Chicago Blackhawks: Adam Boqvist’s potential in NHL

The Chicago Blackhawks have a very good defenseman in Adam Boqvist but they need to make sure he develops properly over the next few seasons.

The Chicago Blackhawks have been a bit thin on the blue line in the past few seasons. They once had a top-four that included Duncan Keith, Brent Seabrook, Niklas Hjalmarsson, and Johnny Oduya. In their prime, it was arguably the best top-four group in the league. That group led them to multiple deep playoff runs but after a while, it started to thin out. The Blackhawks are hoping that a new young group will eventually come into the fold.

Adam Boqvist might be the leader of that bunch. The Blackhawks took him with the eighth overall pick in the 2018 NHL Draft. He made his NHL debut in 2019-20 and had some ups and downs. He only managed to get into 41 games where he had four goals and nine assists for 13 points. His offensive game is something that is going to be his major strength but he won’t reach his max potential until his defensive game is better.

It will come as he gets more experience. He has all of the potentials in the world to be one of the better defensemen on the team. The Blackhawks are probably still looking for a true number one defenseman to defend but Boqvist can lead the offense from the blue line one day. If he reaches that potential within the next few seasons, the Blackhawks will have a great young defenseman on their hands which is the hardest thing in the world.

The Blackhawks made some less than ideal decisions over the years with their defenseman. They traded away Nicklas Hjalmarsson and Henri Jokiharju for players who haven’t been as good as they were going to be. Boqvist has a chance to help out with those mistakes as long as he is put in the proper position to succeed.

They are hoping that he becomes a part of the next young core to take over when Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane, and Duncan Keith move on. This could even be the same group that helps those guys out as they look to end their careers on a positive note. They have a long way to go before they have a defense good enough to make a deep run in the playoffs but Boqvist is a nice start. Hopefully, the Blackhawks are able to develop him nicely over the next few seasons.