With the 2023-2024 season coming to a close, let’s cover the Chicago Blackhawks players who have excelled and those who have underperformed this season. The Hawks have really struggled as a team this season, but some positives have emerged. Conversely, some negatives have also reared their ugly head.
Exceeded Expectations: Connor Bedard
Connor Bedard has been hands down the best player on the Chicago Blackhawks this season. With his 22 goals and 37 assists through 63 games, Bedard is the leader in the 2024 Calder Trophy race. Even with his first overall pick pedigree, many people questioned how Bedard would adjust to the NHL. Safe to say, Bedard has adjusted just fine.
Bedard is consistently one of the most talented players on the ice any given night. Bedard is on pace for 64 points even after suffering an injury that kept him out for six weeks. For being an 18-year old, Bedard has exceeded many NHL’s fans expectations for his highly anticipated rookie season.
Jason Dickinson
After years of being a bottom-six forward with the Dallas Stars and Vancouver Canucks, Jason Dickinson has emerged as a quality forward in Chicago. When the Hawks acquired Dickinson from Vancouver, the Hawks acquired a second-round pick for his services. That trade worked out quite well for the Blackhawks. Dickinson has a career high 34 points in 77 games this year and has netted 21 goals. In addition to his stats, he has been strong in the face-off dot all year and has found a role on Chicago’s penalty kill. Considering Dickinson was nothing more than a placeholder last season, he impressed many with his performance this season.
Alex Vlasic
Another rookie finds the positive side of the list. Vlasic has been the Hawks best defencemen this season at the age of 22. Vlasic has been the Blackhawks most consistent defenceman this year especially in his own end. He currently leads the team in both shots blocked and takeaways.
While Vlasic doesn’t have outrageous offensive numbers, he has always been touted for his strong defence. With his current contract coming to an end, Vlasic’s defensive game will be considered during his upcoming extension.
Philipp Kurashev
Rounding out the exceeding list, Philipp Kurashev is having a career season. After two straight disappointing seasons, Kurashev has rebounded to become the Hawks second best offensive option this season. Kurashev currently has 16 goals and 35 assists through 70 games this season, shattering his previous career highs in both categories. Kurashev has found a lot of success playing on a line with Connor Bedard and Jason Dickinson. This season, Kurashev has gone from having a questionable future in Chicago to now being a building block for the future.
Underperformers: Seth Jones
Seth Jones starts our underperforming Chicago Blackhawks players list. Jones stats have been on a steady decline since his first season in Chicago. Jones currently has eight goals and 22 assists in 62 games this season. While Jones has put up pretty poor numbers in his own end this year, his defensive numbers have been even worse.
The problem is that Jones has struggled on the offensive side as well. Jones even found himself off the team’s top power play line for stretches of this year in favour of rookie rearguard Kevin Korchinski. Adding to the on-ice problems, Jones is also the most expensive player on the Hawks roster with a cap hit of $9,500,000 for the next six seasons. Jones is a good leader in the locker room, but his on-ice performance has been downright disappointing.
Taylor Raddysh
Coming off a 20-goal season, the expectation for Raddysh was that we would put up similar production. He has fell well short of those expectations, posting just five goals and nine assists in 70 games. Many Hawk fans felt like Raddysh could establish himself as a future part of the core or at least become an interesting trade piece this season. Raddysh was a health scratch for both for both the Hawks weekend games against the Dallas Stars and Minnesota Wild. His recent status as a healthy scratch may signal the end of his time in Chicago with his contract set to expire at the end of the season.
Lukas Reichel
After an impressive end to last season, many believed that Reichel would be the biggest benefactor of playing with Connor Bedard this season. Unfortunately for the former first-round pick, this has not been the case. Reichel has only recorded four goals and nine assists in his 58 games this year. Reichel has often been invincible for large stretches and has struggled to get ice time in his current stint in Chicago. Luckily for Reichel, he is still only 21 years old and has time to right the ship, but with more and more prospects coming into the fold next year, it will be tough for him to keep finding minutes.
Arvid Söderblom
Finishing the list of Chicago Blackhawks players who have failed is Arvid Söderblom. Any Hawks fan who has watched one of his starts this season knows just how brutal he’s been this year. While nobody was expecting him to put up Vezina calibre numbers, he has played well below par. Arvid is currently posting a .880 save percentage and 3.90 goals against average. His save percentage is nearly the worst in the NHL out of all qualified goalies. Söderblom got lucky that the Hawks didn’t have any replacement options in the AHL or Söderblom could have been gone months ago. Söderblom will likely get a shot at the backup role next season when youngster Drew Commesso joins the team.
With the Blackhawks turbulent seasons nearing it’s close, let’s hope that the Hawks can put this year behind them. Hopefully guys like Seth Jones and Lukas Reichel can have strong ends to their seasons and find some momentum for next year.
Main photo: Jamie Sabau-USA TODAY Sports
