Key departures<\/p>\n
Ilya Mikheyev<\/a>, F: Signed a four-year contract with the Tampa Bay Lightning on July 1 after he had 36 points (18 goals, 18 assists) in 77 games last season and played an important role on the penalty kill. \u2026 Matt Grzelcyk<\/a>, D:\u00a0An unsigned free agent, he had 12 assists in 69 games last season. Grzelcyk sustained an upper-body injury against the Predators on March 22 and missed the rest of the regular season. \u2026\u00a0\u00a0Sam Lafferty<\/a>, F: Signed a one-year, two-way contract with the Florida Panthers on July 1. He was a healthy scratch most of last season, finishing with two points (one goal, one assist) in 29 games.<\/p>\n On the cusp<\/p>\n Roman Kantserov<\/a>, F: The Blackhawks have made it clear they have big expectations for the 21-year-old, who just wrapped up his fourth season in the Kontinental Hockey League. A second-round pick (No. 44) in the 2023 NHL Draft, Kantserov had 64 points (36 goals, 28 assists) in 63 games with Metallurg last season and was expected to be Connor Bedard<\/a>‘s right wing on the top line. That will have to wait because Bedard had surgery on his left shoulder on Wednesday and will miss the start of the season, but Kantserov could still be a force until Bedard makes his expected return in November. \u2026\u00a0\u00a0Anton Frondell<\/a>, F: The 19-year-old made his NHL debut with the Blackhawks late last season, finishing with nine points (three goals, six assists) in 12 games. The No. 3 pick in the 2025 NHL Draft, Frondell had 28 points (20 goals, eight assists) in 43 games with Djurgardens of the Swedish Hockey League. \u2026\u00a0\u00a0Sacha Boisvert<\/a>, F: The 20-year-old had two points (one goal, one assist) in seven games for the Blackhawks after he finished his season at Boston University, where he had 17 points (three goals, 14 assists) in 26 games. With Bedard sidelined to start the season, the Blackhawks are going to need more depth at center. Boisvert could help fill the void there if he has a good training camp. \u2026\u00a0AJ Spellacy<\/a>, F:\u00a0Spellacy had 32 points (13 goals, 19 assists) in 51 games last season with Windsor of the Ontario Hockey League. The 20-year-old has great speed, is good on face-offs and is a right-handed shot, something the Blackhawks don’t have many of on their roster. Those traits and a strong camp could open the door for him in Chicago.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Key departures Ilya Mikheyev, F: Signed a four-year contract with the Tampa Bay Lightning on July 1 after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":759698,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,99],"class_list":["post-759697","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/759697","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=759697"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/759697\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/759698"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=759697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=759697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=759697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}