How Different Will the Blackhawks Look Upon Frondell's Debut in the NHL?

Anton Frondell is going to play a year over in the SHL next season, so the Chicago Blackhawks will have to wait to see him in uniform and get him acclimated. This is perfectly fine though. The Blackhawks likely aren't going to be very good again, so he might experience more winning in one of the best leagues in the world rather than losing.

He may be ready to jump right into the NHL as the third overall pick, but there doesn't need to be a rush. Another year of development and playing in a professional league should do him very well and he will very likely make the team in 2026-27. Upon entering into the NHL and playing for the Blackhawks, he may slide right into a top-6 center role, allowing Connor Bedard to shift over. Frondell made it clear he is willing to play whichever position Bedard isn't.

How different will the Blackhawks look by the time Frondell comes into the lineup though? Looking at just veterans heading into their final year under contract, Nick Foligno, Ilya Mikheyev, Jason Dickinson, Sam Lafferty, Connor Murphy, and Laurent Brossoit should all be gone, whether that is during the season or afterwards.

Considering Foligno will be 38 years old after next season when his contract is over, his career is winding down and the Blackhawks might not see a spot for him moving forward. His leadership has been great for this current group, but Frondell may not experience it. Frondell will also probably not get to see Dickinson's strong two-way play first-hand either.

Beyond that, Andre Burakovsky and Teuvo Teravainen will both have one year left on their deals and it remains to be seen what will be done with them. Teravainen is likely to stay until at least part-way through the final year of his deal, but the Blackhawks might want to part ways with Burakovsky earlier than that, such as next summer.

I think that most of the young players currently on the team will be there for Frondell to easily acclimate with. More should be on their way too as Nick Lardis, possibly Sacha Boisvert after graduating from university, and more could be coming in as well.

But the Blackhawks won't be almost exclusively young talent. Some veterans will be mixed in there. Chicago might have the opportunity to speak to a few big name free agents next summer if they make it that far. We'll see what the Blackhawks are able to do, but it won't be easy to attract free agents as a bad team. There has to be more internal growth for the team to take the next step.