Monday was a surprisingly busy news day for the Chicago Blackhawks with an opening night announcement, prospect rankings, breakout candidates, and some offseason training highlights. Let’s get you caught up with our Tuesday Morning Chirps!

Blackhawks Chirps

The Blackhawks will open the regular season against the Florida Panthers on Oct. 7. This is the seventh straight season in which the Blackhawks have started on the road, and the third time in that span they’ve played the defending Stanley Cup Champions. Once again, the NHL is dropping the ball. They have their two-time reigning champs playing at 4 p.m. CT. The prime-time matchup on opening night is between the New York Rangers and Pittsburgh Penguins, two teams that missed the playoffs last season. How do you not promote the best team in your league in the time slot with the most eyeballs?

Our Blackhawks Prospects Rankings & Reviews covered players ranked 30-26 yesterday.

The Athletic’s Scott Wheeler put out his list of the top 100 NHL prospects. Before you break this list down, take all prospect rankings, including mine, with a grain of salt. Wheeler includes some players that I wouldn’t consider a prospect at this time, but to each their own. Without revealing all the details, he has five Blackhawks prospects in his top 100, with Artyom Levshunov ranked the highest. You might be surprised to learn who the second-highest-rated Blackhawks prospect is.

Roman Kantserov was not on Wheeler’s list, but his colleague, Scott Powers, caught up with the 2023 second-round draft pick. The young Russian forward is feeling healthy and wants to dominate every single time out.

Frank Nazar and Sam Rinzel were included in NHL.com’s top breakout candidates for the 2025-26 season.

Hey, look! Connor Bedard’s release is still ridiculous.

Blackhawks Birthday Roll Call, July 15: Ed Litzenberger, Gary Donaldson, and Steve Thomas.

NHL Chirps

In some late-night news on Monday, the Buffalo Sabres signed defenseman Bowen Byram to a two-year, $12.5 million contract. The 24-year-old defenseman is coming off a season that saw him set new career highs in assists (31), points (38), and average time on ice (22:42), playing on the top pair with Rasmus Dahlin.

The Carolina Hurricanes re-signed forward Skyler Brind’Amour to a one-year, two-way contract worth $775,000. The son of head coach Rod Brind’Amour scored 16 goals and 24 points in 68 AHL games with the Chicago Wolves last season.

Former Detroit Red Wings first-round draft pick Filip Zadina signed a two-year contract extension with HC Davos in Switzerland. There was some speculation in the spring that he’d attempt to return to North America, but he will be staying put. The 25-year-old had 21 goals and 34 points in 43 NL games last season.

The New York Islanders signed the first member of their 2025 draft class, as they inked forward Victor Eklund to his entry-level deal.

The Edmonton Oilers have made some changes to their coaching staff, including the addition of Peter Aubry as the goaltending coach. Aubry previously held the same role with the Rockford IceHogs from 2015 to 2023.

NHL Birthday Roll Call, July 15: Rick Kehoe, Chuck Arnason, Barry Melrose, Eric Lacroix, Jonathan Cheechoo, Tyler Kennedy, Zach Bogosian, and Anthony Cirelli.