The Blackhawks started their 2025 training camp with two physical practices. They weren’t “ease back into hockey” skates — they were intentionally hard. Because new head coach Jeff Blashill is working to establish his culture in the organization. Blashill doing things the right way and getting the bar set high with such a young group of players is critical for the team to take a step in the right direction this year.
I don’t want anyone writing these things down in Sharpie quite yet because it was Day One of training camp, but we got an early look at some potential lines on the ice on Thursday. Here’s how the first group skated:#Blackhawks Team 1 lineup:Donato-Bedard-BurakovskySlaggert-Dickinson-MikheyevMoore-Greene-ReichelVanacker-Ludwinski-BehmSavoie-SeneyDel Mastro-RinzelVlasic-MurphyKuzmin-HardingFitzgerald-MastKnightCommesso
— Charlie Roumeliotis (@CRoumeliotis) September 18, 2025 On that top line, Blashill said: “[Burakovsky is] really good at bringing pucks up through the neutral zone. I think he can play off Connor. There’s a give-and-go component to his game, so it could be a good match there. Donato is a good scorer.“ I’m on board with a line of Landon Slaggert, Jason Dickinson and Ilya Mikheyev. Lots of speed there, and they’ll be a pain in the ass to play against. Here’s how the second practice looked:#Blackhawks Team 2 lineup:Teravainen-Nazar-BertuzziDach-Foligno-LaffertyThompson-Toninato-LardisCates-Hayes-AndersonMisiak-HolmesKaiser-LevshunovGrzelcyk-CrevierKorchinski-AllanCumby-PerrottSöderblomBerezhnoy
— Charlie Roumeliotis (@CRoumeliotis) September 18, 2025 The biggest area of competition in camp is on the blue line, where a young group is going to fight over roster spots through camp and likely during the regular season. Here’s what Blashill had to say about what he’s seen from that group thus far:“It’ll definitely be the youngest D core that I’ve been a part of in the NHL, but it’s a very talented group. Talented in a way that I think translates to success. They’re extremely big, extremely long, extremely good skating. They’re not like a bunch of guys who just beat people 1-on-1. They’re efficient in their games.”
It’s noteworthy that the Blackhawks had Ethan Del Mastro skating with Sam Rinzel and Alex Vlasic with Connor Murphy on Thursday. The “automatic” of Vlasic-Rinzel not being Day One was interesting. I’m also fascinated to see Kevin Korchinski with Nolan Allan (Rockford’s top pair to start the season?) while one pair we thought we would see, Wyatt Kaiser with Artyom Levshunov, was on the ice. For those who are wondering about Connor Bedard after seeing all of the clips of his workouts on social media this summer, he looked quick with his feet and releasing the puck. Here’s a nice clip of one of his highlight goals from the practice on Thursday:Connor Bedard with a Connor Bedard-like goal pic.twitter.com/5hUjru87J3
— Scott Powers (@ByScottPowers) September 18, 2025 Corey Pronman at The Athletic dropped his first 2026 NHL Draft rankings this week. Gavin McKenna is No. 1 because of course. He only ranked 18 players (with some honorable mentions) but put them into tiers, which has been the trend from The Athletic recently. Good read. Since we’re on the subject of the draft and current Penn State forward Gavin McKenna, I asked Blackhawks general manager Kyle Davidson about how the organization views college vs. juniors from a development perspective. He gave a fairly lengthy answer. Here it is:“There are certainly differences and advantages to each one,” Davidson said Thursday. “There’s a bit of a heavier playing schedule and more games in Junior. There’s more practice time and off ice workout opportunities perhaps in college. And [in college] they’re playing against older, stronger players, which there’s a uniqueness to playing against guys that are closer to being men.
But we don’t prefer one or the other. Every case is situational. And, a lot of times … we take the lead of the player. Where do you think your development is best served? … we want them to have skin in the game. It’s their career, it’s their development. And a lot of times there isn’t a clear best path. So, if they feel college is the best for them, we support that. If they feel that Junior is the best for them, we support that. We don’t push one way or the other. There are benefits to both.”
The Blackhawks were able to get a deal done with Kaiser, but it looks like the Ducks and forward Mason McTavish aren’t close to getting something done. McTavish is reportedly skating in Ottawa. Something to keep an eye on for sure.With training camp on-ice sessions beginning today, Mason McTavish is skating with the OHL’s Ottawa 67sThe contract stalemate continues in Anaheim. It’s believed the Ducks prefer not to do a bridge, but no common ground yet
— Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) September 18, 2025 Matthew Tkachuk isn’t skating yet, but apparently we’ll see if he knows anything about the gridiron this weekend when he’s the celebrity guest picker on College GameDay.Back-to-back Stanley Cup champ turned guest picker ?Can't wait to have Matthew Tkachuk join us in Miami this Saturday ? pic.twitter.com/AXyTxBLE1j
— College GameDay (@CollegeGameDay) September 18, 2025 The Penguins aren’t going to be very good this year, and they started their training camp with an unfortunate piece of news: forward Rutger McGroarty is out indefinitely with an upper-body injury. Finally, yesterday was a tough day for the sports landscape in Los Angeles. In the matter of a few hours, both Clayton Kershaw and Anze Kopitar announced they will retire at the end of their respective seasons. Kershaw’s season will end at some point between now and the end of the first month of the NHL’s regular season. Kopitar will take a victory lap — and he deserves his flowers. He’s been one of the best, more under-appreciated centers in the game for a long time. Much respect.BLEACHER NATION: Go Ad Free | Subscribe to the BN Newsletter
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