If you’re like me, you’ve been reading Sean McIndoe for years. His rankings pieces at The Athletic are always entertaining and on point. The latest edition that dropped on Monday touches on a lot of different topics, including the usual top five Stanley Cup contenders and, this season, the “top five” contenders to land Gavin McKenna (the No. 1 pick in the 2026 NHL Draft).
The only bad news in his rankings are that four of the five teams in contention for McKenna are in the Western Conference, and two — Nashville and St. Louis — are in the Blackhawks’ division. Buffalo, San Jose and Calgary round out that “top” five, with Calgary being solidly at the bottom of the league.
The Blackhawks did not appear in the bottom five. It’s been… a long time since the Blackhawks weren’t getting dragged thru the mud in the Down Goes Brown rankings. Here’s some of what McIndoe wrote about the Blackhawks emerging from the bottom five — including a note a how long it’s been since they weren’t in that group.
Specifically, it’s time to set the Blackhawks free from their spot in the bottom five. They’ve been here a while – we’ll get to that – and didn’t exactly come into the season with sky-high expectations. And to be clear, they’re not exactly anybody’s idea of a Cup favorite right now. But that’s OK, because the process of reemerging as a contender has to start somewhere. And in Chicago, it sure looks like it’s starting right now.
The big story over the weekend was Connor Bedard, who was briefly the league’s leading scorer before being passed by fellow top pick Macklin Celebrini. Seeing those two names on top of the list is great news for the NHL (and maybe also Team Canada), raising the possibility that we could be seeing a true changing-of-the-guard type of season that we haven’t really had since the start of the cap era. …
And yes, they deserve a week off from the list of shame. How long has it been? The last time the Hawks weren’t in the bottom five was almost three full years ago, in November 2022. That’s a streak of 68 straight rankings with the Hawks somewhere in the bottom.
New post: In the latest weekend rankings…– A big shakeup in the Bottom 5.– The Rangers are good. And also terrible.– The first month was honestly pretty great.… and lots more. t.co/Xla1wCyAx5
— Down Goes Brown (@DownGoesBrown) November 10, 2025 The Blackhawks will practice in Chicago for the first time since their morning skate on Oct. 28 later this morning. I will be interested to see if Frank Nazar and Jason Dickinson are with the team on the ice. Nazar took the pregame warm-ups in Detroit but did not play; I’m assuming he’ll be on the ice. Dickinson was placed on injured reserve eight days ago (retroactive to Oct. 30).NHL Leaders — Primary Assists (thru 11/9)1. Connor Bedard – 132. William Nylander -122. Evgeni Malkin – 12 4. Five tied with 10 #Blackhawks pic.twitter.com/MUI96FZTzW
— Bleacher Nation Blackhawks (@BN_Blackhawks) November 10, 2025 Also at The Athletic, Harman Dayal looked at teams that will shed bad contracts this coming summer and have an intriguing amount of cap space with which to play. Right at the top of the list is the Blackhawks, who will have roughly $27.5M to spend to get to the estimated floor — not the ceiling — for next season. As he points out, that number will obviously change when Bedard signs his extension. But the Blackhawks progress already this season makes them an even more fascinating team to consider. Here’s part of what Dayal wrote about the Blackhawks:Chicago only has five players over the age of 25 under contract for next year, so adding established veterans will be important. It would make sense to re-sign a quality pending UFA such as Ilya Mikheyev, who has quietly been one of the club’s best two-way wingers. …
Chicago was cautious and conservative in deploying its cap space last summer, but next offseason could be different. The Blackhawks are showing legitimate progress this season, and internally, GM Kyle Davidson may want to push for the team to contend for a playoff spot.
It will be interesting to see if they dip into their treasure chest of draft picks and prospects to acquire win-now help next summer, similar to what the Montreal Canadiens did with the Noah Dobson trade. Or perhaps they could take a similar approach to the Anaheim Ducks last summer, where they preserved their assets but bought low on veterans such as Chris Kreider and Jacob Trouba, while also dipping into the free-agent market to land Mikael Granlund.
#cawlidgehawkey Freshman points leaders:1. Gavin McKenna, Penn St – 142. Justin Poirier, Maine – 143. Václav Nestrašil, UMass – 13#Blackhawks
— Bleacher Nation Blackhawks (@BN_Blackhawks) November 10, 2025 Weekly honors were coming thru for the Blackhawks as an organization on Monday. Bedard was named the NHL’s No. 2 Star of the Week. A couple tweets from Pierre LeBrun regarding Olympic roster construction. LeBrun and Chris Johnston wrote about the decisions Canada has to make yesterday; I shared their comments about Bedard. After picking up four assists (three primary) over the weekend, Blackhawks prospect Sacha Boisvert was named the Hockey East co-Player of the Week on Monday.It was the Sacha show this past weekend.Congrats to Sacha Boisvert on being named the @hockey_east Player of the Week!? t.co/tpxXQz1MBR pic.twitter.com/u5za6DiTOw
— BU Men's Hockey (@TerrierHockey) November 10, 2025 The Buffalo Sabres announced forward Jiri Kulich will miss “significant time” due to a blood clot. The Sabres host the Blackhawks on Friday, Nov. 21. The NHL announced the league has opened a European-based office in Zurich, Switzerland. Marc Bergevin was named the GM of Canada’s National Men’s Team for the 2025 Spengler Cup.BLEACHER NATION: Go Ad Free | Subscribe to the BN Newsletter
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