It wasn’t very way back that the Chicago Blackhawks not only experienced the top of the dynasty that produced three Stanley Cup victories, but in addition began their slide toward the underside of National Hockey League standings.
There have been some frustrating times lately within the Windy City, but a number of the consolation prizes have been their bevy of young draft selections, which they’ve managed to welcome into the organization thanks to a few very poor finishes.
In fact, their prospects are led by Connor Bedard, who was the consensus first overall pick within the 2023 NHL Draft after Chicago won the Draft Lottery. This was followed up by the number of defenseman Artyom Levshunov with the second overall pick in the next 12 months’s draft.
While the Blackhawks have made numerous moves to date each through trades and in free agency when it comes to additions and subtractions, perhaps none is more essential than their number of Swedish forward Anton Frondell with the third overall pick within the 2025 NHL Draft.
Drafting Anton Frondell was Blackhawks’ perfect move
Frondell was one among the highest-rated young prospects coming into the Draft, and there are many teams which are now disenchanted that they weren’t afforded the prospect to call his name when it got here time to make their very own respective selections.
Having already participated within the club’s development camp, Frondell already cannot wait to make an impact for his club on the NHL level.
“My dream is to play within the NHL,” he said via NHL.com. “I would like to do it as soon as possible. So, if I get a probability to be at (training) camp … and fight for a spot on the team, that’s my dream. That’s what I’ll do.”
Last season while playing for Djurgårdens IF of the Swedish Hockey League, Frondell scored 11 goals with 14 assists in 29 games played. As a formidable 16-year-old, Frondell participated for Sweden within the 2024 Under-18 Five Nations Tournament and helped defeat america for first place within the tournament.
Frondell is now officially a member of the Blackhawks, having signed a three-year entry-level contract.
SIGNED, SEALED, DELIVERED! ✍️
Anton Frondell, the third overall pick within the 2025 #NHLDraft, has signed his entry-level contract with the @NHLBlackhawks! pic.twitter.com/AChzFxPs5j
— NHL (@NHL) July 15, 2025
Blackhawks have made several additions and subtractions
The number of Frondell was only one among the moves that was made by the Blackhawks to date throughout the offseason. They conducted an interesting trade with the Seattle Kraken, acquiring forward Andre Burakovsky in exchange for former Detroit Red Wings first round pick Joe Veleno, who had been previously acquired in March for goaltender Petr Mrazek.
Considering Veleno’s underwhelming offensive performances with the Red Wings in recent seasons, he didn’t fit into the long run plans of the Blackhawks and was due to this fact deemed expendable.
Moreover, the Blackhawks welcomed Sam Lafferty back into the fold yet again; he was acquired from the Buffalo Sabres. In addition they acquired Ryan Mast from the Boston Bruins in exchange for the rights to defenseman Victor Soderstrom, while re-signing goaltender Arvid Soderblom to a brand new two-year extension.
Blackhawks GM Kyle Davidson stated recently via NHL.com that he feels that there’s an excellent mixture of young and veteran talent on Chicago’s roster heading into the brand new season.
“As we sit here now, I feel pretty comfortable in regards to the veterans we have, but in addition just the chance for competition amongst our young players that we’ll have if things were to remain the identical,” Davidson said.
“In fact, we will proceed to explore options on the market. By way of the NHL team, it’s probably more so trade options. I do not understand how much might be available to us, but it surely’s all the time something we’re exploring and looking out into. But it surely seems like we’re in a reasonably great place.”
That being said, it’s still going to be a protracted shot for the Blackhawks to make a return to the Stanley Cup Playoffs next spring, which can be the primary time since 2020. Long gone are the times of savvy, championship veterans like Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane, Brent Seabrook, Duncan Keith, Patrick Sharp and Marian Hossa, all of whom contributed in quite a few ways during Chicago’s glory years.
The excellent news for the Blackhawks moving forward is that their management team is clearly confident the young core that’s slowly being built around Bedard, Levshunov, and now Frondell, will eventually be the springboard to catapult them back into title contention.
While it’s actually going to take some more patience from Blackhawks faithful, this might thoroughly be the same darkness before the dawn they experienced before their last franchise renaissance within the late 2000s.