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8 players who should not be back with the Chicago Blackhawks next season

By Todd Welter |
/ Stephen R. Sylvanie-USA TODAY Sports
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The Chicago Blackhawks finished with the second-worst record in the NHL. That is to be expected in the early stages of a massive rebuild.

The season was not all bad.

Connor Bedard will win the Calder Trophy. Philipp Kurashev emerged as a top-six player. Jason Dickinson had a career season. Alex Vlasic established himself as a top-pair-worthy defenseman in his first full NHL season.

Kevin Korchinski gained valuable NHL experience in his first fulltime season too. He was not even supposed to be in the NHL after his nine game tryout with the Hawks.

Petr Mrazek avoided IR and played well in goal. Nick Foligno emerged as the leader to replace long time captain Jonathan Toews.

The Hawks will head into the offseason with a chance to continue to add prospects with seven picks in the NHL Entry Draft's first three rounds. They can also add some veteran talent via trades with cap-strapped teams needing to offload salary based on the abundance of cap space the club has. Taylor Hall will be back after missing most of the season with a knee injury.

Things are looking up for the Hawks and maybe with a few shrewd moves, the team can compete for a wild card spot next season.

At the very least, hopefully, we can stop looking at Tankathon.com all the time. It also means the Chicago Blackhawks will likely part with eight players in the offseason.

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Tyler Johnson

The veteran is an unrestricted free agent. The Hawks have younger options at center in Bedard and Frank Nazar along with less expensive cap hits in Jason Dickinson and Andres Athanasiou under contract. Plus, Johnson is a two-time Stanley Cup winner that you know a contender will be interested in adding.

Also, Johnson made it clear at his year-end press conference that he wants to be on a winning team.

Johnson showed he can still be productive with 17 goals and 14 assists this season so he should not see too much of a decrease in a cap hit. It is better to let him walk in that instance and keep the cap flexibility.

Colin Blackwell

Blackwell missed the first two and half months of the season as he recovered from an injury that cut short his 2022-23 season. He was solid when he on the ice. Blackwell skated hard and played like every shift was his last.

It would be nice to have him back, but he got hurt again towards the end of the season. Blackwell is set to be an unrestricted free agent and would love to return.

The Blackhawks can replace him with younger and more talented players like Landon Slaggert and Cole Guttman. The other issue the team wants to avoid is having players on one or two-year deals. That is the best deal for the Hawks to have him on. Of the eight players on this list, he probably has the best shot to return.

Mackenzie Entwistle

Entwistle was the last tie the Hawks had left to Marian Hossa as he came to Chicago as part of the deal with the Arizona Coyotes to take on Hossa's deal. Mackenzie became a decent fourth-line player.

Again, the Hawks have plenty of options in their system to replace him instead of tendering him an offer.

Reese Johnson

Johnson is in the same boat as Entwistle. The guy has grit, but he was also a candidate on most nights to be a healthy scratch.

Taylor Raddysh

Raddysh is probably the biggest disappointment this season after Lukas Reichel and Arvid Soderblom. Raddysh had just five goals and nine assists on the season.

He showed a lot of promise in 2022-23 with 20 goals and 17 assists. Raddysh was the player portion of the Brandon Hagel trade package from the Tampa Bay Lightning. The Hawks already cut ties with Boris Katchouk this season and Raddysh's struggles have made the Blackhawks the losers in that part of the deal.

Raddysh is still 26, but that type of decline in production is worrisome. Plus, the Blackhawks have other promising options they can move on with.

Nikita Zaitsev

The veteran defenseman battled injuries or healthy scratches all season. The only reason he was on the team in the first place was the Hawks took on his salary to help get to the spending floor and gain a draft pick from the Ottawa Senators.

The Hawks have plenty of defensive prospects on the Rockford IceHogs to take his place.

Jaycob Megna

Megna was added midseason after the blue line was decimated by injuries. He played all right this year. Again, he is in the same boat as Zaitsev as he is just taking away ice time from prospects such as Wyatt Kaiser, Isaak Philips, or Ethan Del Mastro.

Jarred Tinordi

Tinordi either watched the puck go into the net when he was on the ice, or he dropped the gloves. He was one of the worst players the Blackhawks had this season. Ideally, he would have been the No. 7 defenseman watching games from the press box. Injuries, especially in December, meant he had to play, and the results were usually not good.

The veteran was going through some nagging injuries, so he gets credit for putting on the sweater when asked. The defenseman can easily be replaced by the prospects the Blackhawks have.

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