Steven Ellis at Daily Faceoff had the responsibility of writing
their preview for the Chicago Blackhawks’ 2025-26 season, which published earlier this morning. And I think he nails it on the head when he wrote:
“At some point, the veterans will cycle out and the young guns will reign supreme. For now, it’s going to be ugly – and that’s OK.”
Ellis does a very good job at a national level of pointing to the facts that the Blackhawks secondary scoring behind
Connor Bedard and
Frank Nazar is going to be TBD again this year. And that the Hawks might have as many as three rookies —
Sam Rinzel, Artyom Levshunov, Ethan Del Mastro — among the six starting defensemen to open the year. Yesterday I wrote about JFresh’s season projections;
he has the Blackhawks at 75 points. Here’s the closing comment from Ellis:
“Finishing in the 70-75 point range would be ideal, while still likely keeping them in the bottom three. That – plus big years from Bedard, Nazar, Rinzel and Levshunov – would be considered a win. Don’t expect many of the two-point variety, though.”
The 2025-26 NHL team previews at
@DailyFaceoff continue with the Chicago Blackhawks.
As
@SEllisHockey's analysis advises, keep expectations low once again, but the progress of the
#Blackhawks' young guns will be intriguing to track:
https://t.co/yD0QtAX1Ll
— Matt Larkin (@MLarkinHockey)
August 28, 2025
- In addition to the national broadcast schedule the Blackhawks announced on Wednesday, there were four start times that were changed. Here are those four games (three on the road, one at the UC):
- Thu., Oct. 23 – Chicago @ Tampa Bay – 5:45 p.m. CT
- Thu., Dec. 4 – Chicago @ Los Angeles – 9:00 p.m. CT
- Tue., March 17 – Minnesota @ Chicago – 6:30 p.m. CT
- Thu., March 19 – Chicago @ Minnesota – 6:30 p.m. CT
- If you’re hoping to catch a game of Marek Vanacker, AJ Spellacy, Jack Pridham or any of the other Blackhawks prospects in the OHL this season, there’s a spot to do just that! FloHockey has inked a deal to stream OHL games this season, joining their list of AHL, ECHL, QMJHL, USHL, SHL and NCAA programs. Some big news for folks out there who want to stream games for Blackhawks prospects (and draft prospects).
The OHL Now Hits Harder on FloHockey!
Every game. Every goal. Every hit. All Season Long.
Don’t Miss A Moment of the action on FloHockey.
DETAILS:
https://t.co/CCgug2QEBY@OHLHockey |
#OHL pic.twitter.com/HAYmGntllL
— FloHockey (@FloHockey)
August 26, 2025
- Speaking of prospects, Corey Pronman at The Athletic got up to No. 9 in his annual preseason pipeline rankings on Wednesday. The Blackhawks have yet to appear. We’ll see where Pronman has them in later today as the rest of the list is set to come out.
- I’ve shared a couple of these before because I like hearing from the Blackhawks’ prospects during the offseason and Dana Grey does a nice job. He closed the books on the summer with a conversation with forward Paul Ludwinski.
- Finally, there’s a bunch of other stuff going on around the NHL right now with both Canada and the USA hosting their Olympics orientation camps and other news starting to happen more frequently. I warmed us up earlier this morning with an August edition of our Around the NHL with some league-wide notes.
Around the NHL: McDavid Talks Contract, Matthew Tkachuk Olympics? Sharks Staying, More
#blackhawkshttps://t.co/3b05TWJ2b9
— Bleacher Nation Blackhawks (@BN_Blackhawks)
August 28, 2025
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