The Chicago Blackhawks have struggled as their 2025-26 season winds down, having been defeated in their last three games by a pretty large margin. They’ve endured a lot of changes; the biggest of which was losing their entire leadership group of Nick Foligno, Jason Dickinson and Connor Murphy at the Mar. 6 trade deadline. Arguably their only power forward and big-hitter Colton Dach was thrown into deadline moves as well.
On top of that, the Hawks lost their only remaining veteran defenseman, Matt Grzelcyk, on Mar. 22 to a freak hand injury. Injuries to promising rookie Oliver Moore and depth addition Andrew Mangiapane didn’t help matters. As of Mar. 29, Blackhawks’ defenseman Artyom Levshunov was sidelined with a fractured left hand. Plus, prospects Anton Frondell and Sacha Boisvert have joined the team now that their respective junior seasons are complete.
That’s a lot of change! With the Blackhawks once again at the bottom of the standings and having only eight games remaining in the season, a change to the dynamic is certainly in order. Let’s face it; it’s not so much about winning right now as it is seeing what they have with their young group as they look towards the 2026-27 campaign. With that in mind, the team can do some experimenting down the stretch.
Here are five things to watch as the Blackhawks finish out their 2025-26 campaign.
Frondell Deployed at Center
Perhaps the biggest story over the last week is 2025 third overall draft pick Frondell joining the Blackhawks. His season with Djurgardens of the Swedish Hockey League ended on Saturday, Mar. 21, and he made is NHL debut with the Blackhawks on Tuesday, Mar. 24 versus the New York lslanders.
Related – Anton Frondell’s NHL Debut With the Blackhawks Was a Roaring Success
So far, so good for the 18-year-old. He earned his first NHL point in his debut, a primary assist on a goal by Ilya Mikheyev, and added another with a feed to Connor Bedard in his second game, against the Philadelphia Flyers.
Frondell started the first three games of his NHL career on the top line alongside Bedard and Ryan Greene. But in his fourth game, head coach Jeff Blashill decided to change things up a bit and deploy him at center. Said Blashill,
He hasn’t played center all year, so it’s probably not the easiest position to put him in — I recognize that. But he’s played center a lot in his life, and I think he’s got traits to be a really good 200-foot winning center. And I’d rather get a look at it this year rather than at the beginning of next year. So that if that’s the way we go, we can hit the ground running.
The young Swede centered Tyler Bertuzzi and Mikheyev on the Blackhawk’s second line in the contest against the New Jersey Devils on Mar. 29. Sure, it was a lot to put on Frondell, but he handled it quite well. It was this line that got the scoring started in this contest, with Frondell catching Devils’ goaltender Jake Allen out of his net. He made a heads-up feed to Mikheyev to make it a 1-0 game.
from 0 to 95 in no time 🏁 pic.twitter.com/cgOKYp7XU3
— Chicago Blackhawks (@NHLBlackhawks) March 29, 2026
All in all, this line was on the ice for five shots for to five against, 11 scoring attempts for to nine against and one goal for to one goal against in 9:31 minutes of ice time, according to Natural Stat Trick. Considering they were a new-look line with a brand new 18-year-old center, those are pretty solid statistics. Frondell himself recorded three shots on goal, five shot attempts, one hit and went 2-of-9 in the faceoff circle in 16:52 minutes of ice time (3:33 of which was on the power play).
It was also his first multi-point game, which included another assist on the power play. Blashill made a very good point regarding Frondell postgame. “I thought he did good. He’s not even a week into his NHL career and playing center and against some real good players at times. I thought he looked good. Frondy, he’s really strong on the puck, wins a ton of those, stops on pucks. He’s got a lot of winning habits. So I thought he did a good job.”
Let’s all take note that Frondell is called “Frondy” by his coach and teammates. Yes, quite the imaginative nickname. We’ll get to the power play goal below, but all in all Frondell has logged four assists (three of them primary) in his first four NHL contests. It’s safe to say Frondy is going to be a big part of the future for the Blackhawks.
