Special team are a very important part of hockey and the Chicago Blackhawks were surprisingly well above average overall in 2024-25. The team finished seventh on the power play with a 24.9% and 14th in the league on the penalty kill with a 79.3%. Considering the team finished 31st in the NHL in points, other areas need to be worked on.
While part of the success the Blackhawks had on special teams came from the players, some also came from coaching. Both will be a little different this season, but Anders Sorensen will still have some say as an assistant coach.
What is more exciting is which players will be on which unit for both the power play and penalty kill. There are some new faces and some who are leaving or are retired. As some of the younger players develop more and improve, it's natural for them to take on bigger roles as they are part of the future. This is what we should see.
Starting with the power plays, the top unit should go as follows:
Connor Bedard, Tyler Bertuzzi, Teuvo Teravainen, Ryan Donato, and Sam Rinzel.
Bedard, Bertuzzi, and Teravainen led the team with 2:23 or more ice time on the power play per game this season and it clearly worked based on the top-10 finish. Donato was just under two minutes per game, but after some messing around early in the season with his ice time and where he plays, the veteran proved that he should get all the opportunities to continue to succeed. He led the team in goals and that should be on the top power-play unit. Rinzel played 2:24 on the power play per game in the nine games he was called up. He had five assists in those nine games and he'll at least start on the top unit. He makes the most sense to get that offensive chance.
The second power-play unit of Chicago should look like this:
Frank Nazar, Andre Burakovsky, Lukas Reichel, Alex Vlasiv, and Artyom Levshunov.
I can see Nazar or even Burakovsky getting top power-play time at times if things go stale on the top unit. Both of them had the next highest power-play time this season and have scoring ability. Reichel has skill and the Blackhawks are still looking for him to break out. It may be the year, but it will also be tough for him to move up the lineup and find playing time. The second unit usually consists of two defensemen as they will be on the ice for when it becomes 5-on-5 again. Vlasic took over top power-play duties when Seth Jones was injured or after he was moved. Levshunov also got a good amount of time on the power play this season too. Both are good, young talents.
The shorthanded units will look as follows:
Jason Dickinson, Nick Foligno, Alex Vlasic, and Connor Murphy.
Ilya Mikheyev, Teuvo Teravainen/Frank Nazar, Sam Rinzel, and Wyatt Kaiser.
Dickinson led the Blackhawks in shorthanded ice time last season and was excellent the year prior. Murphy might not be there the entire season and it remains to be seen what will happen with Louis Crevier who is a RFA, but he would be the obvious next up on defense. Kevin Korchinski and Levshunov each averaged just five seconds on the penalty kill this season. Mikheyev will be a regular penalty killer, but I think Nazar and Teravainen will split time depending on the situation and if there's a draw to be taken.
The hope is that the Blackhawks can at least match their performance on both the power play and penalty kill in 2025-26, but I guarantee there will be more stuff to work on for the penalty kill to be even more effective and move up.
