Should the Blackhawks re-sign Matt Grzelcyk?

After the 2026 trade deadline passed, Matt Grzelcyk was the lone veteran defensemen on the Blackhawks — and after missing the last 12 games of the year due to injury, it became clear that this team needs a veteran presence on the blue line to help the young players.

Photo by: Chicago Blackhawks

Grzelcyk was signed to a professional try out (PTO) in training camp as a security blanket in case certain young players weren’t ready to go. The Blackhawks ended up signing Grzelcyk to a 1 x $1,000,000 deal to give players like Rinzel and Levshunov more breathing room. Grzelcyk played his role as a reliable veteran well this season, appearing in 69 games and putting up 0 goals and 12 assists. He played primarily bottom 4 minutes, with some powerplay and penalty kill time. In the rough last stretch to close out the season, the Blackhawks were dressing Vlasic, Crevier, Kaiser, Rinzel, Korchinski, and Del Mastro (Levshunov was injured). All 6 defensemen are 24 years old or younger. It is evident they need to bring back a veteran.

Like I said, Matt Grzelcyk played his role well. However, if there is only room for 1 veteran on the back end — I believe there are better options out there. The Blackhawks should be targeting a veteran who provides experience, an ability to play top matchups when the young guys need it, and also a level of physicality that Grzelcyk just doesn’t have as an undersized d-man (5’10). An area the Hawks struggled this season was throwing the body, clearing the front of the net, and standing up for each other. A veteran with an edge is what Kyle Davidson should target. Examples of players that come to mind are right-handed pending UFA Rasmus Andersson from the Golden Knights, and left-handed Vince Dunn of the Seattle Kraken, who has 1 year left at $7,350,000. Dunn is 29 years old and helped the Blues win a cup in 2019.