CHICAGO — The magnitude of what Jason Dickinson accomplished last season for the Blackhawks is hard to hyperbolize. Not only did he shatter his career high in goals with 22 (his previous high was nine), he had a plus-9 goal differential at five-on-five on a team that got outscored by 84 goals, all while drawing the toughest matchups night after night. He picked up some well-earned Selke Trophy votes, but you could make a reasonable argument that not too many players in the NHL were more valuable to their team than Dickinson was to the Blackhawks.
The goals haven’t come as easily this season — he has seven in 53 games — but Dickinson is still the most indispensable Blackhawk. According to Hockey Stat Cards, which tracks the offensive ratings of each opponent a player lines up against, only four forwards in the NHL have drawn tougher assignments than Dickinson this season — Seth Jarvis, Bryan Rust, Mitch Marner and Sebastian Aho, all Selke-caliber two-way forwards. Even Aleksander Barkov’s usage has been a hair easier than Dickinson’s. He’s first over the boards on the penalty kill, takes just about every meaningful faceoff, and does all the little things that keep an overmatched team in the game.
He’s essentially irreplaceable on this team. And this team needs to replace him. At least, for a couple of weeks or more beyond the upcoming 4 Nations break, as Dickinson suffered a high-ankle sprain Wednesday night against the Edmonton Oilers.
“He impacts in such a big way, more than just points or scoresheet stats,” defenseman Connor Murphy said. “And just a leader in general for us, so it sucks to see him go down. You can see the way guys react to him. Everyone hates seeing guys get hurt, and then when someone like that (gets hurt), it definitely hits the team a little harder. And just know you’ve got to rally now and guys pick up on those roles and take his game as an example of how guys can play, to step up, to handle the game responsibly like he does.”
Interim head coach Anders Sorensen said he’ll try to fill Dickinson’s skates by “community,” using a “slew of players.” But so far, it’s pretty much been Connor Bedard.
The top line of Bedard, Landon Slaggert and Ryan Donato matched up against Connor McDavid’s line Wednesday night and held its own, with the Blackhawks out-chancing the Oilers 9-4 in those 12 minutes, and outscoring them 1-0. Then on Friday, Bedard’s line matched up against the Nashville Predators’ imposing top line of Filip Forsberg, Steven Stamkos and Jonathan Marchessault, again outscoring them 1-0.
delivering you this beautiful highlight🤌 pic.twitter.com/SwokX2XmJ9
— Chicago Blackhawks (@NHLBlackhawks) February 8, 2025
The Blackhawks went on to win 6-2, with Donato posting two goals and two assists, Bedard notching a goal and an assist, and Slaggert wreaking general havoc on the forecheck. Seth Jones and Frank Nazar each added a goal and an assist, and Teuvo Teräväinen and Alex Vlasic had two assists each.
The Predators got the better of play at five-on-five in the top-line matchup, but the Blackhawks came out on top where it mattered most. No, Bedard is not Dickinson. Not even close. But he wanted to test himself, and he’s holding his own so far against two of the most talented lines in the game.
“We challenged Connor,” Sorensen said. “He wanted the challenge, he wanted to play against those guys. I think it’s great, and it’s something that’s part of the learning curve. When you’re the No. 1 center, you have to play against other teams’ No. 1 centers. I thought it was great.”
It helps when he rips a power-play one-timer for his 16th goal and triggers a tic-tac-toe passing play with Donato and Jones for another PPG.
“He did a great job,” Jones said. “I thought he did a good job in his own end, for the most part. And when we get power plays and he gets that open ice, you just see the skill take over. I know he’s focusing on other aspects of his game, but he wants to be dominant every night, and I thought he did a good job tonight.”
Dickinson walked out of the arena in a boot after the game. His timetable is nebulous at best, and the break couldn’t be better timed for him, but Sorensen said it’ll at least be a couple of weeks after that.
A 4-point game isn’t going to suddenly make Donato worth a first-round pick leading up to the March 7 trade deadline. But the pending unrestricted free agent is working his way up trade boards with his consistent production. He has 7 points in his last three games, and 16 points in his last 17 games.
If he gets traded, he’ll bring a good work ethic and depth scoring to a good team. But he brings even more value to this particular Blackhawks team as a role model, proof that hard work and an attacking mentality are worth the trouble.
