The development of the Blackhawks’ top prospects has been the focus of the organization for the past three years. In an ideal world, a team doesn’t want to rush a young player into being forced to play more than they’re ready for in the NHL. And, ideally, a team can insulate young defensemen with experience and create situations where both learning and success can co-exist.
Unfortunately, the Blackhawks didn’t have the organizational depth to provide a sheltered NHL initiation to Kevin Korchinski a couple years ago. His rookie season, which had to be played exclusively in the NHL because he was only 19, was further complicated by injuries decimating the back end. Instead of spending a lot of ice time as a role player, Korchinski had to skate big minutes — and he did it mostly with a guy the Blackhawks claimed off waivers who wasn’t good enough to dress for a mediocre Kraken team (Jaycob Megna).
The 2025-26 version of the Blackhawks have a lot of differences from that 2023-24 squad. Now, the Blackhawks have a new coaching staff that’s attacking defensively in a style that uses the skating ability of that collection of defensemen as a weapon. They can do that because of the personnel they have available.
The Blackhawks also have a surplus of young defensemen who can skate and have NHL experience. If there were injuries now, the Blackhawks could call Rockford and bring up one Korchinski, Ethan Del Mastro or Nolan Allan and feel relatively comfortable with them as a replacement; waiver begging is no longer necessary.
New Blackhawks head coach Jeff Blashill has been primarily dressing seven defensemen this season, in part to create smarter situations in which he can use his younger defensemen — and put them in situations to succeed.
Talia Sprague-Imagn ImagesLimiting Levshunov
Artyom Levshunov averaged over 19 minutes per game in his 18 NHL appearances last year. Maybe that was more than the organization would have preferred, but he showed flashes of the ability that made him the second overall pick in the 2024 NHL Draft.
This year, Levshunov is averaging a little more than 15 minutes per night. There have been moments where he’s shown how raw his game still is, but others where that spark gets you excited for where his future might go. The trick is trying to shift the balance to where most of the time we see him on the ice is exciting.
Levshunov had an assist in three straight games before skating a season-high 19:09 against the Kraken on Monday night. His previous high for ice time this season was 17:01 — in the second game of the regular season in Boston.
In his postgame notes from Seattle, Mark Lazerus at The Athletic wrote about how the Blackhawks are sheltering Levshunov — and how that’s working.
Blashill is carefully sheltering Levshunov; a whopping 76.74 percent of his shifts have started in the offensive zone, the highest percentage on the team (and second among all NHL defensemen). Of his 135 faceoffs, only 25 have been in the defensive one. But that’s the appeal of the 11-forward, seven-defensemen lineup Blashill has been going with. Blashill can lean on Connor Murphy and Louis Crevier (both under 18 percent in offensive-zone starts) for more of the tougher shifts, while Levshunov and can start with an advantage and build his confidence. Monday night was his 30th NHL game, and he said it’s starting to “feel normal” being in the NHL.
Entering Wednesday’s game, Levshunov leads Blackhawks defensemen with a 54.23 Corsi For percentage at 5-on-5. He also boasts a 54.41 Shots For percentage (second on the team behind veteran Matt Grzelcyk), a 68.75 Goals For percentage (also second behind Grzelcyk) and a 57.13 expected Goals For percentage (again, second to Grzelcyk).
So far, the plan is working for Levshunov.
Kamil Krzaczynski-Imagn ImagesComplete Kaiser
One of the biggest reasons the Blackhawks have been able to skate seven defensemen and shelter both Levshunov and, to a lesser extent, Sam Rinzel is the emergence of Wyatt Kaiser as a reliable defenseman in any/every situation.
There are still moments where Kaiser reminds us that he’s only 23 years old and has appeared in 111 regular-season NHL games. But more and more we’re seeing a young defenseman come into his own and help his team compete in every zone.
Kaiser is averaging 19:30 per game to start this season, which is 83 seconds per game more than he averaged in his 57 NHL appearances last year. Kaiser’s 221:28 on ice at 5-on-5 leads all Blackhawks defensemen thru Monday night’s loss.
Entering Wednesday night’s game in Vancouver, Kaiser leads Blackhawks defensemen with seven takeaways. His skating has always been an asset, and he’s using it in Blashill’s systems well. Kaiser’s 9.69 expected Goals For is the highest 5-on-5 number among Blackhawks defensemen to date.
And Kaiser’s on-ice Goals percentage (57.1) is tied with, among others, Dougie Hamilton, Shea Theodore and former Norris Trophy winner Adam Fox for 24th in the league. On the Blackhawks, only Rinzel (57.7 percent — 23rd in the NHL) is higher among defensemen who have skated at least 221 minutes this season.
His multiple trips to and from Rockford to find his game and reset have worked, and he’s now a more confident NHL defenseman.
Daniel Bartel-Imagn ImagesMinimal Murphy
The flipside of the seven defensemen to shelter young guys is someone is getting short-changed. Thus far, it’s been Murphy, whose ice time has disappeared at times. Ben Pope at the Chicago Sun-Times wrote about Murphy’s role being relegated to primarily being a penalty kill specialist.
This portion of Pope’s comments about Murphy’s situation summarizes things nicely:
Murphy’s groin condition, osteitis pubis, has sidelined him for significant portions of each of the last two seasons, but he insists it’s not inhibiting him now, for which he’s thankful after hurting for much of the summer. However, his lack of quickness and agility at this age makes him an imperfect fit in coach Jeff Blashill’s aggressive systems, and he’s struggling as a result. The Hawks have been outscored 5-2 with an ugly 38.9% scoring-chance ratio during Murphy’s five-on-five ice time.
Pope quoted Blashill in the story, noting that the Blackhawks’ head coach had a conversation with the veteran leader about his ice time situation before he skated a season-low 8:30 in the loss in Seattle. Before the game in Seattle, Murphy’s lowest ice time of the season was 11:45 — in the first game of this road trip in Winnipeg.
While Murphy is the focus of this comment from Blashill, it speaks more to the larger blue line situation in the immediate and future.
“Connor has been a good player for us, and Connor is a leader for us,” Blashill said. “Some nights he’s going to play more than others. That’s the reality of where our situation is. Some nights, certain guys are playing really good hockey and they’ll get more minutes — that’s why we’re dressing seven [defensemen]. Some nights, they’re not [playing well], and Connor gets more minutes.”
How much longer the Blackhawks stick with the 11-7 lineup is up to the coaches — and largely how comfortable they are with their top six defensemen skating in all situations. And, at some point, there will be enough forwards in the organization that warrant ice time in the NHL (see: Landon Slaggert, Oliver Moore, Nick Lardis) that there will be a need to skate a more regular 12-6 lineup.
When that day arrives and the decisions need to be made on which defenseman is in the press box, it will be a good problem for the Blackhawks’ coaches. Because, now, they have enough good defensemen that the decision will be a hard one to make.
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