Switching the boxing gloves for hockey gloves, he got into plenty of scuffles during his two college seasons at North Dakota and Boston University. His 2025-26 season with the Terriers ended in a familiar spot: the penalty box.<\/p>\n
Now, after a slightly delayed immigration process, he has arrived in the NHL. Fighting isn\u2019t his focus for his first time around \u2014 but don\u2019t expect to wait too long for an opponent to feel a Boisvert right hook.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m just excited to get out there first and see what happens,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The 20-year-old center, who signed a three-year entry-level contract<\/a> March 16, is scheduled to make his NHL debut for the Chicago Blackhawks on Thursday night against the Philadelphia Flyers. It comes two days after 2025 No. 3 pick Anton Frondell played in his first game<\/a> for the Hawks.<\/p>\n \u201cI feel good, obviously a little nervous, but it\u2019s normal for my first game,\u201d Boisvert said at the morning skate Thursday. \u201cHopefully (we) get a team win tonight and just see what it\u2019s all about to be out there with those guys.\u201d<\/p>\n His visa was finalized Tuesday before the Hawks\u2019 4-3 win against the New York Islanders, but the team\u2019s lines and game plan already were set. Boisvert has had a little more than a week to observe practices, which he sees as a benefit.<\/p>\n \u201cIt knocked off some nerves a little bit, just to get to know the guys, talk to them and ask a lot of questions,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m more ready than I would\u2019ve been if I played right away.\u201d<\/p>\n The Hawks selected him with the No. 18 pick in the 2024 draft \u2014 the same year they picked Artyom Levshunov at No. 2 \u2014 after Boisvert totaled 113 points (53 goals, 60 assists) in 118 regular-season games for the USHL\u2019s Muskegon Lumberjacks.<\/p>\n He then opted to play college hockey, finishing the 2024-25 season at North Dakota with 32 points (18 goals, 14 assists) in 37 games.\u00a0He transferred to BU amid a coaching change at North Dakota and had just eight points after Nov. 15 during a season of inconsistency and injury.<\/p>\n He was a healthy scratch for the Terriers\u2019 Hockey East Tournament opener, reportedly because he was late for a team workout, raising concerns about his off-ice discipline. The NHL presents both a new step for Boisvert as well as an opportunity to get back on the right foot.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s some things I want to improve,\u201d he said. \u201cEvery year you just want to get better in general. Lot of stuff I want to work on, but right now it\u2019s all about soaking it all in and being in the experience as much as I can.\u201d<\/p>\n Thursday\u2019s game will be another chance for a Hawks rookie to help spoil an Eastern Conference team\u2019s playoff prospects. Frondell\u2019s assist to Ilya Mikheyev on Tuesday helped the Hawks drop the Islanders out of the second wild-card spot.<\/p>\n The Flyers \u2014 who have only one more regulation win than the Hawks \u2014 sit five points behind the Ottawa Senators for the final wild-card spot.<\/p>\n Hawks coach Jeff Blashill is tasked with figuring out his newcomers\u2019 roles on the team. Frondell\u2019s placement on the top line with Connor Bedard and Ryan Greene proved worthy in his debut, and Blashill might have a good idea of what he wants out of Boisvert.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s a guy who I think can bring up physicality,\u201d Blashill said. \u201cHe can bring an edge to our team but with skill \u2014 he\u2019s not void of that.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s got good hands, a really good shot, so he can be a power forward with skill if that\u2019s what he becomes. He\u2019s a commodity on our team, within our young prospects, and a commodity in the league.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHILADELPHIA \u2014 One thing is certain about Sacha Boisvert: He\u2019s not backing out of a fight. His father,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":524459,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5115],"tags":[683,521,1689,37,96,5263,5,3140,4,56,856,60717],"class_list":["post-524458","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-chicago-blackhawks","tag-anton-frondell","tag-blackhawks","tag-boston-university","tag-chicago","tag-chicago-blackhawks","tag-chicagoblackhawks","tag-hockey","tag-jeff-blashill","tag-nhl","tag-philadelphia-flyers","tag-sacha-boisvert","tag-sacha-boisvert-debut"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/524458","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=524458"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/524458\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/524459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=524458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=524458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=524458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"North](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/CTC-L-BLACKHAWKS2.jpg\")
North Dakota’s Sacha Boisvert (9) and Denver’s Garrett Brown (5) battle for possession of the puck Feb. 14, 2025, in Denver. (Rebecca Slezak\/Special to The Denver Post)<\/p>\n