Blackhawks’ Frank Nazar, Spencer Knight proving to be worth every cent

The dollar signs could have been adding up in Chicago Blackhawks general manager Kyle Davidson’s head.

With every Frank Nazar goal and Spencer Knight save, which there have been a lot of early this season, that could have equated to increasingly larger salaries for both players in the future.

Instead, Davidson can sit back, watch both players take that next step in their development and feel fortunate he has already taken care of the contracts they would have been due this off-season. With Knight at $5,833,333 for the next three seasons and Nazar at $6.6 million for seven years, the Blackhawks have to feel good about the possibility of having two very team-friendly deals for years to come.

Sunday, Nazar and Knight continued to build on their promising starts to the 2025-26 season. Nazar scored the Blackhawks’ lone regulation goal and carried some of the two-way responsibility left behind by an injured Jason Dickinson, and Knight was again nearly unbeatable in net, stopping 38 of 39 shots. That, plus a Ryan Donato overtime game-winning goal, lifted the Blackhawks to a 2-1 victory over the Anaheim Ducks and Joel Quenneville, who made his first trip to the United Center since being reinstated by the NHL.

After holding the Ducks goalless through two periods despite being outshot 23-16, the Blackhawks emerged a different team in the third period. The Blackhawks got off on the right foot and began pushing hard the other way. Nazar factored into that, especially on the play leading up to his goal.

He had possession of the puck near the blue line, was checked by a Ducks player, fell to his knees and still kept the puck. He stood up and passed the puck to Donato to reenter the zone. Nazar skated back into the play, got the puck back from Donato and fed Wyatt Kaiser as he emerged into the play on the right flank. Kaiser’s shot hit the crossbar, and Nazar was in perfect position to knock the puck into the net from the left side.

“I don’t really remember the full play right now,” Nazar said. “I got to relax a little bit. Dono made a great play getting it at the blue line, taking a hit to make a play. Kaiser joined up on the rush, had a good shot. Really just stopping at the net for those greasy goals. We knew it was going to be a hard one to get and something that was going to be greasy right there. Just how it went.”

The goal was Nazar’s third of the season. Overall, he has three goals and four assists in seven games this season. You add up what Nazar did to end last season, which is why Davidson felt comfortable playing him despite playing just 53 NHL games, and Nazar has produced eight goals and eight assists in his last 15 NHL games.

The offense is what the Blackhawks expect out of Nazar. But Blackhawks coach Jeff Blashill also leaned on him Sunday to take more faceoffs and start more in the defensive zone with Dickinson out. Blashill has used Dickinson in an unusual way this season, with Dickinson starting just 11% of the time in the offensive zone, which is the fifth-lowest percentage in the league, and having him take most of the team’s defensive faceoffs. Nazar was given that role Sunday, getting a team-high nine defensive zone faceoff starts and taking a team-high 17 faceoffs, of which he won 10.

“That was decisions as the game went along,” Blashill said. “Frankie was doing well in the circle, especially, so then they ended up out there in a lot of those situations. Dickinson’s line’s been really good from a chance-for percentage. They’ve been really good line on a consistent basis, won momentum, things like that. So when he’s out, guys gotta step up.”

Nazar was happy to step in.

“It happened last year, Dicky’s injury, and he was out for a little bit, and I’m just doing my best to make up for the times he’s not out there, the times that we need him, and try to fill in that role,” Nazar said. “Really, I want to do anything I can to help the team to win. If that’s part, I’m going to do my best to do that.”

Dickinson’s absence could still be felt. There were times when the Ducks continually put pressure on the Blackhawks and had them stuck in their own zone. But that’s where Knight came in.

For the fifth time this season, Knight went beyond just giving the Blackhawks a chance. He put them in a position to win. For the season, he’s made 148 saves on 158 shots. With Sunday’s performance, he raised his save percentage to .937 for the season.

Though it’s always been believed Knight has had this type of potential going back to being a first-round pick in 2019, he had yet to show it completely as a No. 1 starter. Now he’s getting his chance, and now he seems ready for it.

“I think when Kyle made the trade for Spencer last year, he envisioned the opportunity that he’d have to be a No. 1 goalie in this league,” said Blashill, whose team improved to 3-2-2. “My background on Spencer, I felt he could be a No. 1 goalie in this league, and we’re giving him that opportunity.”

Knight’s consistency and stability are being felt throughout the Blackhawks.

“Every time he’s in net, you just know he’s going to be good, like something you can count on,” Nazar said. “He’s a brick house. He saves everything. It lets us feel more confident to play up ice. We still got to do a lot better job of helping him out and being there for him because he does a lot for us.”

For the record, Connor Bedard is never going to turn around and say, “Nah, I’m good,” when a coach smacks him on the back to send him over the boards.

“I’ll do whatever,” he said after playing a career-high 25 minutes, 1 second in Friday’s shootout loss to the Vancouver Canucks.

As Patrick Kane before him, Bedard wants as much ice time as he can get. That said, he and Blashill know 25:01 is overdoing it a bit, even in an overtime game.

“Connor played too much the other night,” Blashill said Sunday morning. “That’s on me. Specifically in the first. Sometimes you get in overtime games and that happens, but in the first, he had too many minutes. That’s on me to manage, and I need to do a better job of that when I am playing 11/7.”

That’s the trick about running 11 forwards and seven defensemen. It allows a coach to double-shift his best players, but it can get out of hand. Sunday against Anaheim, Bedard was down a bit at 24:37. And Blashill surely was tempted to lean on him even harder, given how many chances he was creating early on. He delivered a sweet no-look backhand pass to André Burakovsky in the first period, hit the post shortly after that and finished with nine shots on goal.

But somewhere in the 20- to 21-minute neighborhood is likely the sweet spot for Bedard.

“He’s going to see where I’m playing my best, what number,” Bedard said. “But I’m good to go however many (minutes), or whatever the game calls for.”

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