The Chicago Blackhawks are about at the time in their rebuild where they have to start seeing progress, not only with some of their young players developing at the NHL level, but getting help from everyone as a whole. While I think it's too early and there's not enough firepower on the team to make the playoffs next season, some things do have to improve.
The one area that has stood out the most over the past three seasons has been the Blackhawks' 5-on-5 play. The team ranks last in goals at 5-on-5 since the start of 2022-23. This is not all that surprising as the team Chicago has iced has not been great and they have finished last in their division in each of the past three seasons.
The Blackhawks have scored 403 goals at 5-on-5. The next closest teams to them over that stretch are the Anaheim Ducks at 426 and the San Jose Sharks at 430. At the other end is the Buffalo Sabres with 556, as well as the Edmonton Oilers and Toronto Maple Leafs with 553. That is a long way for the Blackhawks to go to be one of the best in an area where the majority of every game is played.
Of the 10 teams who have scored the least 5-on-5 goals over the past three seasons, only one team has made the playoffs more than once. That was the Minnesota Wild and they were eliminated in the first round both years. Of the other bottom-10 teams, only the Montreal Canadiens, Nashville Predators, and Ottawa Senators even made the playoffs once in that span.
Despite only being with the Blackhawks for the past two seasons, Connor Bedard and Ryan Donato lead the way in 5-on-5 points over the past three seasons. Bedard (78), Donato (75), Jason Dickinson (74), Philipp Kurashev (69), Seth Jones (58), Nick Foligno (49), Lukas Reichel (46), Andreas Athanasiou (41), Tyler Johnson (38), and Connor Murphy (37) round out the top-10 over that span.
Players like Teuvo Teravainen, Frank Nazar, Tyler Bertuzzi, and Ilya Mikheyev give this team more hope on top of Bedard and Donato when it comes to producing at 5-on-5. The Blackhawks have a lot of work to do, and even though they should look to be getting better, there are a couple of very good players expected to go at the top of the 2026 draft.
