Chicago Blackhawks interim head coach admits that veteran players were frustrated during the season

The roster shift that the Chicago Blackhawks experienced in the 2024-25 was clear to see and it changed the team’s overall dynamic down the stretch. A much younger group took the ice in the final month of the campaign compared to the how the roster looked on opening night. More entry-level contracts were signed in the middle of the season, which resulted in much quicker play from a pace standard.

Six of the eight first round draft picks made by general manager Kyle Davidson over the past three years were on the roster at some point this season. There is much more help on the way as well, with Chicago holding two first round picks once again this year to pair with their two second round selections.

With the youth movement making it’s way to the NHL level in the Blackhawks organization, some veterans on the roster were impacted more than others. Whether this was through line changes or general ice time, things needed to be shuffled around the accommodate the new faces on the ice.

Anders Sorensen admits that certain players were frustrated

For a team that was loaded with veterans to begin the season back in October, this change might not have sat well with certain players on the roster. When interim head coach Anders Sorensen spoke with the media last week, he confirmed part of this belief to be true.

“There were bad stretches throughout the year, and there were different reasons for that, Sorensen told the media. “I think there’s a lot of undercurrent that people don’t know about, that goes behind [the scenes], that nobody’s going to talk about.”

This quote from the interim bench boss can be taken in two different directions. One of which could be as simple as frustration boiling over from veterans on the roster regarding the team’s poor play. As Sorensen mentioned, the growing pains from this group were very apparent, especially on the road. The Chicago Blackhawks only won 10 games away from the United Center this season, which included multiple painful losing streaks.

The other interpretation that many are taking away from this quote is that a few veterans that saw their roles change throughout the campaign were rubbed the wrong way by the youth movement joining the fray. With the exception of the Seth Jones trade with the Panthers and the Craig Smith/Petr Mrazek trade with the Red Wings, the Blackhawks mostly stood pat at the deadline this season.

Because of this, a few veterans both on the blue line and in the forward group lost ice time and even their spots in the lineup toward the end of the year. Even though this is the nature of the business, it’s still easy to see why some guys would be frustrated over this aspect of the season.

There will still be a steady veteran presence next season

Guys like Ryan Donato and Ilya Mikheyev had career years for Chicago. While Mikheyev is under contract through next year, Donato is set to be a free agent. It will be up to the Blackhawks’ front office to take care of the the 30-goal scorer from this past year if they want him around for the next stage of this rebuild.

Captain Nick Foligno will be back next year and a few more important veterans under contract for multiple seasons like Tyler Bertuzzi and Teuvo Teravainen won’t be going anywhere either.