At 35, new Blackhawks veteran Carl Soderberg is already familiar with rebuilds

Center Carl Soderberg has been old by NHL standards for most of his career.

A star in the Swedish leagues throughout most of his 20s, Soderberg didn’t jump across the Atlantic to become a full-time NHL player until the 2013-14 season with the Bruins.

Four games into that season, Soderberg turned 28. Now he’s 35 and entering his eighth season.

‘‘My role in the NHL for a while [has been] playing against top lines,’’ Soderberg said in his first comments Monday since signing a one-year deal with the Blackhawks on Saturday. ‘‘Chipping in offensively, helping the team, scoring some goals. Hopefully that’s what I can do this year, too. I’m looking forward to the start.’’

Soderberg’s relatively advanced age hasn’t affected his performance thus far. He has been remarkably consistent statistically, scoring between 35 and 51 points in all but one of his seven seasons.

The only time he didn’t was in 2016-17 with the Avalanche, but the experience and perspective he gained during that trying season will benefit him with the Hawks now.

That Avs team was a disaster, finishing last in the league with a 22-56-4 record. Soderberg, who was 31 at the time, contributed to those struggles with a mere 14 points and a minus-26 rating in 80 games.

The rest of the roster was loaded with other underperforming veterans, including 39-year-old Jarome Iginla, 36-year-old Francois Beauchemin, 35-year-old Rene Bourque, 33-year-old Fedor Tyutin, 32-year-old John Mitchell and 30-year-old Blake Comeau.

The outlook for the franchise couldn’t have looked much worse. One year later, however, it couldn’t have looked much better.

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The 2017-18 Avs emerged as the NHL’s biggest surprise, climbing to a 43-30-9 record — nearly doubling their 2016-17 point total — and qualifying for the playoffs.

The youth movement that completely turned around the team was led by 22-year-olds Nathan MacKinnon and Nikita Zadorov (the latter will reunite with Soderberg on the Hawks this season), 21-year-old Mikko Rantanen and 19-year-olds Samuel Girard and Tyson Jost.

Soderberg, then 32, became the oldest man on the roster as the Avs jettisoned all of their aging dead weight from the previous season. And he bounced back with 37 points in 77 games.

So Soderberg clearly knows plenty about rebuilds, even as an older player. That’s why he still has a lot of faith in this Hawks team in transition.

‘‘I know it’s a rebuilding team, but it goes quick,’’ he said. ‘‘In Colorado . . . we were rebuilding, too, and now it’s one of the [top] contenders in the league. So it goes very quick. Hopefully this year is going to be our year.’’

Soderberg was part of an equally young, forward-looking Coyotes team last season. He played well against the Hawks, with one goal, three assists and nine shots in the three games between the teams.

And while he sat idle as a free agent for several months this fall and winter, it sounded as though that was largely his own choice.

‘‘I had a pretty good season last year, so I pretty much knew a couple of teams were going to step up late and give me a couple of offers,’’ he said. ‘‘I didn’t want to sign before we knew the whole setup, where it was going to be.

‘‘It was never a question for me. I wanted to play in the NHL, and I was very happy when Chicago called me.’’

Soderberg first will have to win a job in what might be a surprisingly competitive training-camp battle. Because what this Hawks team lacks in top-six talent, it makes up for in bottom-six depth.

But if — or when — he does, his negative impact on the Hawks’ average age should be more than compensated for by his rebuilding experience.