News on Wednesday that the Blackhawks have signed goaltender Arvid Söderblom is a not-so-subtle reminder that Chicago’s front office has more to do this summer than just picking Connor Bedard first overall.
In fact, the Blackhawks have a handful of restricted free agents this summer with whom they need to make decisions. And the matriculation of prospects like Söderblom to the NHL — and the addition of Bedard — will impact some of those decisions.
Let’s look at the Blackhawks’ pending RFA class and what Chicago might do with each player.
Forwards
Philipp Kurashev, C/W
Age: 24 on Oct. 12
Previous Cap Hit: $750,000
My Take: Man, this is a tough one. I think the Blackhawks should bring him back, because he can skate and there’s some offensive ability there that they frankly lack in many places on the NHL roster as of now. But what exactly is Kurashev? He shows flashes of being top-line capable, but his best play last year was when the season started and he was on the third line with Jason Dickinson and Sam Lafferty. He scored a career-high nine goals this season in 70 games; I’d want to see more before I ink him to a deal longer than two years at this point. But I do think there’s an opportunity for him to continue developing in Luke Richardson’s system. He received a qualifying offer last summer as an RFA to stay in Chicago.
Joey Anderson, RW
Age: 25 on June 19
Previous Cap Hit: $750,000
My Take: Anderson is young and can skate, two things the Blackhawks are looking for moving forward. He showed some versatility and was willing to kill penalties after he was acquired from Toronto, and some of the coaches compared his game to Lafferty’s. I think the Blackhawks bring him back on a multi-year deal and see how he works in a third line role.
Anders Bjork, LW
Age: 27 on Aug. 5
Previous Cap Hit: $1.6 million
My Take: Bjork spent some time on the shelf after he was acquired, which was unfortunate because he showed some good offensive instincts early in his time in Chicago after he was acquired from Buffalo (for nothing, by the way). He had eight points in 13 games with the Blackhawks and is another guy who can fill a middle-six role with some speed and grit in his game. With roughly $40M to spend under the cap, bringing him back isn’t a bad idea.
Austin Wagner, LW
Age: 26 on June 23
Previous Cap Hit: $1,133,333
My Take: Unfortunately, we didn’t get to see much of Wagner after he was acquired from Los Angeles before the deadline because he was hurt when the Kings traded him to the Blackhawks. He appeared in only seven games, producing one goal with one assist. He’s a physical player who’s willing to mix it up and drop the gloves, and that might have some value on a young roster. I might be inclined to offer him a one-year, two-way deal as a show-me contract.
ROCKFORD RFAs
Cam Hillis
Hunter Drew
Maxim Golod
My Take: I don’t see a reason to sweat any of these three. Hillis appeared in 18 games for Rockford. Drew appeared in 16 games with Rockford. And Golod appeared in just three contests with the IceHogs. They can all move on or sign AHL contracts.
Defensemen
Caleb Jones
Age: 26 on June 6
Previous Cap Hit: $1.35M
My Take: It’s going to be hard to move on from Caleb because his brother, Seth, is the highest paid player on the roster. Add to that Caleb’s versatility and ability to play either side on the back end and he has value for the coaches to consider. He signed a qualifying offer last summer. With the defensive reinforcements coming this summer and into the coming seasons, the question is whether or not he wants more term than the Blackhawks should want to give him. If he wants more than 1-2 more years, he might be trade bait this summer.
Ian Mitchell
Age: 24
Previous Cap Hit: $925,000
My Take: I’ve been a huge fan of Mitchell’s since the Blackhawks drafted him in the second round back in 2017, but his development path has been anything but consistent. Frankly, the previous regime didn’t help him at all. He spent almost all of the 2021-22 season in Rockford playing significant minutes in all situations and, by all accounts, did well. But he struggled to get into the rotation this year in the NHL with veterans in front of him — and when Wyatt Kaiser joined the team. The one thing Mitchell has going for him is being a right-side guy; most of the prospects coming up next season are lefties. And he moves the puck well. I would love to see him on the third pair next year with Isaak Phillips, with whom he skated most of the previous season in Rockford, to see if that chemistry translate🐲s with more confidence in his roster spot. But it might be time for a change of scenery for Mitchell this summer, unfortunately.
Alec Regula
Age: 23 on Aug. 6
Previous Cap Hit: $866,667
My Take: Regula, like Mitchell, has seen some NHL action to varying degrees of success since signing out of London. And, like Mitchell, he plays the right side — a plus. Unlike Mitchell, Regula is a big kid (6-4, 205) and that size might be a factor if the Blackhawks looked to bring him back. He might be a guy who receives a qualifying offer this summer to play the right side behind Seth Jones and Connor Murphy. That opportunity may present itself if the Blackhawks decide to move on from veteran Nikita Zaitsev, who did absolutely noth𝐆ing for me after he was acquired. That was predictable, though; Ottawa gave the Blackhawks a second-round pick this year and a future fourth-round pick (2026) to get his contract off their books.
ROCKFORD RFA
Jakub Galvas
My Take: As we noted earlier, Galvas has signed a deal to play overseas next season so he won’t be back in the organization next season.
