them in the past.

The team expected Dominic James, a 2022 sixth-round pick, to sign after his college and were surprised to find out he was going to wait out his draft rights and become an unrestricted free agent on Aug. 15. That happening more often probably isn’t a massive concern for the Blackhawks, but it is something they’ll be mindful of as they try to plan out development timelines.

Competition is one thing, but they don’t want to scare off prospects from signing because there are just too many promising players in the pipeline, especially considering how many early-round picks the Blackhawks have made in recent years.

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