Chicago Blackhawks 2025-26 Player Grades: Alex Vlasic

The Chicago Blackhawks finished their 2025-26 campaign 31st in the league, with a record of 29-39-14 and 72 points. It was an improvement from last season’s totals of 25-46-11 (61 points), but the organization had more progress in mind when they embarked on this campaign. The good news is the Blackhawks finished with more wins and more points than the previous season. They also feel they’ve taken positive strides in the growth and development of a plethora of young players, who could be a big part of a more successful future.

In this summer series, we’ll hand out individual grades to every player on the team. Today we highlight defenseman Alex Vlasic.

Vlasic’s Season Stats

2 goals, 19 assists, 21 points, minus–16 in 81 games played. Average time on ice (ATOI) of 21:08 minutes, shoots left

44.7 Corsi For Percentage (at Even Strength) (CF%), 119 blocked shots, 29 hits, 28 takeaways, 92 giveaways, 17 penalty minutes

Contract Status: Contract runs through the 2029-30 season, $4.6 million cap hit

Season Overview

At just 25 years old, Vlasic is the most tenured member of the Blackhawks. This is a testament to the youth movement the organization is currently embracing. To put it into perspective, Vlasic has only suited up for 260 NHL games (all with the Hawks). The 2026-27 season will serve as just his fourth full season in the league. When the young defenseman signed a six-year contract extension in Apr. 2024, he essentially cemented himself as one of the members of the new core.

Vlasic can get lost in the shuffle a bit with some of the new faces on defense. He’s not flashy with a high offensive upside like Artyom Levshunov, Sam Rinzel, or even Kevin Korchinski. But somebody has to stay back and protect the house, and Vlasic has established himself as that guy who can shut down the opponent’s top lines. This past season, 72.5% of his zone starts were in the defensive zone, which was second only to the departed Connor Murphy (75.8%) who was traded to the Edmonton Oilers at the trade deadline.

Despite all the heavy lifting in the defensive end, Vlasic’s 19 assists were second among defensemen, with only Levshunov’s 22 helpers ahead of him. His 21 points were third among D-men after Louis Crevier (25) and Levshunov (24).

Alex Vlasic makes the defensive play then chips a pass off the boards to Ilya Mikheyev, who beats Jesper Wallstedt for his 10th goal of the season. #Blackhawks pic.twitter.com/ts1Wr3lrAZ

— Charlie Roumeliotis (@CRoumeliotis) January 28, 2026

His average of 21:08 minutes of ice time led the team, as did his 230:52 total minutes played on the penalty kill. Vlasic’s 119 blocked shots was also the most on the team. In short, Vlasic is a pretty useful guy to have around.

Vlasic and rookie Rinzel started and ended the season as the top defensive pairing, with Vlasic balancing the defensive aspect against Rinzel’s more offensive tendencies. But for the majority of the campaign Vlasic and Crevier actually comprised more of a pure shutdown pairing. This duo has played together from way back in their Rockford days, and have developed good chemistry. Said head coach Jeff Blashill on Jan. 29 about the pairing,  

You certainly hope that as the year progressed from training camp on, it looked like both guys could be guys that you could use as a shutdown pair. So that was our hope. They’re both super long. They both have the ability to be really good defenders, but both can move a puck good enough. So sometimes when you’re out there against the other team’s best, you might be playing with one of our best lines too. So you got to be able to move the puck good enough. And I think they both are showing continued improvement in those areas of having poise and making the right plays.  

Listen, they’re still in a learning process, and don’t have a crazy amount of games under their belt. There’s still been up and down to their games, but I think they’re headed in the right direction, and can be a big factor for us. Not only now, but into the future.

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When the local Wilmette native discussed his partnership with Crevier in late February, he mentioned one of their strengths being that they “cover a lot of ground”. Being 6-foot-6 and 6-foot-8, respectively, they hold an advantage in that they both have large frames and really long reaches.

But bigger, taller guys also can have more trouble with the physical aspect of things. This is something Blashill has tasked Vlasic with improving.

I think sometimes when you see a big guy you think, oh, it’d be easy to lay the body. If you really look over the course of time, guys that have that high center of gravity it gets harder. What we’ve really talked about is more in our net front battles, and making sure that we’re physical around the net, making sure that we’re utilizing the legality of little cross checks, making sure that we’re harder in those areas. And he’s (Vlasic) done a good job of it. I think he’s taken that to heart, and tried to bring that part of his game out.

Another area of growth for Vlasic is knowing his size and reach allows him to have extra time to make a play. The blueliner acknowledged this is something he’s been working on.

You’re able to kind of hold it away from players longer than somebody who’s 5-foot-10 necessarily would. So you do have a little bit more time. I think you cover more ground when you have the puck. So you’re able to kind of pass it around guys, or maybe, like, pull and pass through. So it’s tough learning those types of skills. Obviously, you see the really good players do it, being able to pass through sticks and stuff like that.

Vlasic’s offensive production regressed a little bit from four goals and 30 points in the 2024-25 season to two goals and 21 points last season. But his plus/minus rating improved from minus-23 to minus-16. Considering his additional defensive responsibilities, it was a solid 2025-26 campaign.

Quotable Quote

Being the most tenured player for this young club, Vlasic has also stepped up in his leadership role. On Feb. 1, after five tough losses in a row, the blueliner discussed the mindset for the team moving forward.

I mean, I think it’s easy to kind of sit back and kind of feel sorry for yourself, especially when you’re losing, you know, as a team. But I think everybody in here, we know what we want in the future. We know we have a lot of the core pieces that are going to be here moving forward. We see the light at the end of tunnel, even if it’s a couple losses here and there.

We’re taking care of the process in order to win. We’re focused on that; how we can show up every single day, compete and just work as hard as we can. I think that’s the number one thing we can control. And we’ve got a lot of positive guys on the team, a lot of energy that’s here. So it hasn’t really been weighing on us too much.

I wouldn’t be at all surprised if Vlasic was awarded an “A” for alternate captain responsibilities in the 2026-27 season.  

Vlasic’s Final Grade: B+

Vlasic has handled a lot of the heavy lifting as a shutdown defenseman for the Blackhawks. He also moves the puck very well, and has enough of an offensive upside to be dangerous. He’s still young and has room to grow, but he’s off to an excellent start to a very lucrative career in the NHL.