What if the Blackhawks kept Ed Belfour and Dominik Hašek?

Prior to the Chicago Blackhawks appearing in the 2010 Stanley Cup Final, their last shot at a title came in 1992, when the Pittsburgh Penguins swept them.

At that time, Chicago rode the early-career successes of Ed Belfour, who won the Calder, Vezina, and Jennings Trophies at 25 years old in 1990-91. Interestingly, after going undrafted, he signed with the club as a free agent way back in 1987.

Meanwhile, in the 10th round of the 1983 NHL Draft, the Blackhawks selected an unknown netminder from Czechia, Dominik Hašek. He wouldn’t debut in the NHL until the 1990 season and, with Belfour’s rise to fame, didn’t get much playing time over two seasons in Chicago.

During the 1992 Stanley Cup Final, neither Belfour nor Hašek could slow down the Penguins' machine, who scored 15 goals in just four games, capturing the Stanley Cup in a 6-5 victory in Game 4 on June 1, 1992.

Unable to get his time in the crease, Hašek was traded to the Buffalo Sabres for Stéphane Beauregard and a 1993 fourth-round pick, which turned out to be Éric Dazé.

On the other hand, Belfour remained the Blackhawks' No. 1 goalie until Jan. 25, 1997, when he was dealt to the San Jose Sharks for Ulf Dahlén, Michal Sýkora, and Chris Terreri.

Outside of Chicago, both Belfour and Hašek would build Hall of Fame resumes, combining to win three Stanley Cup titles, six Vezina Trophies, three Jennings Trophies, two Ted Lindsay Awards, and two Hart Trophies.

Even though most of that hardware belongs to Hašek, there is an alternate universe where the two guide the Blackhawks back to the Stanley Cup Final in the 1990s, ending a long championship drought.

Imagining a world where the Blackhawks split Belfour and Hašek’s workload 50-50

In 2026, there are no NHL goalies who will ever approach the games-played totals Belfour and Hašek routinely played in the 1990s, with seasons of 70+ starts.

Three decades ago, coaches found their No. 1 goalie and rode them from opening night to the end of their playoff run, win or lose. It’s ultimately why Martin Brodeur ended up playing 1,266 games between the pipes, a record surely never to be broken.

When the Boston Bruins set numerous NHL records for best record and point totals in 2022-23, they split their goalie duties almost evenly between Linus Ullmark (49 GP) and Jeremy Swayman (37).

In 1991-92, Belfour went 21-18-10 in 52 games, while Hašek was 10-4-1 in 20 games. Meanwhile, Jimmy Waite (4-7-4) and Ray LeBlanc (0-0-1) saw time in goal. Overall, the Blackhawks finished second in the Norris Division with a 36-29-15 record before advancing to the Stanley Cup Final with a 12-2 playoff record.

During the very next season, Belfour would play an NHL-leading 71 games, earning a 41-18-11 record, while Hašek was still looking for a starting opportunity with the Sabres, going 11-10-4 in just 28 appearances.

However, things got very interesting for both goalies and organizations in 1993-94.

Of course, Belfour played another 70 games, going 37-24-6 while Chicago bowed out in the first round of the playoffs. Meanwhile, in Buffalo, Hašek took the league by storm with a ridiculous .930 SV% and 1.95 GAA, while tying Belfour for the league lead in shutouts with seven. He was 30-20-6 in 58 games.

Surprisingly, the Sabres won one more playoff game than the Blackhawks, but would Chicago have finished fifth in the Central Division with Hašek sharing the crease?

What about Chicago’s playoff successes in the late 1990s?

In the shortened 1994-95 season, Belfour played in 42 of 48 games, going 20-15-3, helping the Blackhawks win their first playoff series since their run to the Final in 1992, and leading Chicago back to the Conference Final.

