On Monday, The Athletic released their annual fan survey gauging confidence in each team’s front office. I’ll be very interested to see how the perception of the Blackhawks’ front office has changed from one year to the next. Last year, the Blackhawks moved up from 15th in 2023 to 12th in the league in 2024. Here’s the Blackhawks’ 2024 report card:
When we look back 12 months, more fans — and media — were understanding of and relatively high on the Blackhawks’ additions in free agency. I noted previously that the year vs. year grades given by The Athletic for how efficiently the Blackhawks are spending money (on non-ELCs) slid the wrong direction this summer compared to 2024. A big part of that was feeling good about deals for players like Tyler Bertuzzi, who was productive but incredibly streaky.
I would imagine the marks for Free Agency will go down after the Blackhawks did very little this summer. We’ve already discussed the number of reasons why this was a quiet summer. And the returns from last summer’s influx didn’t help the team improve in the standings as much as anyone wanted.
The areas I’m specifically interested to see how both the Chicago-specific fan base and the league at large change in 2025 are the Draft and Develop and Vision categories. I know there are some in this space that feel I can be too positive. The returns are still very early on how well this front office has drafted, but it’s hard to argue with what we’ve seen from guys like Sam Rinzel and Frank Nazar thus far.
By the way, we’re now within two months of regular season games at the United Center and in Rockford.https://twitter.com/NHLBlackhawks/status/1954935848626982925 The Hlinka Gretzky Cup got started on Monday. Lots of names to write down, circle, commit to memory and start considering for the 2027 NHL Draft (and beyond) in this tournament. Good comments here from Steven Ellis for Daily Faceoff on the first day of action. If you’re looking for potential deals that could be used as a benchmark for Wyatt Kaiser‘s next contract, the Seattle Kraken may have provided one on Monday. The Kraken announced they have signed defenseman Ryker Evans to a two-year that has a $2.05M AAV. Evans, 23, was originally a second-round pick by Seattle in 2021. He has appeared in 109 career NHL regular-season games. Kaiser, 23, was originally a third-round pick by the Blackhawks in 2020. He has appeared in 98 career NHL regular-season games. https://twitter.com/seattlekraken/status/1955027973142155367?s=51&t=ESwYjOKcGL_TWWx-NV4tsw The Minnesota Wild announced they have signed 38-year-old defenseman (and Blackhawks legend) Jack Johnson to a professional tryout (PTO). Big news north of the border on Monday for the Ottawa Senators. Let’s see if they can get their new barn built before the Bears make the move to Arlington Heights…
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