Photo Credits: Jenn G. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.

Authored By: Adrian Rosati

It has been quite the offseason for Kyle Davidson and company as they look to address some of the Blackhawks’ long-term issues and position themselves for a quick transition toward becoming a competitive team in the near future.

The biggest news was re-signing Connor Bedard to a five-year, $15 million AAV contract. Bedard was coming off a season in which he averaged 1.09 points per game. Had he been fully healthy, that pace would have equated to 89 points over a full season. However, he missed pockets of the year with a shoulder injury.

Unfortunately for Chicago, Bedard re-aggravated that same shoulder on July 2, 2026, after falling on it during a freak accident at practice. The injury required surgery, and he is expected to be out until November. That certainly weighs on Chicago’s potential to take a step forward this season.

Here are the key additions and subtractions from the offseason:

Additions

• D Bowen Byram — Acquired via trade from Buffalo
• F Jordan Greenway — Acquired via trade from Buffalo
• F Patrick Kane — Signed as a UFA
• D Ian Cole — Signed as a UFA

Subtractions

• F Ilya Mikheyev — Left as a UFA
• F Sam Lafferty — Left as a UFA
• D Matt Grzelcyk — Left as a UFA
• F Andre Burakovsky — Left as a UFA

Offseason Evaluation

There was some good and some bad about the Blackhawks’ offseason overall. Let’s start with the positive.

The Bowen Byram acquisition was a good move in terms of adding a player with experience who can help run the show on the back end. There are legitimate questions from critics, however, as Byram has never had a role quite like this before and may not be able to fill those shoes.

Trading the fourth overall pick and prospects was also a significant risk. However, Chicago has spent years building up its prospect pool. They’ve planted the magic beans, and now it’s time to start adding some proven commodities.

Do I think they overpaid? A little bit. Could it equally work out because of the quality of player Byram is? Absolutely.

The core of the Blackhawks’ back end is extremely young. Sam Rinzel is just 22 years old and is expected to play a full season, the first of his career. Learning from Byram’s mentorship could be huge for his development into a potential top-pairing right-shot defenseman.

Alex Vlasic and Wyatt Kaiser, who are both 25 or younger, could also benefit from Byram’s presence. If everything goes according to plan, Chicago could be developing a pretty solid defensive core by the time this team is ready to compete.

Heading to the not-so-good, Chicago signed an aging Ian Cole. I’m not sure what he brings at 37 years old and on the declining end of his career.

The other issue is losing forward depth and replacing it with Jordan Greenway and Patrick Kane.

Greenway has struggled to stay healthy, and even in a fourth-line role, if he isn’t healthy, his impact on the game is less than what Chicago was getting from Mikheyev and Lafferty. Sure, that production was limited as well, but I feel like the Blackhawks could have found better depth options.

Then there is the Kane signing. It’s not necessarily the player himself that I have an issue with; it’s the contract.

It’s great to have one last hurrah with a player who probably should have been a lifetime Blackhawk, but $8 million AAV is way too much, even in a rising salary-cap environment. If Kane were in the $4.5-$6 million range, I could get behind it. That extra $2 million, though, puts pressure on the depth Kyle Davidson can add to the team for what could ultimately be around 65 points.

Kane should be able to help Bedard continue to rack up points once Bedard returns, but I feel like Chicago could have negotiated a much better deal.

The First 10 Games

Chicago opens its season on opening night, September 29, in Vegas against the Golden Knights, with a 10:30 p.m. ET puck drop.

That’s going to be a tough one to win.

Walking into the building of a Stanley Cup finalist that came oh-so-close to getting the job done is asking for trouble if you expect to win. Especially when you didn’t do much around the edges to improve what was already a team that was way off the mark.

There are three potential pockets of wins in the first 10 games.

The first is Game 4 against a bitter rival, the St. Louis Blues. The Blues have made some improvements, but they’re still stuck in that mushy middle between buying and selling, making them a good opportunity for Chicago to capitalize.

The other pocket comes in Games 7 and 8, when Chicago hosts the Penguins and Jets, respectively.

The Penguins are aging, while the Blackhawks are young and could potentially win a track meet against them. The Jets were simply awful last year, and if they move Connor Hellebuyck before the season starts, they could be even worse.

Besides those three games, it’s going to be an uphill battle.

The Mammoth have been aggressive this offseason and won’t be an easy matchup for most teams in the middle or at the bottom of the standings, which is where Chicago likely lands again this year.

Then you have the Sabres, who are coming off a second-round appearance. There is a gap in talent between these two teams, even with Buffalo losing Alex Tuch this offseason.

The Islanders, Hurricanes, Stars and Canadiens round out the first 10 games. All are teams that were either in the playoff hunt toward the end of last season or sit toward the top end of the league.

There’s no way the Blackhawks win any of those latter games without a little bit of luck on their side, even with all of them being home games.

I’m predicting a 2-8 start, with 4-6 being the high-end scenario. It’s likely to be another rough start, especially without Bedard.

Final Prediction

The Blackhawks will finish 8th in the Central Division again this year, in my opinion.

Sure, the Jets could finish below them, but I only see that happening if Hellebuyck gets traded. Until that happens, I don’t see Chicago gaining much ground.

Part of that is because the Central Division is absolutely stacked, and none of the top-end teams made any seismic moves that would open up a potential spot for the taking.

The other part is the lack of additions to the depth group to replace the scoring they lost with legitimate secondary options.

It’s time for Chicago to go back to the drawing board and hope the lottery balls fall in their favor.