“He’s great,” Nazar said. “Just being able to talk to him about what he’s thinking — he’s super open, super nice about everything. He works his tail off and he’s always going. Being able to see that competitive side pay off and how that works at this level is really awesome.”
Sorensen said Donato is “invested emotionally” in what the Blackhawks are trying to build, but it’s unlikely he will stick around to see it. At some point, the Blackhawks need to clear roster spots for the bevy of forward prospects knocking on the door, and they’ve already got Tyler Bertuzzi, Teräväinen, Nick Foligno, Ilya Mikheyev and Dickinson signed for next season.
Donato won’t fetch a huge price at the deadline, but he could be a difference-maker for a contender. He continues to block out the outside noise as best he can, but everyone knows what’s likely coming, too.
“We’re going out there playing, we’re focusing on what we can do every day to get better as a team,” Jones said. “And we understand it’s a business, things happen out of our control. But we want to build camaraderie as a team in the locker room here and transfer that to the ice every night.”
Slaggert didn’t have time to run the license plate of the Predators player who shoved him into the end boards and then delivered a couple of extra shots. And by the time the Blackhawks rookie realized it was Luke Schenn — one of the toughest guys in the league — Slaggert already was throwing haymakers.
Slaggert lost the fight. Unsurprisingly. But he earned some respect in the process.
“I don’t think he had any idea what he was doing,” Donato said. “He got excited, and when the adrenaline gets you, stuff happens. Afterward, he was like, ‘Oh, boy.’ But he did a great job holding his own and did a good job protecting himself after. That definitely gave us a spark for the rest of the game.”
“I thought it was awesome,” Sorensen said. “I mean, he probably didn’t know who (Schenn) was, but I thought he hung in there. It’s pretty impressive.”
Slaggert continues to make an impression on the coaching staff and his teammates. His speed, his relentlessness, his forechecking and his attitude make him a dynamic weapon, and Sorensen went so far as to compare him to former Blackhawks forward Brandon Hagel, who has become a legitimate star with the Tampa Bay Lightning.
“He’s an animal,” Donato said with a broad smile. “He’s an awesome kid. Honestly one of the nicest kids I’ve had the pleasure of meeting, especially as a guy that’s young. He brings a fresh energy every day. He’s happy. He’s go-lucky. I’ve heard people describe him as a dog on a bone, and that’s true. He doesn’t care, he’s going to work as hard as he possibly can, and he wants to learn, too. Those are the type of guys you want in your locker room.”
Nazar has all that speed and aggression, too — and he seems to show it on nearly every penalty kill. He had yet another short-handed breakaway Friday, taking a Teräväinen stretch pass and getting denied by Predators goaltender Juuse Saros. Nazar was drafted for his offensive abilities, but his dynamic speed makes him an absolute menace defensively, too, especially on the kill.
“I love it,” he said. “Everybody sees (the penalty kill as) extremely defensive — only get the puck out, get off the ice. But they’re putting their five best offensive players out there, and if you get a chance like that and you’re out there with a guy who can make a pass like Teuvo, you look for those opportunities to take off. Defense comes first, but it’s always nice to look for those chances.”
Speed kills, and for the first time in a long time, the Blackhawks have some of it.
“We haven’t had a lot of speed in our lineup the last couple years,” Jones said. “So it’s great to have him.”
Over the years, Murphy has become something of a connoisseur of pain, able to pick out subtle hints of flavor like a wine sommelier. And while the shot he took off his knee Wednesday night — friendly fire, no less — hurt like crazy, there’s a reason he didn’t limp down the tunnel afterward. He knew this kind of pain well and knew it was temporary.
“You kind of know (your) pain thresholds,” Murphy said. “You’ve been hit enough times, you know which pain lasts and which one goes away after five minutes. … You get hit where the whole limb will go numb or kind of stop working for a bit, and you’ve just got to kind of bite through the pain, and then it just seems to dissipate. So just off experience, you know that certain ones will. And then if it doesn’t dissipate, usually means you’ve got bigger issues.”
The bigger concern for Murphy is the osteitis pubis that kept him out of the lineup for all of January, a chronic condition that he has to manage. He deemed himself “healthy enough” Friday morning, which might be the best he can hope for at this point.
(Photo of Ryan Donato and Connor Bedard: Michael Reaves / Getty Images)
