Blackhawks youth movement, 3 defensemen to watch in 2026-27

Will the Chicago Blackhawks be better this season than they were in the 2025-26 campaign? They finished 31st in the league last season, so there’s plenty of room for improvement. We recently covered the plethora of offseason moves the organization made, which hopefully will translate to more success. But some people feel that’s still not enough to significantly move the needle. Plus, their best player on the team, Connor Bedard, will be out until early November after having offseason shoulder surgery.

Let’s face it; in order to make any significant strides, the team is counting on incremental improvement from the young players who’ve graduated to the NHL level over the past few seasons. General manager Kyle Davidson is attempting to build a contending team mostly through the draft. He’s made numerous draft picks over the last handful of years, and now many of them are coming into the league together. It’s their time to shine.

I’ve already discussed some key young forwards in the first part of this mini series. Today, we’ll look at three young defensemen to watch in 2026-27.

Note: For the purposes of this article, I’m going to exclude Bowen Byram and Alex Vlasic from this exercise. We already know Byram was brought in to be the Blackhawk’s No. 1 defenseman of the future. It goes without saying that his success is paramount to the Blackhawk’s success. Vlasic, for his part, is the most tenured member of the team. He’s also arguably the Hawk’s No. 1 defensive defenseman. Plus, both blueliners are 25 years old. This practically makes them old men in comparison to the current youth movement! Let’s look at the others who will need to step up.

Kevin Korchinski

Korchinski hasn’t been re-signed yet, but Davidson was recently on the CHGO podcast, and he said he was confident deals would get done for both Korchinski & Ethan Del Mastro. That said, Korchinski will be fighting for a spot in the lineup. The offseason additions of Byram and Ian Cole make for a very crowded blue line. Korchinski would also have to clear waivers to be sent down to the Rockford IceHogs, meaning it behooves the Blackhawks to find a place for him. Having the 22-year-old sit out as the seventh defenseman wouldn’t be good for his development, of which he’s already had a rough road.

The young defenseman played 76 games with the Blackhawks as a 19-year-old right out of his draft year (2022). It was either that or back to his WHL team, the Seattle Thunderbirds, as Canadian Hockey League rules prohibited him from playing with the Rockford IceHogs. In hindsight, this might’ve been a bad decision. Korchinski struggled mightily and it affected his confidence. The Saskatoon native has spent most of the next two seasons with the IceHogs, with a few short stints up with the Blackhawks both campaigns.

Last season, his biggest stretch with the big club was for nine games at the end of year. Both Matt Grzelcyk and Artyom Levshunov were out with injuries. Korchinski and Del Mastro were deployed as the third pairing, with a chance at an audition of sorts for this coming campaign. Head coach Jeff Blashill gave a good assessment of what he’s looking for from Korchinski on April 1.

"I think Korch has done a good job of using his feet to defend, and keeping his play fairly simple with the puck, and skating to escape pressure, and then moving it to the open guy. That's what I think he needs to do to be successful. If he can use his feet to defend like that, and use his feet to get himself in position to pass pucks to open people, that's the best way to play."

Korchinski has always been offensively gifted, but has struggled on the defensive end. He’ll need to balance that accordingly to find a place in the lineup. Blashill was also partial to deploying a rather unorthodox 11 forwards and seven defensemen last year, especially in the early part of last season. This gave more opportunities to his young defensemen. I wonder if he’ll consider that again this season. Korchinski could certainly be a benefactor of that. Either way, it will be essential for this young defenseman to have a strong training camp.

Sam Rinzel

Rinzel is one of only two true right-shot defensemen on the Blackhawk’s roster (the other of which is highlighted below), making him a valuable asset for the team. Drafted 25th overall in the 2022 draft, hopes were high for the Minnesota native after two successful seasons with the University of Minnesota. Everything went swimmingly for Rinzel when he suited up for nine games with the Blackhawks at the end of the 2024-25 season. He posted five assists in this span, and looked the part defensively.

But things caught up to him a little bit last season. He started off well enough, playing on the top defensive pairing alongside Vlasic, and even quarterbacked the top power play unit. But then he seemed to lose some of his confidence. He began making defensive mistakes and giving up odd-man rushes. It eventually led to a stint in Rockford of 23 games.

When Rinzel returned in February, Coach Blashill said he hoped his time had taught him more about his body positioning defensively, so pucks don’t go through him. Rinzel hasn’t filled out his 6’4” frame yet; he weighs in at just 194 pounds. So it’s essential is use his brain to make plays when he can’t use his body as much.   

One of Rinzel’s biggest strengths is that he’s a fluid skater who can attack up the ice and join the rush. This was highlighted in a goal he scored in the last game of the season, a 5-2 win over the San Jose Sharks.

The defenseman spoke about this offensive aspect being part of his ultimate goal. “At the end of the day, I want to be a two-way defenseman that can play great at both ends of the ice. But yeah, I like to get in the rush. If I can carry the puck, I like to carry the puck. That offensive side. For sure, I’d like to try to improve on that.”

All eyes will be on Rinzel this season for him to continue his development and be a more integral member of the D-corps.

Artyom Levshunov

Like Rinzel, Levshunov is the other true right-shot defenseman on the team. He was selected by the Blackhawks second overall in the 2024 draft, which obviously came with very high expectations for success. This past season was Levshunov’s first full campaign with the Blackhawks. It came with a lot of ups and downs.

He started the season defending really well, but then the coaching staff tried to get Levshunov to attack the game more offensively. Unfortunately, this came with a setback in his defending. Said Blashill in late February, “At the beginning of the year, he was defending really, really well. And then we worked on pushing him to bring more of that offense and attack the game. And he did a really good job. And at some point, you probably got over the line, right? The balance between, the best players are able to produce offense and give up very little. So he kind of walked over that line. And I think we've got him back to start with that basis of playing good D and then building from there.”

Obviously, Levshunov’s minus-41 plus/minus rating from last season is unacceptable. The 20-year-old will need to improve his reads and his decision-making with the puck in the defensive zone. Before he sustained a fractured left hand in late March that sidelined for the remainder of the season, defense-first was the main focus of his game.  

One of Levshunov’s biggest assets is that he’s really strong. Said his teammate Jason Dickinson last December, “For Arty, the big thing is to learn that he's got great legs, he's strong, and he can out muscle guys, and the more he keeps doing that, the more he's going to learn where his spacing is to do those sorts of things. And like you said, he created a couple of exits because he's strong on the puck. He uses his legs and he trusts himself to get himself out of tight spots, because he is a strong kid that can do those things.”

Coach Blashill agreed, and stressed he’d like to see Levshunov use his strength to be more physical. They’ve also been working with him on bettering his shot mechanics. Levshunov was credited with 22 assists last season, which led all defensemen. But he only registered two goals. It would be a positive if he could improve in that area.

Levshunov is probably the most raw of all the defensemen, but he also arguably has the biggest upside. Hopefully he can put more of the pieces together this season.   

Honorable mentions, Wyatt Kaiser & Ethan Del Mastro

Honorable mentions go to Kaiser and Del Mastro as young defensemen to watch. Kaiser is 24 years old and had a breakout campaign last season, but there’s obviously still room for him to grow.

Del Mastro is 23. As long as he receives a new contract with the Blackhawks, he'll likely be on the bubble similar to Korchinski. But he’s more of a defensive defenseman, unlike the three players highlighted. He also has a good amount of experience playing on the right side. Both of these attributes could be to his advantage.

It will be interesting to see how things play out with the defensive corps this season. The defensemen covered above all have tons of potential and will be young players to watch. Their development and progression could highly correlate towards the Blackhawk’s overall success.

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