Ever since the Chicago Blackhawks traded Seth Jones to the Florida Panthers on March 1, the team has been … well, they’re still not good, but at least they won a few, earning victories in three of their first four games after the trade before losing six straight, a streak they’re in the middle of.
Having moved on from Jones, the natural progression of the Blackhawks’ depth chart saw Alex Vlasic, now in his second full season with the club, move up to the first pair and unofficially take on the role as Chicago’s number-one defenseman. For chunks of the season while Jones was out, the 23-year-old Vlasic took on that roll, playing top-pair minutes and seeing time on the penalty kill, and occasionally, the power play. Now with Jones out, Vlasic is the anchor on the club’s blue line, no ifs, ands or buts.
But unlike with Jones, the Blackhawks have a chance to put Vlasic in the best position to succeed. Let’s take a look at what that means and where the team can go moving forward.
Blackhawks Need More Talent on Defense
Regardless of what you think of the Blackhawks’ rebuild and the young pieces in their group, Chicago needs to do a better job of surrounding Vlasic with high-quality defenders so he isn’t stuck playing 26 or 27 minutes a night in all situations like Jones was.
We’ve already seen Vlasic log big minutes with the Blackhawks this season, averaging 23:33 per game as of March 20 but playing well above 25 minutes in at least a quarter of his appearances in 2024-25. Sure, a lot of those came when Jones was battling injury, but it’s indicative of an organizational philosophy that too heavily relies on its top players. Jones was an uber-talented, two-way defender who could rack up points and throw a big hit, but he was exposed when forced to play so many minutes, especially as the season wore on.
The same thing is going to happen to Vlasic if Chicago doesn’t do a better job of surrounding him with talented defenders.
Looking at this current crop of defenders, you can immediately scratch Alec Martinez and T.J. Brodie off the list, while Connor Murphy, who has one more year after this one on his contract, will likely become a trade piece either in the offseason or sometime in 2025-26.
Wyatt Kaiser and Ethan Del Mastro continue to develop and 2024 number two overall pick Artyom Levshunov will likely play a full season with the Blackhawks in 2025-26, as will 2022 number seven overall pick Kevin Korchinski.
Related: Blackhawks’ Artyom Levshunov Adjusting on the Fly in First NHL Games
With all that being considered, there’s a better than zero chance that Vlasic will not only be the Blackhawks’ number one defender in 2025-26 but could potentially be the team’s most veteran blueliner. No offense to anyone, but that’s a scary thought for a team that’s trying to climb out of a rebuild.
While Chicago general manager Kyle Davidson did his best to add this past offseason, signing Martinez and Brodie, both have proven to be misguided transactions that haven’t benefited the team. Is there a world where you can envision the club not buying out Brodie’s last year in the summer? What was the point of bringing in someone with a $3.75 million cap hit who can’t play every night?
Adding Talent Through Trades
If the Blackhawks want to take any measurable step forward next season, Davidson is going to need to make good use of his assets and trade for a legitimate top-four defender, someone who can comfortably play 20 minutes and make a sizable impact on the ice. You might be reading this and thinking, “Yeah, no s–t, Hunter, but how are they going to pull that off?”
It doesn’t matter, but they need to. Does that mean moving on from one of the top prospects? Most likely. Does that mean dangling a potential top-three pick in this June’s draft? Could be. Nick Lardis just hit the 70-goal mark with the Ontario Hockey League’s (OHL) Brantford Bulldogs. Do you think adding him to a trade package would sweeten the deal? Sure. Is the team going to have to make some uncomfortable choices? Absolutely.
Related: Blackhawks’ Tyler Bertuzzi Needs to Embrace Mayhem Amid Scoring Drought
Regardless of sport, what kills a lot of professional sports teams is clinging to prospects with the assumption they will become stars. There are more first-round picks in NHL history who were coaching youth hockey in their hometown by the time they were 30 than guys who became 30-goal scorers. Fans fall in love with draft picks and prospects because it’s the promise of hope, that something will be better down the road, and that all the pain they’re experiencing during a rebuild will be worth it. But too often, that’s not the case.
Players fizzle out, hit their ceilings in junior, and toil away in the minors or Europe, never to be heard of again. The peak of their value was the moment they were drafted, when the other 31 teams around the league thought, “Man, I’d like to have that guy in our group.” Davidson needs to recognize that and move on a trade this summer.
Vlasic has proven to be a special player in his short time as a professional, and after signing a six-year, $27.6-million deal with the Blackhawks last April, he’ll be around for the foreseeable future with a cap hit of $4.6 million. Since Jones left, he’s taken on a bigger leadership role, more vocal about both his own and the team’s deficiencies. He was blunt following the Seattle Kraken’s 6-2 win over the Blackhawks on March 18, speaking with reporters after the game.
“I think top to bottom, we gotta be better, myself included,” Vlasic said, adding that at this moment in time, the level of frustration is “the worst it’s been all year. I think we’re trying to take steps as a group, almost at game 70, and it feels like we’re taking one step forward, one step back. We’re not really making any progress as a team, and if we do, we just shoot ourselves in the foot.”
That sounds like a 15-year veteran who has played a thousand games and knows what it takes to win, not a 23-year-old who played his 100th career game earlier this season. He deserves better, the fans deserve better, and at this point, Davidson and the rest of the management team should know better.
