From Jeff Blashill to Connor Bedard, what to watch for as Blackhawks open training camp
With so many veterans up front, so many young defensemen already established and so few off-season moves, Blackhawks training camp opens at Fifth Third Arena on Thursday without much drama in terms of roster battles. But with a new head coach and so many promising players on the verge of taking that next step in their careers, there’s still plenty of intrigue.
Here are 10 storylines to watch for over the next 19 days:
The Blashill effect
Jeff Blashill is the first head coach the Blackhawks have hired since Joel Quenneville who previously had NHL head-coaching experience. Whether the Blackhawks would have fared any better than they did with Jeremy Colliton, Derek King, Luke Richardson or Anders Sorensen as head coaches is certainly debatable, but Blashill does enter the picture as the Blackhawks appear to be close to turning the corner in their rebuild.
The Blackhawks are further along in their rebuild than the Detroit Red Wings were when Blashill coached there. Plus, Blashill surely has evolved as a coach over the years. This is his second stint as an NHL coach after spending the last three seasons under Jon Cooper with the Tampa Bay Lightning.
What sort of impact he’ll have on the Blackhawks is the unknown. Training camp will start to indicate how Blashill wants to play, his thoughts around lines and pairings, how he plans to balance team goals and player development and so on.
What will the lineup look like?
There are probably 10 forward roster locks entering training camp: Connor Bedard, Tyler Bertuzzi, André Burakovsky, Jason Dickinson, Ryan Donato, Nick Foligno, Sam Lafferty, Ilya Mikheyev, Frank Nazar and Teuvo Teräväinen. Landon Slaggert is likely close to a lock. Lukas Reichel probably makes the team if he’s not traded during training camp. You’re at 12 forwards already. That doesn’t leave much room for Colton Dach, Ryan Greene, Nick Lardis, Oliver Moore or any other young forward to make the roster.
As for the defensemen, Connor Murphy, Sam Rinzel and Alex Vlasic are locks. Wyatt Kaiser is probably one, too, as long as he gets a deal done. Artyom Levshunov and Kevin Korchinski may be in that same boat, too. They’ll at least be given every chance to make the team out of camp. Behind them, there are a handful of young defensemen with NHL experience. Between Nolan Allan, Louis Crevier and Ethan Del Mastro, there will be a lot of competition. Also, 31-year-old veteran Matt Grzelcyk will be in camp on a PTO, according to SportsNet. Grzelcyk had a goal and 39 assists with the Penguins last season.
Spencer Knight and Arvid Söderblom will be the NHL goalies. Laurent Brossoit isn’t expected to be ready at the start of training camp. We’ll see if he ever reenters the goalie pool.
Here’s our last go at what the lineup looks like to start camp:
Donato — Bedard — Burakovsky
Bertuzzi — Nazar — Teräväinen
Mikheyev — Dickinson — Foligno
Slaggert — Lafferty — Moore
Reichel
Vlasic — Rinzel
Kaiser- Levshunov
Korchinski — Murphy
Del Mastro
Knight
Söderblom
Connor Bedard’s contract
Whether Bedard likes it or not, his contract will be a talking point until it’s finalized. So far, he’s been open to answering questions about it and doesn’t seem bothered, but we’ll see how he feels after months and months of that.
The Blackhawks had hoped to get Bedard’s deal done this off-season just like they did with Nazar and Knight, but Bedard decided to take a more wait-and-see approach. Considering the possibility that Bedard’s production could take off in his third year, it’s not that surprising he wanted to hold off. Whether that means Bedard is open to negotiating during the season or will want to wait until next off-season has yet to be revealed. If Bedard publicly states he isn’t discussing his contract until after the season, that may save him from the season-long questions.
Either way, Bedard is expected to be the Blackhawks’ highest-paid player come the 2026-27 season. Nazar taking a cap percentage of 6.2 on a seven-year deal might help with Bedard’s contract talks, but he’s probably still around 10 percent or higher. The salary cap is projected to be $104 million next season, so Bedard will be cashing in at the right time.
Frank Nazar’s next step
The Blackhawks placed a big bet on Nazar, the No. 13 pick in the 2022 draft (acquired in the Kirby Dach trade), when they handed him a seven-year, $46.2 million contract this off-season after just 56 NHL games. His strong play down the stretch — five goals and four assists in eight April games — and his team-leading production for the United States at the World Championships made them believers. But Nazar has yet to even play a full season in the NHL. Is he a competent 50-point second-line center who’ll show flashes of greatness, or is he on the verge of becoming a high-end scorer who’ll be a bargain for the Blackhawks for years to come?
