Childhood Friends Isaak Phillips, Mitchell Weeks Reunited With Blackhawks

For once, Blackhawks general manager Kyle Davidson's session with reporters was more chill than grill. In contrast to a year ago, he didn't have to juggle questions about Jonathan Toews' and Patrick Kane's futures (including whether either would retire), or which free agents were really trade bait, or whether the Hawks would try to tank the season…

You'd think Nick Foligno and Taylor Hall might feel like they're starting over again from scratch. Their Boston Bruins were betting favorites heading into this year's Stanley Cup playoffs after breaking records for wins (65) and points (135), but they were dispatched in the first round by the Florida Panthers. Nearly a month later, both forwards…

Chris Reed and C.J. Ham - with many of their Vikings teammates already settled in warmer climes - piled their families into cars for a trip to Mankato on the second Saturday of the offseason to see if they could put the shot as far as they once did. They'd first become acquainted over January indoor track and field meets at Minnesota State Mankato.…

Spider-Man, Superman, The Flash and The Incredible Hulk invaded the Allstate Arena on Saturday to watch the Chicago Wolves take on the Rockford IceHogs. Other crime-solving icons -- most of whom were enthusiastic, energetic kids -- were also in attendance in support of the Wolves' Superhero Night. When the game went into overtime, the IceHogs --…

During his freshman and sophomore years at the University of Denver, Cole Guttman was productive offensively but didn't play on the penalty kill. So he decided to change that. He worked on faceoffs, positioning and stick usage on defense. He set a goal to be a regular penalty-killer by his senior year and accomplished it. Along the way, he…

2022 was a mostly forgettable year for Chicago sports squads. The Bulls were the only team to make the playoffs -- but exited quickly, the White Sox fell miserably short of expectations and the Bears, Blackhawks and Cubs remained mired in rebuilds. But a new year brings new hope: a draft pick who's a game-changer, a big free-agent acquisition,…

This Blackhawks season is going to test fans. It's going to test some players. It's likely to test Jonathan Toews' and Patrick Kane's loyalty. It's unlikely to test Luke Richardson. Richardson had a pretty good idea of what he was signing up for when he became the Blackhawks' coach. But even with an understanding that this team wasn't built to win…

Luke Richardson has 10 games in the book as coach of the Chicago Blackhawks, and there's still a lot to learn about his team's identity. The Hawks (4-4-2) have been equal parts scrappy overachievers and a collection of parts thrown together in a rebuild. So what has stood out? The Hawks have no obvious replacement for Alex DeBrincat, who was traded…

Sean Behrens is well aware of what it's like to live in a place with great hockey. The Chicago product grew up during the heart of the Blackhawks dynasty when his favorite team won three Stanley Cups from 2010-15. The DU Pioneers sophomore has said his favorite player is Jonathan Toews and if you ask just about any young kid who grew up in Chicago…

CHICAGO - Luke Richardson looks like he just stepped out of an animated Batman series, with a jaw so square and sturdy you could use it as a blacksmith's anvil. This is a 6-foot-4, 210-pound Easter Island statue come to life, a man who spent more than two decades forcibly moving people out of his way in the NHL - with his shoulders, with his fists,…

Here and there in the middle of September. ••• 1967 MAPLE LEAFS I still chuckle when I think about all of the razzing that I took from fans of the Toronto Maple Leafs when they won the Stanley Cup in 1967. The Maple Leafs were my least favourite team of the National Hockey League's Original Six and it definitely pained me when they upended the…

The Chicago Blackhawks capped off their worst season since 2005-06 with a 3-2 overtime loss to the Buffalo Sabres Friday night. Before the game started, Malcolm Subban regaled KeyBank Center with a pretty nice rendition of the Star Spangled Banner: Considering these are two bottom-feeder teams, it's not surprising that the first 40 minutes of the…

