What are the Blackhawks’ plans to improve this summer?

It has been another difficult season in the Windy City.

The Chicago Blackhawks are 28-37-14 with 70 points in 2025-26, ranked last in the Central Division and 31st in the NHL. They will finish at the bottom of the Central for the fourth straight season and miss the playoffs for the eighth time in the last nine years.

With Connor Bedard set to become a restricted free agent and a number of players due for new contracts, fans are wondering if the Blackhawks will make trades this summer in order to surround their talented youth with high-quality teammates.

On Thursday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Tyler Yaremchuk and former NHL goaltender Carter Hutton are joined by The Fourth Period’s David Pagnotta discuss the Blackhawks’ upcoming offseason and what could be on the horizon in Chicago.

Carter Hutton: One team I wanted to check in on you with is Chicago. It felt like they were starting to speed up the process, then they fell apart in the second half. Where do you think they go this summer?

David Pagnotta: I think they recognize that they’re not there, yet. I think they’re going to start taking those steps this summer and going into next. They’ve got about $40 million in cap space, and yeah, a chunk of that is going to Connor Bedard, who is a restricted free agent, and they’ll enhance those conversations once the season ends. He could be anywhere between $12 and $15 million per season, depending on term.

You’ve got Bedard, you’ve got Anton Frondell, they’ve got a strong one-two punch with Frank Nazar, who has been alternating between the wing and center. But they want to insulate them and bring in guys who can play on the flanks and be complimentary pieces who work well with both Bedard and Frondell.

Ilya Mikheyev is a guy they like a lot. They’ve gone back and forth on a contract and they’ll continue those conversations, as well. Sam Lafferty is also an unrestricted free agent. Shea Weber’s money also comes off the books.

There’s some good complimentary players in free agency, but if you want top-six forwards or top-four defenders, you’re going to be looking at the trade market, and I think this is the summer that Chicago is going to be a bit more aggressive in their pursuit to add to this team.

You can watch the full segment and the rest of the episode here…