Will Alex DeBrincat Be Back with the Blackhawks?

The offseason is approaching rapidly and with a new front office regime, the Blackhawks are on the brink of a big-time rebuild. It is always shocking how the mighty fall, and the Blackhawks fall had arguably more to do off the ice, than on it.

Needless to say, the question on many fans' minds is who will still be with the team along for the ride of the rebuild? Last offseason, the Blackhawks shipped off much of the championship core that had remained: Duncan Keith to the Edmonton Oilers and a contract dump of the retired Brent Seabrook to the Tampa Bay Lightning. What remains is Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane.

Though he wasn't a part of any championship team, Alex DeBrincat has really found a fit with the team. DeBrincat stated to Ben Pope of the Chicago Sun-Times, "I'm still young. I want to help bring this team to the playoffs and win. I'm here to do whatever I can."

"I'm still young. I want to help bring this team to the playoffs and win. I'm here to do whatever I can."

"The Cat," as he is often called, has stacked together his best season to date. In the 80 games played so far, he has put together 77 points (41 goals and 36 assists) and is playing roughly 21 minutes of ice time per game. This earned him a spot on this year's All-Star team. This pairs nicely with two other All-Star appearances in 2018-19 when he had 41 goals, 35 assists in 82 games (his first appearance), and 2020-2021 when he had 32 goals and 24 assists in only 52 games (due to the COVID-shortened season).

Any way you slice it, DeBrincat's production has been noticed by many. He is clearly a great player and the Blackhawks would benefit from keeping a skilled, young veteran around. DeBrincat is only 24, readers. If he keeps playing at a point-per-game pace, then I don't see any reason to not bring him back, or, better yet, extend him, as Scott Powers of The Athletic reported.

What does an extension look like? Time will tell. As indicated in Powers' tweet about the situation, General Manager Kyle Davidson has a lot to take care of this offseason. Hopefully an extension for DeBrincat are within his plans. We get to wait and see.