The Chicago Blackhawks were back on the ice for practice on Wednesday, with the team's top prospect among them. On Tuesday evening, the Blackhawks announced that 2020 first-round pick Lukas Reichel had been recalled from the Rockford IceHogs and he spent Wednesday's practice skating on the team's second line with a pair of Chicago's No. 3 overall…

CHICAGO - The Blackhawks didn't take the ice on Saturday, with Luke Richardson choosing instead to have his weary team focus on some video and other off-ice work. But MacKenzie Entwistle and Philipp Kurashev couldn't help themselves. They don't just like competing against each other, they need to compete against each other. "I love beating him,"…

ST. LOUIS - Ian Mitchell laughed. There was no joy in the laugh, none of the usual body language that accompanies a moment of merriment. It was a laughter of recognition, of resignation, of what do you want me to say. Perhaps "scoff" would be a better word for it. He laughed because the question, and its answer, were so obvious. Has it been tough…

Let's pick up where we left off. As promised, part two of the Blackhawks' mailbag. What will the Blackhawks' defense look like in 2025 with the emergence of world junior players? - Blair C. You would think a lot of the Blackhawks' current defenseman prospects in the pipeline are ready in 2025. I'm sold on Kevin Korchinski, Alex Vlasic and Wyatt…

SvoNotes is a weekly column by BlueJackets.com reporter Jeff Svoboda. In the Blue Jackets home opener, the team was up 1-0 and looking for more when Eric Robinson had a golden scoring chance. Sean Kuraly hunted down a puck behind the net while Columbus was shorthanded and hit Robinson in stride with a pass all alone in front of Tampa Bay goalie…

We've hit the second checkpoint mark of the 2022-23 season. First, it was Thanksgiving. Now, it's Christmas. Next, it's the All-Star Break and then it's the trade deadline. So here are 15 thoughts about the Blackhawks going into the three-day holiday break: 1. The Blackhawks are 8-20-4 and have 20 points through 32 games. They're on pace to finish…

Nothing about Brad Hunt's career had given him reason to believe he'd ever play for Team Canada. He started his professional career as an undrafted player and, at 34 years old, has appeared in fewer than 300 NHL games. He's a journeyman who has been with seven organizations, splitting time between the AHL and NHL level. That doesn't scream…

BUFFALO - The NHL Draft combine is always an interesting time. The players are tired, but happy. They're talkative. And the Saturday media availabilities mean they're wrapping up all the festivities before the real fun begins in Nashville later this month. After today, anything that happens next is out of a player's hands. So after months of…

It was a run for the ages for Chase Stillman and the Peterborough Petes. The Petes stumbled down the stretch of the regular season, entering the Ontario Hockey League playoffs against the Sudbury Wolves. After the Petes pulled off a four-game sweep, it set up a showdown with the Ottawa 67's, the team that finished with the best record in the entire…

CHICAGO - Connor Murphy and Jake McCabe have talked about it. Maybe on a long flight to another essentially meaningless game. Maybe over dinner or a beer after a game. Maybe in a quiet moment in the dressing room, when there's some high-stakes game between two contenders playing on the big screen. The two veteran defensemen - Murphy in his 10th…

The constant speculation around the futures of Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane will actually become facts. They'll either want to stay or go and then they'll either be dealt or not before the trade deadline. Soon, it will happen … or not happen. But before that, we do still have some time. Kane and Toews' agent Pat Brisson said last week he didn't…

byDave McCarthy/ NHL.com Independent Correspondent TORONTO -- Easton Cowan may not look physically imposing, standing 5-foot-11 and weighing 170 pounds, but his style of play suggests a fearlessness that evidently runs in his family. The 18-year-old forward prospect, selected by the Toronto Maple Leafs with the No. 28 pick in the 2023 NHL Draft,…

EDMONTON - It's only about a 20-minute drive from the Saddledome to Calgary International Airport, but the Blackhawks sure made the most of it on Thursday night. They had just come off maybe their best team effort of the season, getting a goal from all four lines in beating the Flames and silencing their fans, and they were feeling pretty, pretty…