The Real Unspoken Hero of the Blackhawks Resurgence

The Chicago Blackhawks have a solid duo in goal in Spencer Knight and Arvid Soderblom for the next couple of years. This is the first time in a while the Blackhawks have had a 1A and 1B goalie to rely on; however, the goaltending position has been the least of the Blackhawks' worries since the rebuild began in 2019. While the Blackhawks allowed a ton of goals, the goaltenders manning the net in this rebuild period have done much better than expected, and one person is mainly to thank: Jimmy Waite.

Waite is the goaltending coach of the Blackhawks, and in the years he has been in that position, the Blackhawks have never really had a goaltending problem. The goaltending showed unsatisfactory results; however, the defense and system are the main reasons why. My reason for thinking this is that after the defense began to improve, the goaltending started to shine.

Waite has worked with many goaltenders in his time here, and many of them were not exactly "impressive" prior to their arrival, such as Kevin Lankinen, Colin Delia, and the current 1B goalie in Soderblom. All three of them blossomed into serviceable goaltenders, with Lankinen being a reliable backup for the Vancouver Canucks.

This kind of thing isn't common in the NHL, where goalies end up on a team and improve every time. We can see how teams are so close to a championship, only for the goaltender position to weigh them down. The Blackhawks have not and likely will not have that problem as they continue to improve and begin to challenge for a playoff position in the next couple of seasons.