Young Defensemen Finding Their Way
With the loss of Grzelcyk as mentioned above, the Blackhawks’ defensive corps is one of the youngest in the NHL. Ethan Del Mastro was recalled from the Rockford IceHogs on Mar. 3 in the wake of the Murphy trade to the Edmonton Oilers. Kevin Korchinski was called up on Mar. 29, after the team learned that Levshunov had fractured his hand.
Alex Vlasic and Louis Crevier are 24 years old, currently heading up the Blackhawks’ top defensive pairing. To put things in perspective, Vlasic has the most NHL experience of the entire bunch, with just three full seasons under his belt (including this one). Wyatt Kaiser and Del Mastro are both 23 years old, while Sam Rinzel and Korchinski are 21 years old. Levshunov (although now sidelined) is 20 years old.
Good gosh, that’s a young and inexperienced group! And it’s a well-known fact that defensemen take longer to develop than forwards. These kids need reps and more experience. Regarding the particularly bad performance over the last few games, after the Flyers game on Mar. 26 Coach Blashill hinted towards a tweak in their coverage that could be partly to blame.
We’ve talked about tighter gaps and gapping, and that might have led to our guys kind of running north instead of lateral gapping. We want to be a tight gapping team. We want to get up in the zone and we want to forecheck the five-man unit. But we can’t run up like we did at times today. So it’s just probably a little bit of a again, a learned process of the balance of gapping and being tight and knowing when you don’t have help, and knowing when you’re running north, you can’t run north.
This “addition” to the toolbox could help the defensive in the long run, but changes to the system always take some adjustment. It sounds like this could be the case currently.
Related – Blackhawks’ Defensive Struggles Prove Costly During East Coast Road Trip
After a 5-1 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers and then a 6-1 defeat at the hands of the New York Rangers the very next night (Mar. 27), Vlasic was one of the “veterans” chosen to speak to the media. It’s actually a little alarming how this young blueliner felt he needed to defend himself and his team postgame.
Yeah, it’s something that we have to navigate ourselves. We, myself. I’ve got to step up as a leader. I’ve got to step up in the locker room, on the ice. Do as much as I can to help everybody. I think it’s on all the young guys in here to kind of contribute and make sure this is a team effort. Because we’ve got a lot of the guys, a lot of the core pieces that are going to be here moving forward, hopefully. So it’s on us to do a better job.
It’s true that most of this current team is part of the new core. They are the ones who will be here moving forward, the ones who will be bringing this team back to contention. So yes, leadership is in order. But the kids just lost their entire older leadership group. It seems fair to give them some time to get used to this new role of leading, both on and off the ice. These remaining games are a good test, and invaluable experience, for the road ahead.
5 Forwards on the Top Power Play Unit
Let’s take a look at another big experiment the Blackhawks are playing with down the stretch; that being a top power play unit comprised of five forwards. The forwards involved are Bedard, Bertuzzi, Frondell, Frank Nazar and Teuvo Teravainen. In this scenario, Bedard serves as the quarterback.
Said Blashill ahead of the Devils game on Mar. 29,
Connor, it gets the puck in Connor’s hands a lot. It’s easier to get the puck in his hands up top than it is on a flank. He’s talked about wanting that opportunity to do it. He’s obviously a really, really smart player. He’s got good deception. So we thought, let’s give it a try and see it. It’s something we’ve talked about through the year, and obviously the power play hasn’t gone very well lately, so we felt it was good time to give it a try.
This certainly speaks to the team trying new options down the stretch, in an effort to get a head start on the 2026-27 campaign. In the Devils game, the power play went 1-for-3, but the power play they did get was a pretty big one.
