4 statistics for the Chicago Blackhawks before this season – Hockey Writer – Chicago Blackhawks
I don’t even want to type in the sentence after this, because every Chicago Blackhawks fan, writer and Monday morning quarterback (Centerman?) said Ad Ad Ad Ad Adauseam.
For the Blackhawks, the 2025-26 season is an important season for the Blackhawks.
I don’t even need to tell you why. So I won’t.
Related: Black Hawks 2025 Training Camp Notebook: Davidson, Brahill, Folino, Dutch, Murphy, More
The information I haven’t heard or read too much is how we’ll know the Blackhawks are “next step” this season. How do we measure how eye tests feel beyond intuition?
Here are four Blackhawks statistics for the 2024-25 season, and my predictions about whether they will.
victory
Let’s start with the obvious: victory.
More wins mean improvements – this is the clearest metric we will have. The Blackhawks finished second in the league with 25 wins last season, with a poor .372 win rate.
The Blackhawks cut 30 wins in the 2019-20 season, although the team’s 0.491 win rate in the 2020-21 shortened 56 seasons will end with a 40 win. In any case, they have won 26, 23 and 25 in the past three seasons, undoubtedly the most difficult of this reconstruction.
How many wins are there in this season are realistic? The buzz around the team is positive. Connor Bedard enters his third season and looks bigger and stronger. Frank Nazar signed a long-term contract this summer, allowing him to focus on improvements. Sam Rinzel will try to pick him up where he leaves after a brief but impressive game against the Blackhawks last season. Prospects like Nick Lardis are designed to earn a place and demonstrate how they adapt to reconstruction.
But is this enough to win more games?
Yes, that’s why.
The rope has been handed over to the young players completely. Of course, veterans like Captain Nick Foligno and Connor Murphy will play and lead, but unlike last season, no older players have taken over the roster. The game will light a fire when players and teams recognize and seize opportunities.
Don’t expect a 40 or 50 win. But there are at least 30 possibilities. Actually, if I could be so bold, I would like to have 33 wins this season. That’s eight points higher than last season, up at least 16 points. It’s not the most exciting advancement, but it will be aggravated with new head coach Jeff Blashill implementing his system and young guns.
But this is progress.
Target
To win, you need to score goals (I know my keen NHL coverage, I know. Applause). It’s obvious to say that the Blackhawks try hard to score, like saying that they don’t drink from outside the Chicago River on St. Patrick’s Day (or any day).
Last season, the Blackhawks scored 226 goals, the seventh free throw in the league. This is a clear improvement compared to the 2023-24 season, when the team scored 179 goals. But the team has scored the least goals in two seasons in the past three seasons.
Connor Bedard on the Board
Let’s hear your predictions on how many goals he will score this season! pic.twitter.com/k8kxjrkywy
– NHL (@NHL) September 24, 2025
The injection of young talent should help the Blackhawks score higher. Bedard will lead the charge. If Lardis gets the roster, he proves he can score after scoring 71 goals in the Ontario Hockey League last season. As defenders like Rinzel and Artyom Levshunov become more comfortable, their ability to play will be demonstrated by scoring or building forwards.
The fragments are there. And, as I wrote above, drives and competition should be.
prophecy? Let’s see if the Blackhawks can lose 250 goals this season. That likely puts them in the upper half of the league. Moreover, this jump not only proves that the players are challenging the game, but also shows that the team hit more cylinders than last season (such as Power Games).
Oppose the target
To continue my excellent insight, it doesn’t matter what you score if more goals are allowed. Unfortunately, the Blackhawks didn’t improve as much in this category as they scored last season.
Last season, the team allowed 296 goals, ranking second in the NHL. That’s six goals compared to the 2023-24 season. The good news is that between the two seasons, the team’s goal difference remained unchanged in minus 70. Well, I don’t know if that’s good news, but at least the score improvement helps to remove some objections.
This statistic proves why we look at many different numbers here. The Blackhawk allowed the goal is the second important indicator of how many goals are improved or lack of improvement.
Last season, the Blackhawks struggled with a young team on defense. From implementing the system to staying fresh throughout 82 games, the fact is that the Blackhawks don’t have the NHL experience to compete for the entire 60 minutes. Anyone who watched the game last season often saw two completely different teams throughout the game, transitioning to higher gear too late in the third stage, or falling asleep after showing the flashes that could happen in the first two stages.
While the team will be one year older, I don’t believe they will take the next step on defense, which is a step that separates the boy from the man.
However, there are some reasons for optimism. Goalkeeper Spencer Knight will fit his first full season on the net. Blashill will highlight the small details of the game – fixed checks, back checks and no cheating in the defensive zone – often done on the roadside. He will hold players accountable for lack of effort.
Chicago head coach Jeff Blashill directed his team to skate twice, then came back after some sloppy passes, then whistled and screamed: “We have to get better today by passing!”
They made clean passes below without any confusion. #blackhawks pic.twitter.com/rjbtgpherh
– Charlie Roumeliotis (@croumeliotis) September 26, 2025
Here’s what you want to see from the head coach: Setting higher standards. Unfortunately, practice is not a game, and it is only possible to be full of experience in the regular season. (Relatedly, the same is true for playoff games and regular season games; that’s why many teams who have won the Stanley Cup recently lost in the finals.)
The Blackhawks still need some experience before they can significantly improve their defense. For this reason, I hope the goal will improve slightly, but not as huge as we want it to be. Assume that the 270s.
Face to win percentage
The ability to win a standoff is often underestimated. Great men like Sidney Crosby worked ruthlessly to be dominant, even though he only won 53% of what he attracted.
Confrontation takes time to hone skills, strength and hockey IQ. This is a great detail of the game, and many talented forwards don’t have to focus on the NHL. But when you get into the NHL and every player is good at almost everything, you focus on areas that will give you an advantage – it takes time and patience to master.
Connor Bedard pic.twitter.com/vlehychcolct
– BHF (@blackhawksfocus) September 27, 2025
This explains why the Blackhawks ended last season with a second poor percentage of faceoffs (44.8%). The oldest (officially listed) centers last season were Jason Dickinson and Teuvo Teravainen. The rest is almost no more than 20.
The Blackhawks’ performance in the standoff is an indicator of their youth and inexperienced radar. Of course, winning the standoff is not guaranteed success (New York Islanders had the highest proportion last season and did not make the playoffs). But the top ten teams are looking for a playoff or playoff battle.
That’s because winning a standoff requires strength and maturity that Black Hawks don’t have. This season, I expect this number to increase. Players like Bedard realize the importance of these details and how much they work in terms of improvement.
This number will not exceed 50%, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it goes up a few percentage points. Let’s call it 47% to 48% of the position.
Numbers don’t lie (usually)
Hockey is a combination of statistics and human will. Statistics measure trends and help us understand what is happening and why. People will break these trends and prove that no players are bound by numbers.
What the Blackhawks have achieved this season will depend on whether the team has the willpower and work ethic to improve the above statistics. They have talent and experience in some areas, while in others, I’m not sure.
Either way, the Blackhawks will judge by numbers. Whether players will encounter this situation is a question.
