The Blackhawks opened NHL free agency Monday with a barrage of signings, backing up their intentions to take a step forward this upcoming season.
Beloved ex-Hawks forward Teuvo Teravainen returned on a three-year deal with a $5.4 million salary-cap hit and scrappy playmaking forward Tyler Bertuzzi agreed to a four-year deal with a $5.5 million cap hit, adding a significant influx of talent to the top-six forward group.
Goalie Laurent Brossoit signed a two-year deal with a $3.3 million cap hit, giving Petr Mrazek a more experienced partner while bumping struggling Arvid Soderblom back to the AHL.
The Hawks also added three more veterans on one-year contracts — defenseman Alec Martinez at $4 million and forwards Pat Maroon at $1.3 million and Craig Smith at $1 million — before finishing the day by signing veteran defenseman T.J. Brodie to a two-year contract with a $3.75 million cap hit.
And finally, the Hawks re-signed forward Joey Anderson to a two-year contract with an $800,000 cap hit, keeping him in the fold despite not issuing him a qualifying offer Sunday.
Although Kyle Davidson, not surprisingly, wasn’t a player in the sweepstakes surrounding the top free agents of the summer, he was the most active general manager in terms of total transactions. Coach Luke Richardson said the phones in the Hawks’ front offices were ringing off the hook Monday morning.
“[We’re] excited to start trying to move this organization forward now,” Richardson said. “It was a tough two years at times, but there were times we saw some really good signs. So now take those small signs and put some execution around them to make sure we can start moving forward.”
Offensive boosts
Teravainen, 29, had 53 points — 25 goals and 28 assists — in 76 games for the Hurricanes last season. He spent the vast majority of his eight years in Carolina operating as a complementary winger to star center Sebastian Aho.
His return should be immensely popular among fans, who loved him during his early-career stint in Chicago — winning the Stanley Cup in 2015 as a 20-year-old — and have lamented his departure for nearly a decade.
“He just thrived with a good skating team in Carolina,” Richardson said. “We hope he brings that mentality here. The way Carolina plays is great.”
Bertuzzi, also 29, had 43 points — 21 goals and 22 assists — in 80 games for the Maple Leafs last season, and he should be able to improve those numbers with a larger role in Chicago than he had in Toronto (where he averaged 16 minutes of ice time).
In 2021-22, his last season with the Red Wings, he averaged nearly 20 minutes of ice time and erupted for a career-best 62 points — 30 goals and 32 assists — in 68 games. He does have an injury history, however, having missed most of 2020-21 with a back injury and a sizable chunk of 2022-23 with a wrist injury.
“Bertuzzi is that guy who’s around the net,” Richardson said. “He’s hard to handle, and he scores greasy goals there. He’s one of those guys you think you have knocked to the ice, and, even then, he’s going to score a goal.”
There’s a decent chance Teravainen and Bertuzzi open the season as the first-line wingers flanking Connor Bedard, although Philipp Kurashev and Taylor Hall will have their own opportunities to earn those roles in training camp.
Teravainen excels at possessing the puck, has a hockey IQ high enough to rival Bedard’s and can help cover for him defensively. Bertuzzi excels at creating forechecking pressure and winning puck battles, which Bedard isn’t built to do.
Adding depth
The Hawks were expected to add some competition to the goaltending room, but Brossoit is more than that. He’s worthy of being the “1B” goalie to Mrazek’s “1A.”
The 31-year-old Canadian has never made more than 24 appearances in a season but has delivered excellent results the last two seasons with the Golden Knights and Jets with a .927 save percentage in both years. He has a .927 save percentage in five matchups against the Hawks, too, which hasn’t been forgotten.
On defense, Martinez and Brodie will fill second- or third-pairing roles. Brodie, 34, averaged nearly 22 minutes last season with the Leafs while notching 26 points (25 assists) in 78 games.
Martinez, who turns 37 later this month, is nearing the end of a stellar career spent with the Kings and Knights but still has some gas left in the tank. He averaged more than 19 minutes last season and had 17 points in 55 games. Martinez will be best remembered for his Cup-clinching overtime goal in Los Angeles in 2014.
Either one could potentially partner with Kevin Korchinski — Martinez spent a good amount of time in Vegas with Shea Theodore, one of Korchinski’s longtime role models — but it looks possible that Korchinski could end up in Rockford to start the season. He, Wyatt Kaiser and Ethan Del Mastro might end up competing in camp for only one open roster spot.
Up front, Maroon, 36, and Smith, 34, are equally far past their primes but provide some grizzled fourth-line depth. They’re upgrades over Taylor Raddysh, MacKenzie Entwistle and Reese Johnson, who have departed.
Maroon, who has basically become a toughness mercenary in recent years, had 16 points in 51 games for the Wild and Bruins last season. Smith chipped in 20 points in 75 games with the Stars but is only two years removed from a 36-point season in Boston.
“[Maroon is] old-school tough,” Richardson said. “Sometimes the guys that don’t have to get into fights or physical altercations because of their reputation are even more valuable because it just settles everything down. I can send him on the ice at any time if things are getting out of control.”
Not to be forgotten is Ilya Mikheyev, the speedy defensive forward the Hawks acquired from the Canucks last week with two years left on his contract. But Sam Lafferty, another part of that trade, walked to free agency after all and signed with the Sabres.
Looking ahead
Even with this massive incursion of skill and depth, the Hawks probably won’t be a playoff team in 2024-25, but they probably won’t be a bottom-five team, either.
It will be interesting to see exactly how much they improve compared to last season’s mere 52 points. The Central Division won’t be easy to climb, especially because Utah (with Mikhail Sergachev) and the Predators (with Steven Stamkos, Jonathan Marchessault and Brady Skjei) should be much improved.
Interestingly, the Hawks won’t boast a particularly young roster. Bedard, Korchinski, Alex Vlasic, Lukas Reichel and maybe one more defenseman should make up the extent of the youth.
Frank Nazar and Landon Slaggert now seem likely to start out in the AHL unless they really impress during camp, and No. 2 pick Artyom Levshunov likely will be in Rockford or back at Michigan State.
On that note, Rockford’s roster will be extremely young, and the Hawks’ biggest long-term priorities still revolve around integrating their flush pipeline of prospects into the NHL. That’s why Davidson more or less stuck to his preference for shorter-term contracts.
The Hawks still have about $7.5 million of cap space left and could make one more depth signing, but the rest of the summer should be much quieter.
