There’s a lot of talk about fans wanting to see more Blackhawks from the Blackhawks. They’ve finished near the top of the NHL Draft Lottery in each of the past four years, which was by design for three years. General manager Kyle Davidson’s vision was to rebuild the Blackhawks thru the draft, and he successfully stockpiled high picks and built a stocked pipeline from the ground up during his first four years in the seat.
The Blackhawks improving by 19 points in the standings over the past two years hasn’t seen them climb the standings enough. That’s a simple fact for most fans.
But we need to layer some context over the past three seasons to truly evaluate what “progress” means in the Blackhawks’ current situation.
When Connor Bedard made his NHL debut to open the 2023-24 season, he joined a lineup that was still in the middle stages of a tear-down. The Blackhawks were still adding pieces to their lineup based on potential trade value at the deadline as much as they were targeting difference makers.
Over the first two years of Bedard’s career, the Blackhawks primarily added players on short-term contracts with future trades in mind. That limited commitment focus, and the team’s relatively low level of competitiveness, limited their options on the free agent market. Some of the placeholders they’ve acquired have worked better than others. Some — Jason Dickinson, Ilya Mikheyev, Nick Foligno — have performed well in their roles. Others have been undeniable debacles.
That’s the roll of the dice a team takes when limiting their willingness to either sign players to more significant deals or trade valuable assets.
The context I’d like to explore today is the lineups the Blackhawks have put on the ice to start and end each of Bedard’s three NHL seasons. How have the forward lines evolved over those three full seasons, from the start to the finish. And where can we find progress in the rebuild from looking at the lineups over those three seasons.
Connor Bedard skates before his NHL debut. © Getty Images2023-24 Blackhawks Forward Lines
Opening Night
Taylor Hall — Connor Bedard — Ryan Donato Tyler Johnson — Lukas Reichel — Taylor Raddysh Nick Foligno — Jason Dickinson — Corey Perry Boris Katchouk — Cole Guttman — Andreas Athanasiou
Season Finale
Nick Foligno — Connor Bedard — Philipp KurashevLukas Reichel — Andreas Athanasiou — Tyler JohnsonJason Dickinson — Frank Nazar — Joey AndersonLandon Slaggert — Ryan Donato — Taylor Raddysh
Blackhawks Record: 23-53-6 (52 points)Goals per Game: 2.17 (last)Shots per Game: 26.3 (31st)
It’s noteworthy that the only forwards on the Blackhawks’ payroll from opening night in 2023 and the season finale in 2026 are Bedard and Donato. The Blackhawks added Slaggert and Nazar near the end of the 2023-24 regular season after their final college seasons.
But look at the lines Bedard was on in those two games. And where the careers have gone for the skaters on the second lines. Johnson is retired. Reichel is an AHL player. Athanasiou doesn’t have a contract and Raddysh averaged under 12 minutes per night for the Rangers.
The end of this season was the beginning of the building process showing itself. The injection of Nazar was the second top-six caliber forward from Kyle Davidson’s draft classes to make his NHL debut. Most of those lineups were placeholders for the next generation(s) of prospects.
David Banks-Imagn Images2024-25 Blackhawks Forward Lines
Opening Night
Ilya Mikheyev — Connor Bedard — Teuvo TeräväinenTaylor Hall — Philipp Kurashev — Tyler Bertuzzi Nick Foligno — Jason Dickinson — Joey Anderson Craig Smith — Ryan Donato — Pat Maroon
Season Finale
Ryan Donato — Connor Bedard — Ilya MikheyevTeuvo Teräväinen — Frank Nazar — Tyler BertuzziOliver Moore — Ryan Greene — Nick FolignoLandon Slaggert — Joe Veleno — Lukas Reichel
Blackhawks Record: 25-46-11 (61 points)Goals per Game: 2.73 (26th)Shots per Game: 24.5 (last)
This was the season of change for the Blackhawks. Luke Richardson was fired on Dec. 5 and Anders Sörensen took over as the interim for the rest of the season. The Blackhawks got in the middle of the blockbuster Mikko Rantanen trade, sending Hall to Carolina. And the Blackhawks traded Seth Jones to Florida and added their No. 1 goalie (and a future first-round pick).
The forward lines at the beginning and the end give us completely different vibes. The Blackhawks brought in a bunch of old guys to, hopefully, play well in elevated roles and have some/any trade value. That didn’t happen, and the Hawks were the slowest team in the league to start the season. Maroon (and Alec Martinez) retired at the end of the season. Smith might not have retired, but his game told us he was done. Anderson has been in Rockford for most of the past two years and Veleno was waived by Seattle after a salary dump trade.
Once again, this season saw the Blackhawks bring more young talent into the NHL near the end of the season. Greene and Moore signed after their college seasons. The Hawks stole Mikheyev from Vancouver and he scored 20 goals. The only forwards who appeared in all 82 games were Bedard, Bertuzzi and Teräväinen; the Blackhawks signed Teräväinen and Bertuzzi as free agents before the season.
Kamil Krzaczynski-Imagn Images2025-26 Blackhawks Forward Lines
Opening Night
Ryan Donato — Connor Bedard — André BurakovskyTeuvo Teräväinen — Frank Nazar — Tyler BertuzziColton Dach — Jason Dickinson — Ilya MikheyevNick Foligno — Ryan Greene — Sam Lafferty
Season Finale
Frank Nazar — Connor Bedard — Nick Lardis Tyler Bertuzzi — Anton Frondell — Ilya Mikheyev Ryan Donato — Ryan Greene — André BurakovskyTeuvo Teräväinen — Sam Lafferty — Landon Slaggert
Blackhawks Record: 29-39-14 (72 points)Goals per Game: 2.56 (31st)Shots per Game: 24.6 (last)
Overlapping injuries to Bedard and Nazar derailed this past season in early December. But the progression of the lineup — and where the production came from — was noteworthy.
Jeff Blashill was hired as the permanent head coach before the 2025-26 season, and his lineup was slightly older on opening night. The lineup at the end of the season? Much, much different. Foligno and Dickinson (and Dach) were traded out to make way for the next wave of young players.
Blashill’s influence was most noticeable in Bertuzzi’s play; he had a career-year. Bedard also reached 30 goals for the first time in his NHL career.
Throughout the 2025-26 season, seven forwards drafted by Davidson appeared in an NHL game this past season for the Blackhawks.
While our focus is primarily on the opening and closing lineups, we can’t ignore that Oliver Moore also showed signs of being an every-night NHL player this season; he was out of the lineup hurt at the end of the year. He appeared in 51 games. We also got a brief look at Sacha Boisvert at the end of the year.
Greene was supposed to go to Rockford to start the year, but a sequence if injury/illness/injury for Slaggert opened the door for him — and Greene scored 12 goals appeared in 81 games. Lardis scored 10 goals in 41 games as well.
Frondell joining the team at the end of the regular season gave Blackhawks fans a look at one of the newer important pieces of the future.
No, the Burakovsky experiment didn’t work. And Teräväinen had the toughest season of his NHL career (especially after the Olympics — where he was the only Blackhawks skater). But, at the end of the day, the Blackhawks lost 14 fewer games in regulation than they did in Bedard’s rookie season with a lineup that was younger, faster and significantly more future-focused.
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