I Think The Blackhawks Might Be Back
Last week Big Cat said I should write a blog comparing the 2025 Rebuild core to the 2009 team. I've been struggling with that assignment and I've decided I just can't. They aren't the same. This Blackhawks team is it's own thing. It has it's own identity, and while I love the Dynasty Hawks for a million reasons, this group has their own arc, their own story, and it's incredibly refreshing and fun for the first time since probably 2017. Last night was the epitome of that. It was everything we hoped we'd see when the Blackhawks won the NHL Draft Lottery in 2023 and ended up with Connor Bedard.
He's so much different this year. I don't know what it was that made him click in. Could be coaching, could be locker room culture, could be natural maturity, and it could be criticism and getting his face pushed to the pavement. Harsh reality that if is going to be a star player he was going to change his game. He has. The compete level. The two-way game. The attitude. It's everything you want from a star player so far in 2025. The goals are fun and wonderful and important, but he's doing all the little things that lead to more goals. You create your own "luck" by playing the right way and Bedard is doing all of that this year and he is setting himself up to earn a HUGE contract here.
Right there with Bedard is a well-built team. People have been begging the Blackhawks to get Bedard a running mate. The Blackhawks made a big push to sign Guentzel, but he opted to sign with Tampa for a good couple of years instead of a couple hard years followed by hopefully 6 really good years. The Blackhawks didn't panic. They found value in other places like bringing in Burakovsky. A guy who can play with top players. Same thing with Dickinson, Donato, and Mikheyev. Their former teams couldn't wait to get rid of them. Now they important pieces to a team that is currently in a playoff spot. This was always the vision. A fast team who competes and then has the skill to punish teams when they get loose.
And this is just phase 1. This is a growth year. Still, somehow, early in the rebuild. Nazar, Bedard, Knight, Rinzel, Lev, and Vlasic are HUGE pieces for the future, but also the most important and best players right now. Oliver Moore is coming. Kantserov is coming. Frondell is coming. Maybe Nick Lardis is a guy. Maybe Korchinski can be a guy. Maybe Boisvert will be that 2C we need. West, Vanacker, Spellacy, Behm, and 5 more picks in the top two rounds of the 2026 draft. Not all of these guys will hit and contribute in Chicago, but the young core is so good right now that they don't need all of these guys to be studs for the Blackhawks to be a playoff team for a long time. They've got bodies, they've got a core, and they've got money. This culture is the thing. The Blackhawks need to look like a team where stars around the league think they can win if they come here. That's how you go from good to great. One or two big time pieces to fill in around what has already been built. It's early days still, but the early days are fun.
A big reason for this blog is because people in Chicago don't even know what is going on right now.
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TV ratings are up over the last couple of years because they're back on comcast, but they're NOWHERE near where they should be. The broadcasts, the neutering of the in-game experience, and what feels like a guinine disconnection between the organization and it's fans is a BIG problem. Chicago is STARVING for a winner. The city has been wandering the desert since the Cubs won in 2016. The Blackhawks are celebrating their centennial this year and nobody knows it. You'd think with all the data collection and analytics they'd be able to deliver an experience that fans want. Both in the arena and at home on your coach it falls flat, even with the exciting on-ice experience. This has been coming. You could feel it in the air a while ago. Or at least I did
While I don't like comparing the on-ice product to the previous dynasty, I think there are lessons to learn from how the team was marketed as they were growing the last time. "One Goal" and "Drive What Toews and Kane Drive" commercials were EVERYWHERE and the games were on TV. I am sure the Blackhawks lost money early in the dynasty rebuild era. They immediately put games on TV and the stars lovable and seemingly more accessible at a time when the internet and social media hadn't even really exploded the way it is now. I follow this team as closely as just about anyone and I don't know anything about Sam Rinzel or Knight or anyone really outside of Bedard as people. There's no emotional connection to the Blackhawks right now. The TV thing is still a fiasco, and obviously a lot of that is outside of the Blackhawks' control, but their app is annoying to use if you're a sports fan. I bought the app. The functionality is fine. It's also very expensive. Other things that are expensive: tickets, concessions, parking (which the price has nearly doubled), and everything else. The only thing that isn't expensive…payroll. The Blackhawks still have the lowest payroll in the league because they have a lot of guys on rookie contracts. I am a capitalist. I want the Blackhawks to make money, but again…I think when you're in a "growth mode" and trying to rebuild connection and trust with your fans, asking an arm and a leg for everything feels like the wrong move regardless what the analytics say about your fan base. This team needs to be more accessible. People need to know that the arrow is pointing up and they have a ton of very fun and lovable guys in this group of kids. When the team is good the corporate season ticket base will probably come back and the building will be full, but the Blackhawks need to capture the city's heart again and they're falling short of that one goal.