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Pre-Scout: Bedard vs. McDavid the focus, but Blackhawks boast many exciting young players
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Photo credit: © David Banks-Imagn Images
Michael Menzies
Nov 1, 2025, 13:00 EDTUpdated: Nov 1, 2025, 13:41 EDT
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On this Daylight Savings Time weekend, the Chicago Blackhawks have been rolling back the clocks 18 years with their better-than-anticipated start.
Back in 2007-08, those young Hawks were not the dynasty team they’d become yet. But this year’s team and that team won five of their first 11 games, as the 07-08 Hawks took big steps out of the basement to finish 10th in the Western Conference. Déjà vu all over again?
Fans were reminded of those glory days on Thursday, as the franchise played their first game against former captain Jonathan Toews with the Winnipeg Jets. It didn’t go as planned, and despite beautifying the result with a couple of late goals, it was still a 6-3 loss. 
“It was kind of a weird game,” Chicago first year coach Jeff Blashill said in the post-game. “There were moments in the game I thought we played really well, and then we made some big mistakes and those big mistakes ended up in our net.” 
In fact, their record of 5-4-2 is nearly identical to Edmonton’s mark of 5-4-3 in the early going. As of Friday’s standings, the Oilers held the last wildcard spot just ahead of the Blackhawks. 
Talk about a bundle of young talent — this rebuild has seen Chicago draft eleven times in the first round. First overall Connor Bedard in 2023, second overall Artyom Levshunov in 2024, 13th overall Frank Nazar in 2022, and 25th overall Sam Rinzel in 2022 are all in the regular lineup and contributing.
But with the deluge of top draft picks they’ve accumulated in the 2020s, it’s not all high-powered offence. They’ve blown out the St. Louis Blues 8-3 and Ottawa Senators 7-3, sure, but also won tight games 3-2 over the Tampa Bay Lightning and 2-1 over the Anaheim Ducks. 
This will be the Blackhawks’ second game on a six-game western swing that won’t see them back at home until Nov. 12. Edmonton’s games against Utah and Montreal saw major fireworks, and I tend to think we’re in for another high-scoring affair. 

Knight in shining armour

How do you not root for Spencer Knight? Returning to form in a major, Knight has gone through his trials and tribulations since being selected 13th overall in the 2019 draft by the Florida Panthers. 
In February 2023, he entered the NHL Player Assistance Program to help with his worsening Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, a condition that saw him fixate on contracting illnesses and disease. I would recommend The Hockey News piece on this for more reading from a couple of years ago, where Knight speaks candidly about how it started, a vulnerability that is refreshing in today’s game. 
Learning how to manage this condition, Knight returned to AHL action in 2023-24 with the Charlotte Checkers of the AHL, and then got the call again to the NHL in 2024-25. 
He was traded with a conditional first-round pick to the Blackhawks in the Seth Jones trade, and since then has made a home in Chicago. 
He’s posted a .914 save percentage and a steady 2.59 goals against average, numbers that hint at the massive potential Knight’s draft profile showcased. The advanced metric of Goals Saved Above Expected slots Knight sixth in the NHL, according to Moneypuck, in the company of names like Connor Hellebuyck, Thatcher Demko, Jake Oettinger, Logan Thompson, and Montreal revelation Jakub Dobes. 
Remember, he’s just 24 years old, the time most goaltenders are just breaking into the NHL, and through it all, he’s played over 100 regular-season games.
The Blackhawks confirmed their faith in Knight, extending him for three years at $5.83M annually after just 15 appearances for the club. It could be Knight’s time.  

Vets round into form

Despite calls for general manager Kyle Davidson to give Connor Bedard a legit top-line talent to play with, he stayed disciplined and made a few subtle moves instead.
They used some cap space to acquire two-time Stanley Cup champion Andre Burakovsky in exchange for Joe Veleno. Burakovsky was looking for a rebuild year and has 3-4—7 thus far. Take a peek at this sick goal.
Defenceman Matt Grzelcyk just couldn’t find a dance partner in free agency, aiming for a big bag after a 40-point career high season with Pittsburgh. It got so bad, he had to take PTO with Chicago, who then scooped him for a discount price of $1 million this year, rounding out a blueline that is very low on NHL games played. 
Then, Ryan Donato was rewarded for a 31-goal, 31-assist season to the tune of four more years at $4 million per. Not a bad deal for a guy who was second on the team in points, and will likely fall in the lineup as fresher talent is ready to seize more top spots.
But the most eye-catching was the extension for Frank Nazar. Having played just 56 NHL games, the parties agreed to a seven-year contract worth $46.13 million. That equated to $823,750 for every game he’d played in the league! It got a lot of attention, but early returns show this could be a discount contract for years to come.
Nazar has been excellent: 5 goals, 6 assists, 11 points in 11 games. They have their second-line center locked up for a long time.
Now, to the man we’ll know the most about: Connor Bedard. I was critical of Bedard’s choice to skip the World Championships and have been fascinated by the pseudo-talking-head rivalry between him and Macklin Celebrini. Bedard scored his first career hat-trick during the Frozen Frenzy on Tuesday vs Ottawa and seems intent on the classic third-year scoring breakout season. Plus, with the added incentive of a Team Canada Olympic selection, the 20-year-old is ready to use that elite and unique shot release to score 35+ goals this year.
Another sign of change (and yes, I know it’s early, and yes, I know many people don’t like plus/minus): Bedard was -44 and -36 his first two seasons. Right now, he’s plus-five. Not to mention, he’s the Blackhawks’ overall time-on-ice leader, impressive for a forward.

Notes:

  • Teuvo Teräväinen eats the Oilers up. For his career, he has 10 goals and 18 assists in 21 games vs Edmonton. He has eight goals and 12 points in the last six. Watch out for Teuvo, who has nine points in 11 games this year to boot. In comparison, it makes Bedard’s five career points in four tries look juvenile.
  • Chicago’s offence is first in the NHL in the metric of Goals For Above Expected, according to Moneypuck, suggesting they’ve got high skill in finishing chances.
  • Captain Nick Foligno continues to go about his business, playing hard and the right way for this young team. Saturday will be his 1,242nd regular-season game. Oddly, Philadelphia Eagles coach Nick Sirianni went as Nick Foligno for Halloween. Foligno had done the reverse a week prior. One of these individuals is a great man and a great leader: the other is Nick Sirianni. 
  • Get in early on Sam Rinzel. I think he could be a stud in the making. You’ll hear his name a lot tonight.
  • Jason Dickinson and Ilya Mikheyev are both listed as day-to-day. And barring the completely unforeseen, Shea Weber will not suit up, either.
  • There have been four Oilers-Blackhawks matchups in the Bedard era (where he played). Edmonton is 3-1, winning each game last year 4-3.

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