Ranking the Blackhawks forwards in the 2024-25 season from worst to first

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This time last season, ranking the forwards projected to be on the Chicago Blackhawks big club or as priority organizational depth wouldn’t have been a fun endeavor. And while the forwards are still by no means perfect, there’s at least hope brewing in the Windy City for what was one of the NHL’s most successful teams one decade ago.

The top five players ranked are especially promising, and you can even extend that number to those who graced our top six. But even those who found a home toward the bottom portion of the rankings still provide quite a bit of hope that the Hawks best days this decade are ahead of them.

17 - Brett Seney

Brett Seney is more of a high-priority AHLer than a full-time player, and he’ll likely be an “odd man out” among forwards this season, barring injury. He did see extended playing time in the 2018-19 season, when he racked up 13 points and five goals in 51 games, so he’s been at least serviceable in the past.

16 - Zach Sanford

Zach Sanford saw just 45 games of NHL action over the past two seasons, so like Seney, it’s hard to imagine he’ll be anything more than organizational depth this season. There will be much more competition on the Blackhawks this year not only with some of the recent additions, but a pair of players who could ultimately move up at some point.

15 - Frank Nazar

Frank Nazar is one of two players on this list ranked low by default, but will likely make a substantial climb at some point this season. He will be one to watch closely if he’s back in Rockford to kick off the 2024-25 campaign, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he got 20-plus games with the big club by the time the Blackhawks conclude the regular season.

14 - Landon Slaggert

Landon Slaggert could have the inside track to start the season in Chicago over Frank Nazar, but he’s most likely playing fourth-line minutes again after showing off some sound physicality and a knack for locating the puck defensively. Slaggert ended up scoring his first goal last season, and he put up four points in 16 games, so it wasn’t a bad start for his career when you look at the fact he only averaged a little over 11:15 of ice time per game.

13 - Joey Anderson

Could Joey Anderson be another odd man out this season, thanks to the sheer number of capable forwards in the system? Maybe, but until then, we’ll rank him toward the mid-to-bottom parts of the list and go from there, especially since he didn’t look half-bad in 55 games this past season.

12 - Andreas Athanasiou

Andreas Athanasiou is someone I’m excited to see in 2024-25, as he enjoyed a promising 2022-23 season with 20 goals and 40 points in 81 appearances. If he managed to follow that success up last season, he’d be ranked higher. But injuries and lack of production in 2023-24 put him a little too far down the list.

11 - Craig Smith

Craig Smith has likely seen better days throughout a successful career that predominantly came in Nashville, so at this stage, he’s nothing more than a strong veteran presence. It’s a role he’s played well in multiple stops since he joined the Boston Bruins in the 2020-21 season, and one in which he will also serve the Blackhawks well.

10 - Pat Maroon

Pat Maroon is another forward who will find himself in a mentorship role, and one with plenty of success throughout a career as primarily a role player. He’s an edgy winger who will stand up for the Blackhawks younger stars in 2024-25, and if he stays in that role, he’s doing his job.

9 - Lukas Reichel

Lukas Reichel is one player I wanted to rank higher, but until he starts enjoying some success on the ice, he’s rising no higher than a middle-of-the-pack ranking. But he’s young and there aren’t many on the big club with more potential, so it wouldn’t surprise me if he broke out in 2024-25.

8 - Ryan Donato

Ryan Donato will never be a big-time scorer in this league, and there’s a good chance younger players will eventually force him out of the lineup. But until then, he’ll play his role well as a bottom-six lower-liner as a defense-first forward who can put up between 12 and 14 goals in a season.

7 - Ilya Mikheyev

I wouldn’t be surprised if Ilya Mikheyev becomes a depth scoring option this season, something that’s more than possible with this Blackhawks team despite the uptick in talent. He’s rarely played for a bad team throughout his career, and still, Mikheyev has put up a respectable amount of points and goals - 45 of the latter over the past three seasons.

6 - Nick Foligno

Nick Foligno is still a top-six player despite the amount of talent now in Chicago, but expect him to wind up logging steadily fewer minutes per game as the 2024-25 season wears on. He should again be effective taking faceoffs when called upon, and you can also expect Foligno to maintain his physical style of play while putting up some supplemental scoring.

5 - Jason Dickinson

Jason Dickinson played a strong two-way game last season, and his efforts garnered some Selke votes. He also shattered his career-high in goals scored with 22 while providing edgy play and reliability at the faceoff dot. No, he’s not in the same tier as the top four on this list, but let’s not underestimate Dickinson as an effective player.

4 - Tyler Bertuzzi

Along with Teuvo Teravainen, Tyler Bertuzzi is one of those players who will make the Blackhawks a much better overall hockey team. Like Dickinson, he’s a player who will provide sound play on both sides of the ice, and he’s never afraid to try and score those ‘dirty goals,’ the latter of which alone is a trait that will more than help the Hawks dismantle their scoring woes from a year ago.

3 - Philipp Kurashev

Next to Connor Bedard, Philipp Kurashev is the one player near the top of this list who will enjoy another strong season of growth following a breakout 2023-24 campaign. Look for 25-plus goals and even more assists across what should be first-line minutes in 2024-25.

2 - Teuvo Teravainen

Teuvo Teravainen left an ideal situation in Raleigh to join this brewing Blackhawks team, and it indicates he more than believes what general manager Kyle Davidson is up to. Look for him to reward the organization with another big season after he found the net 25 times last year, and regardless of which line he finds himself on, a 60-plus-point season shouldn’t be out of the question.

1 - Connor Bedard

There was literally nobody else to rank at No. 1 than Connor Bedard, and what we saw the 2024 Calder winner do this past season is nothing more than a foreshadowing of what should be a fun year now that he has talent around him. With another year of experience for Kurashev while Teravainen and Bertuzzi join the Blackhawks ranks, let’s not put any limits on Bedard for now.

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