The Hawks are up north this evening for a Central Division matchup against the Minnesota Wild.

Minnesota’s been one of the league’s biggest surprises through the first half-ish of the season, sitting fifth in the league standings with 68 points in 53 games (29-14-10). The Wild surged in late 2025 with seven-game winning streaks in both November and December that would’ve sent them to the top of the division were it not for the absurd pace being maintained by the league-leading Avalanche. This team also generated massive news off the ice a few weeks before Christmas when it acquired Quinn Hughes, one of the most electric blue-liners in the game who boasts a skill set that’s allowed him to abolish ice time at a rate of over 28 minutes per night since arriving just south of the border. He’s at 25 points (2 G, 23 A) in 21 games with the Wild this season and will almost certainly be an issue when on the ice against Chicago.

Up front, Kirill Kaprizov is the team’s primary offensive weapon after getting a record-setting $136 million contract in September that won’t kick in until the fall, posting 64 points (28 G, 36 A) in 53 games. Blossoming young forward Matt Boldy is tied with Kaprizov for the team lead in goals while adding 25 assists to clock in just over a point-per-game in the 48 he’s played, while additional offense comes from Marcus Johansson (34 points in 48 games) and Joel Eriksson Ek (33 in 47). A few veterans who might’ve been more terrifying with the puck were this 2016 and 2026 are here as well and still producing at modest rates in Mats Zuccarello (30 points in 33 games) and Vladimir Tarasenko (28 in 46). There’s enough offense here to cause problems for the Hawks, although whether it can keep up with the Avalanche during that inevitable playoff clash in the postseason — should Minnesota get there — remains a much more difficult question to answer.

Elsewhere on the blue line, Brock Faber continues to look the part of a long-term fixture in Minnesota with 32 points (11 G, 21 A) in 53 games, and his contributions will be more vital in weeks ahead with Jonas Brodin sidelined for the next 6-8 weeks with a lower-body injury suffered two weeks ago. Perhaps the biggest defensive story is in net for the Wild, though, where both Filip Gustavsson (17-9-6 record, .907 save percentage, 2.62 goals-against average) and Jesper Wallstedt (12-5-4, .912, 2.70) have been consistently good all season long.

Minnesota has come back to earth a bit in 2026 with a record of just 5-4-3 this month, but this team still has enough depth at all levels of the ice to make this game a hearty challenge for Chicago. Below is Minnesota’s lineup from its most recent game: a 4-3 loss to the Florida Panthers on Saturday.

Wild lines
per @dylanloucks.bsky.social

Kaprizov-Hartman-Zuccarello
Johansson-Eriksson Ek-Boldy
Foligno-Yurov-Tarasenko
Trenin-Sturm-Hinostroza

Hughes-Faber
Middleton-Spurgeon
Hunt-Jiricek

Gustavsson

— lineslineslines.bsky.social (@lineslineslines.bsky.social) January 24, 2026 at 7:40 PM

As for the Hawks, Monday’s practice saw a healthy Teuvo Teravainen for the first time in a few weeks, and the veteran’s imminent return meant that Nick Lardis was sent back to the IceHogs on Monday. While it may be a touch annoying to see Lardis sent back to Rockford when he certainly looked the part of an NHLer during his time in Chicago, this move ensures he’ll have ample ice time during the upcoming Olympic freeze. If he remains there for too long on the other side of that break, though, it’ll be fair to raise some eyebrows in the direction of the team’s handling of its young talent, something it still hasn’t proven it does consistently well.

Teuvo was skating on a top line with Nazar and Bedard, which concentrates the team’s scoring talent into a single trio that’ll need to abolish ice time as best it can because the offensive production from the other three lines will likely be minimal at best. Below is the full lineup from Monday’s practice, which is expected to be the one that takes the ice on this Tuesday night:

#Blackhawks practice lineup:
Nazar-Bedard-Teravainen
Bertuzzi-Dickinson-Mikheyev
Greene-Moore-Burakovsky
Donato-Foligno-Slaggert

Fifthi line: Dach-Lafferty-Lardis

Vlasic-Crevier
Kaiser-Levshunov
Grzelcyk-Murphy

Knight
Soderblom

— Charlie Roumeliotis (@CRoumeliotis) January 26, 2026

Let’s go Hawks.

Tale of the Tape

Blackhawks — Statistic — Wild
46.91% (28th) — 5-on-5 Corsi For — 47.26% (26th)
44.39% (30th) — 5-on-5 Expected goals for — 49.88% (17th)
2.65 (26th) — Goals per game — 3.17 (15th)
3.08 (18th) — Goals against per game — 2.85 (9th)
47.1% (t-28th) — Faceoffs — 46.5% (31st)
20.5% (16th) — Power play — 24.2% (7th)
85.5% (1st) — Penalty kill — 76.3% (27th)
(All stats from this season)

How to watch

When: 7 p.m. CT
Where: Grand Casino Arena, St. Paul
TV: CHSN
Webstream: ESPN+
Radio: WGN 720