✅ first multi-goal game for Frank Nazar
✅ first multi-point game for Anton Frondell
✅ career-high 68th point of the season for Connor Bedard pic.twitter.com/aO5mt9TXE2— Chicago Blackhawks (@NHLBlackhawks) March 30, 2026
On this play, Nazar scored the power play goal, which was the first multi-goal game of his career (he scored earlier in the game). It was the first multi-point game by Frondell, who also registered an assist on the Mikheyev goal earlier in the game. Finally, Bedard was credited with the primary assist on the goal. This was his 68th point of the season, which was a new career high.
That’s a lot of milestones in just one play. Whether the Blackhawks continue with five forwards on the power play remains to be seen. But there certainly is a lot of firepower on this unit.
Boisvert the New Power Forward?
Let’s take a look at Boisvert, who is another prospect added to the ranks for the Blackhawks. The 18th overall pick in the 2024 NHL Draft didn’t have the best season with 20-year-old didn’t have the best season at Boston University. But he signed his entry-level contract with the Blackhawks on Mar. 16, allowing him to start with a clean slate. Due to visa hold ups, the 6-foot-3, 186 pound forward didn’t make his NHL debut until Mar. 26 against the Philadelphia Flyers.
Related – Sacha Boisvert Signs Entry Level Contract With Blackhawks
Boisvert has been centering the fourth line alongside Teuvo Teravainen and Landon Slaggert. I referred to the loss of Dach up above, and it appears Blashill sees Boisvert as a potential replacement for the physicality Dach brought to the table. Here were his comments before Boisvert’s debut.
I think he’s a guy who can bring up physicality, he can bring an edge to our team. But with skill; he’s not void of that. He’s got good hands, he’s got a really good shot. So he can be a power forward with skill. If that’s what he becomes, he’s a commodity on our team, within our young prospects, and he’s a commodity in the league.
Boisvert hasn’t seen much game action yet, he’s averaged just 9:35 minutes of ice time in his first three contests with the Blackhawks. But in that time he’s doled out three hits, blocked a shot, and gotten into his first NHL tussle.
Full Boisvert scrap: pic.twitter.com/NZUP35Yamz
— BHF (@BlackhawksFocus) March 28, 2026
While Frondell is the elite prospect most think could be a huge difference-maker on this team, Boisvert is depth forward who could provide some much-needed grit and physicality. It will be interesting to see if he can establish himself a bit more in the remaining games.
Looking Towards the Future
The Blackhawks are a young, inexperienced team that’s learning on the fly and integrating a lot of change. All that hasn’t looked pretty recently, or at times throughout the 2025-26 campaign. That’s evident in their 27-34-13 record (67 points), which is currently 31st in the league. Blashill spoke to their troubles, but was also realistic about it, after their 5-3 loss to the Devils on Mar. 29.
Listen, like our oldest center was 22 and our D could be playing in the NCAA tournament right now. They’re gonna make some mistakes, and we’re gonna have to be patient, and they’re gonna have to learn. That’s just reality. The whole group, it just puts a lot of pressure on. So it’s part of where we’re at. And we just got to keep grinding through. And making sure, again, that as you go through some of these frustrating moments where you give up a lead late, that you’re learning. There’s nothing wrong with failure if you learn from it, but we got to make sure we learn from it.
Ah, failure has been a bit of a theme. But the Blackhawks are a hardy bunch, and their youth can serve them well when it comes to an eternal positive outlook. The 22-year-old center Blashill is referring to is Nazar, who’s just coming to the end of his second NHL season. Nazar recently put it all into perspective.
There’s no doubt in my mind that we’re gonna become a better hockey team. And there’s ups and downs you can go through. But let’s come out of this with a positive mindset of, we went here, we got better, and now we’re gonna continue to go forward.
The Blackhawks will continue to move forward. They could win the majority of their remaining eight games and end the season on a high note. Or, they could lose the majority of their remaining eight games. Either way, they’re integrating new faces, experimenting with new things and working hard on their habits and identity.
Related – Blackhawks Team Belief Can Help Them Through Tough Final Stretch of the Season
I know, we’re all tired of waiting. But if we can remain patient, there seems to be light at the end of the tunnel.
