When considering the Blackhawks’ bottom six for the coming season, the mindset of especially the fourth line is more of a defensive posture. In doing some digging on other things, I found myself studying how the Blackhawks’ coaches deployed the forwards last season — and what it might mean in the coming year.
Looking at which Blackhawks forwards had the highest percentage of their starts come “on the fly” last year was interesting. According to MoneyPuck, the Hawks’ leader was Landon Slaggert at 64.8 percent, followed by Oliver Moore (62.3), Ryan Donato (62) and Nick Lardis (61.3). There’s a decent correlation between that and the Blackhawks who started the highest percentage of shifts in the defensive zone; Donato (11 percent) ranked fifth, Slaggert (9.8 percent) ranked seventh and Moore (9.2 percent) ranked eighth. And that’s with the departed Ilya Mikheyev first (20.3 percent).
Slaggert has shown that he’s a very capable penalty killer and is a good skater (his top speed was 22.66, which ranked in the 72nd percentile). The combination of Slaggert, Jordan Greenway and Cole Smith will be important for the Blackhawks’ penalty kill out of the gate this season. I’m not sure all of three of them are in the lineup every night, however. Smith appeared in 63 games last year. Slaggert appeared in 53. And Greenway skated in only 40.
The Blackhawks have a crowded forward group heading into the new season, but head coach Jeff Blashill has shown confidence in Slaggert. We’ll see how/where he works his way into the rotation as a defensive forward this coming season.
We’ve talked a fair amount about how the Blackhawks might configure their forward lines to start the new season with Connor Bedard out of the lineup. And a lot of interest has been given to the center spot, where the Blackhawks seemingly have too many guys for four spots before Bedard returns. When we learned Bedard was hurt back in early July, my initial projection of a lineup had Roman Kantserov at center because he excelled playing down the middle in the KHL last season. And I mentioned Kantserov as an option at center again a couple weeks ago in a more recent discussion about what to to do with the Blackhawks’ top six until 98 returns. In yesterday’s new episode of the Powers and Laz podcast, Scott Powers mentioned he believes Kantserov will start the season at center.“I think [Kantserov] is going to start as the No. 1 center from the little whispers I’ve heard. I think he’s going to play with [Patrick] Kane to start the season. It’s not definitive, but there’s a good chance he plays center.”
One of the key elements to keep in mind is Kantserov (and Anton Frondell for that matter) being left-handed shots while Bedard and Frank Nazar are both right-handed. I know there will be fans who think Frondell — with 12 games of NHL experience — is better suited for top-line center duties. I wouldn’t disagree with that. However, I think the Blackhawks coaches are going to experiment with a few lines to see if they can get some chemistry developed before Bedard comes back. If Kantserov and Kane click, you might see Bedard join them when he’s ready to join game action.NEW POWERS & LAZ: @MarkLazerus and I discuss what to expect from the Blackhawks' youth this season.Listen here ⤵️ t.co/TaZowufwYZ
— Scott Powers (@ByScottPowers) September 1, 2026 A fascinating trade went down on Tuesday night. The Nashville Predators traded forward forward Luke Evangelista to the New Jersey Devils for a conditional first-round pick and a second-round pick in the 2028 NHL Draft. A lot of people really like Evangelista, who won’t turn 25 until late-February. That made him one of the rare players on the Predators’ bench who hadn’t turned 30 yet. The Devils paid a healthy price to get him, but I love this deal for New Jersey. Evangelista is in the final year of a contract with a $3M cap hit and will be an RFA next summer. I’m happy to see Evangelista out of the Central Division.Luke Evangelista, acquired by NJ, is a young second line playmaking winger coming off a break-out season. Not a toolsy player but a very smart one who connects clever passes and reads the play quickly. A hard worker too. Lots of upside here for the Devils. pic.twitter.com/NtlrlKLiFG
— JFresh (@JFreshHockey) September 2, 2026 The Rockford IceHogs dropped their promo schedule on Tuesday. A couple that grabbed my attention were Saturday, Nov. 7 for the Hammy Sugar Skull Bobbleheads and Saturday, Feb. 13 for IceHogs Heritage Night/Ring of Honor Induction night. The IceHogs will wear their new White Out Screw City jerseys for six games, with the first coming on Saturday, Oct. 3. IceHogs single-game tickets go on sale Tuesday, Sept. 8 at 10 AM CT.No joke, our promo schedule is here!! ? t.co/MUnaRUYkW1?: Bruce Quast pic.twitter.com/QiXmb7FMsA
— Rockford IceHogs (@goicehogs) September 1, 2026 The Ducks announced they will be taking Ryan Getzlaf’s number out of circulation. His No. 15 will officially be retired by on Jan. 30 when Anaheim hosts the Nashville Predators.A call that Getz will remember for the rest of his life ? pic.twitter.com/VwOCXTmQQv
— Anaheim Ducks (@AnaheimDucks) September 1, 2026 Staying in southern California, my good friend Dennis Bernstein at The Fourth Period wrote about new LA Kings head coach Peter Laviolette moving star forward Adrian Kempe to center in the coming season. In the wake of Anže Kopitar retiring, the Kings have a hole to fill down the middle. As Bernstein wrote, moving Kempe could solve one problem but potentially create another.Moving Kempe to center could solve the Kings’ most obvious roster problem following Anze Kopitar’s retirement. It could give Los Angeles two legitimate top-six centers in Kempe and Quinton Byfield, allow Laviolette to distribute his scoring talent across two lines and prevent General Manager Ken Holland from overpaying for a center who may not be substantially better than the internal alternatives.
But the Kings would also be moving their most reliable goal-scorer away from the position where he became an elite player.
Finally, the Chicago Steel introduced their new look as they move into the Blackhawks Ice Center this year. I like it.A closer ? at the details of our new red and white threads#ChicagoHockey #USHL pic.twitter.com/yyodL8xIa4
— Chicago Steel (@ChicagoSteel) September 1, 2026BLEACHER NATION: Go Ad Free | Subscribe to the BN Newsletter
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