Chicago Blackhawks: 3 unsung heroes in 2019-20

2. Ryan Carpenter

Just like Kampf, Ryan Carpenter has been an unsung hero for the Blackhawks this season. Carpenter has played in 51 of the 52 games for the team. He isn’t a goal scorer, or an elite forward, but he helps the team out in his way.

At 29, Carpenter has only played in 183 games. Like Kampf, Carpenter also was an undrafted free agent. The Blackhawks signed Carpenter in the offseason. His contract runs out in 2022. He currently has an AAV of $1,000,000. That saves a lot of cap for the team.

Carpenter reminds me a lot of John Madden if we are comparing him to older Blackhawks. Madden was the same type of player. Madden has more success getting on the score sheet though throughout his NHL career.

Carpenter, as Madden did, would do the things that went unnoticed. He kills penalties and he’s very physical. He also averages just over 14 minutes of playing time each night. Carpenter is very reliable and has been playing well this season.

The jury is still out on him. A few negative things would be his lack of faceoff wins. Carpenter has won under half of his faceoffs this season. That isn’t a recipe for success. He is still a good two-way player though. There’s a lot of positives that go around his name.