Blackhawks: Alex DeBrincat reflects on his frustration from the season

After a 41-goal season in 2018-19, the expectations for Alex DeBrincat out of the Chicago Blackhawks were high. He didn’t deliver the way most people expected him to.

With Alex DeBrincat coming off of a 41-goal season and signing a contract extension with the Chicago Blackhawks, fans were expecting more out of the 22-year old. Most fans understand how hard it is to get 40-goals in a season, so the expectations for a repeat year wasn’t there. Expecting 30-goals out of a player who scored 28 in his rookie campaign wasn’t too much to ask for.

DeBrincat was looked at as the next prestige goal-scorer for the Hawks, with his 69-goals in his first two seasons. Even with him scoring 18 last year, he still can be a huge asset to the Blackhawks for years to come.

After 234 games, DeBrincat has 87-goals and 86-assists for 173-points. That isn’t too bad. Where the question marks come are from the drop off in goals he had in 2019-20. He played all 70-games and didn’t even hit the 20-goal threshold. He left the year with 18-goals and 27-assists for 45-points.

DeBrincat is a smart guy and he knows he didn’t play well enough in 2019-20. He went from being on one of the best lines in hockey (DeBrincat-Strome-Perlini) to shuffling himself down the lineup. Part of the lack of production in my opinion came from splitting Dylan Strome and DeBrincat up. That was a bad move by Jeremy Colliton.

In the playoffs, DeBrincat had 6-points in 9-games (2G, 4A). He was starting to look better in the playoffs, with little puck luck.

Here’s what DeBrincat had to say about his lower offensive output this season.

"“It was a good learning thing for me to go through and hopefully will make me a better player down the road.”"

I love that he is taking accountability and is looking to get better. DeBrincat wasn’t a terrible player by any means, he just didn’t play up to his high standards.

It’s hard to get better if a player doesn’t face adversity. I’m expecting a bounce-back year for DeBrincat, as I still see him and Strome as the future of the Blackhawks.