Unfortunately, that was the last playoff dance for the Blackhawks with Belfour, as he didn’t finish the 1996-97 season with them; they traded him to San Jose in January. With the tandem of Jeff Hackett and Terreri, Chicago lost in the opening round before failing to make the playoffs again until 2002.

Over in Buffalo, Hašek followed Beflour’s pattern in 1994-95 and played 41 games, going 19-14-7, but the Sabres lost in the opening round, still not winning a playoff series with him in the lineup.

Just like Chicago, the Sabres hit rock bottom in 1995-96, failing to make the playoffs while Hašek posted his first losing record, going 22-30-6, and leading the NHL in losses.

In the following campaign, 1996-97, Buffalo bounced back and won the Northeast Division title, while Hašek won his first playoff series in Game 7 against the Ottawa Senators. However, their successes were short-lived, as they suffered a five-game losing streak to the Philadelphia Flyers.

Despite the lack of playoff victories, Hašek walked away with four awards, including the Hart and Lindsay Trophies as NHL MVP, and the Vezina and Jennings Trophies.

Unhappy in San Jose after 13 games, Belfour relocated to Dallas to be the Stars’ top goalie in the summer of 1997, posting an NHL-best 1.81 GAA. Meanwhile, the No. 1 goalie in Chicago was Hackett, who went 21-25-11 in 58 games.

Surprisingly, both the Stars and Sabres advanced to their respective Conference Finals that year, foreshadowing what was to come for both Belfour and Hašek.

Once again, at the annual awards show, Hašek repeated as the winner of the Hart, Lindsay, Vezina, and Jennings Trophies.

Somehow, with a 29-41-12 record, the Blackhawks finished third in the Central Division with Jocelyn Thibault rising to take the starter’s role. In 52 games, he was 21-26-5, and the only Chicago goalie to earn a shutout that season.

A dream Stanley Cup Final in 1999

Just seven years after being teammates with the Blackhawks, now two of the game’s very best, Belfour and Hašek, met in the 1999 Stanley Cup Final, where the Stars defeated the Sabres in six games.

As expected, both goalies were difficult to beat: Belfour posted a .941 SV% with only nine goals against, while Hašek surrendered 12 to produce a .931 SV%.

Despite outstanding performances from the old Chicago teammates, everyone will remember this series for Brett Hull’s controversial goal in the third overtime that won the Stanley Cup for Dallas.

When looking back at the Blackhawks' goalie situation after Belfour left in early 1997, only Terreri posted a winning record for the remainder of the decade, going 12-11-4 in 28 games. Overall, six different goalies played for the organization from 1996-1999, when their former netminders became stars with other organizations.

From the beginning of the 1992-93 season to the end of the 1998-99 campaign, the Sabres put together the ninth-best record in the NHL at 249-216-79, while Chicago went 243-223-78, good enough for 12th overall.

However, without either Belfour or Hašek in their lineup, the Blackhawks had the league’s 21st-best record, 59-80-25, from 1997 to 1999, while the Stars took the top spot at 100-41-23, and the Sabres ranked 10th at 73-57-34

Now, as stated before, neither Belfour nor Hašek could have played 60 to 70 games together in the same lineup. Still, if the Blackhawks had only a vision of what was to come for both goalies and thought about the future of the goaltender position, where two elite netminders share the workload, there is an alternate universe where Chicago returns to the Stanley Cup Final much sooner than 2010.

Of course, some people could point out that riding one goalie for an entire season worked very well for Brodeur, Patrick Roy, Marc-André Fleury, and even Andrei Vasilevskiy; they cannot say the same thing for Henrik Lundqvist, Connor Hellebuyck, and Pekka Rinne.

Historically, Chicago was a contending team in the early 1990s with a young star like Jeremy Roenick and a veteran like Chris Chelios. Eventually they left, and the team’s successes fell on the shoulders of their goalies, NHLers who were nowhere near the same league as Belfour or Hašek, which left fans thinking about what could have been if the two future Hall of Famers had stayed together a little longer.

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