His linemates this season could make a difference. Nazar clicked with Bertuzzi and Teräväinen late last season, but Davidson originally signed those veterans to potentially play with Bedard. Will Blashill keep Bertuzzi (a proven finisher) and Teräväinen (a gifted playmaker) with Nazar, or give Bedard a longer look with them? Or might he even move either Bedard or Nazar to the wing and put them together on a line? We should get an indication of Blashill’s leaning very early in camp.
Artyom Levshunov’s role
Among players who saw more than just a cup of coffee in the show, Artyom Levshunov was the second-youngest player in the league after Macklin Celebrini. (The third-youngest? Still Connor Bedard.) Very few defensemen play in the league as teenagers, and Levshunov acquitted himself well in 18 games after his call-up in March. He can be a little reckless, and he has some forehead-slapping moments from time to time, but the tools that prompted Davidson to take him second overall last summer are evident. Most defensemen his age could probably stand a little more seasoning in the AHL, but Levshunov is the type of player who might be a better fit in the NHL than the dump-and-chase world of the AHL, and he’s very likely to make the team out of camp.
When he was drafted, it was to become the No. 1 defenseman for the Blackhawks, supplanting the stagnating Kevin Korchinski. But 2022 first-rounder Sam Rinzel’s emergence late last season bumped him down a notch on the depth chart — at least, for now. Rinzel is likely going to be quarterbacking the top power-play unit to start the season. Can Levshunov wrest that role away from Rinzel, or will he be relegated to PP2 and the second pairing? Levshunov will have to rein in his freelancing a bit without sacrificing the offensive flair that makes him special to leapfrog Rinzel. It should be a good competition over the next couple of seasons, and it’s certainly a good “problem” for the Blackhawks to have.
Spencer Knight’s big bet
Calgary goaltender Dustin Wolf just signed a seven-year contract. All-world goalies Igor Shesterkin, Ilya Sorokin, Juuse Saros and Jake Oettinger signed eight-year deals in the past year. So did Jeremy Swayman in Boston. Connor Hellebuyck is on a seven-year deal, Logan Thompson and Adin Hill signed six-year contracts in the past year, and a handful of other goalies — including Lukas Dostal, Mackenzie Blackwood and Karel Vejmelka all signed for five years.
Knight signed for just three. That might be partly the Blackhawks hedging their bets, but they clearly envision him as their No. 1 goalie for the present and the future. But Knight — the 13th pick in the 2019 draft, and Sergei Bobrovsky’s backup in Florida — is betting that he can be one of those elite goalies, and cash in in a few years. This will be Knight’s first season as a No. 1, and with the 26-year-old Söderblom behind him and 23-year-old Drew Commesso waiting in the wings, he’ll need to show he can be the man to really lock down the role. He has the pedigree and the confidence of both management and his teammates. But he has to prove himself all the same.
Lukas Reichel’s future
On the one hand, Reichel might never become the top-six forward the Blackhawks envisioned when the previous regime drafted him in the first round in 2020, or the dynamic player he appeared to be when he had 15 points in 23 games as a rookie back in 2022-23. On the other hand, he’s only 23 years old and has undeniable speed and skill. Confidence and consistency issues have plagued him in his two full NHL seasons, and he posted just 13 goals and 25 assists in those 135 games. Can he still carve out a role as an energy guy in the bottom six? Maybe lean harder into defense and penalty killing? Or can he still break out and become a productive scorer?
Reichel was a Stan Bowman draft pick, so Kyle Davidson might not be quite so married to him at this point. Reichel is certainly NHL capable, but it’s hard to say what his true ceiling is. And with so many young forwards in the system trying to break through, it’s not hard to envision a change-of-scenery trade during camp as other teams look for a spark.
Nick Lardis’ timetable
Sure, he was an older player in a notoriously high-scoring league, but 71 goals is 71 goals. What Lardis did last year for the OHL’s Brantford Bulldogs is staggering. It’s the most goals scored in an OHL season since John Tavares in 2007. And for comparison’s sake, Alex DeBrincat scored “just” 65 goals in the OHL when he was 19. So Lardis, a third-round pick in 2023, is a tantalizing prospect. Will his finishing ability translate to the NHL? He’ll likely require more development in the rougher AHL, but if Lardis pots a few in the preseason, he can at least force his way into the opening-night discussion.
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