Blackhawks News: Andreas Athanasiou will stay for two more years

The Chicago Blackhawks are a team in transition. They have a lot of players on the team that aren’t going to be there for the long haul. Of course, they need people to help them get to the point where they are contenders.

Leadership on the active roster is going to be important for the next few seasons as some very good young players are going to be flowing into the lineup. Having good quality veterans there to help them grow is going to be huge.

Well, for two years, Andreas Athanasiou can be one of those guys. He was a good player for them in 2022-23 and now he will get to stick with them for a while as he signed a two-year deal.

He played in 81 games this season and scored 20 goals and 20 assists. Being a 20-goal scorer on a team this bad is a very nice accomplishment for him. He is always a reliable player that is incredibly fast and has a nose for the net.

The Chicago Blackhawks will have Andreas Athanasiou around for two more years.

Having him be around a guy like Connor Bedard early in the kid’s career should really be beneficial as he has been a good player on some good teams.

He will be getting 4.5 million against the cap for the duration of his contract. That should turn out to be a good deal for this team and the player. His late-season surge clearly set him up nicely.

That is probably a little more than he would get with another team but the Hawks have to reach the cap floor and have bodies in order to play each game. Athanasiou will be a big part of things for these two years.

At one point during the 2022-23 season, it looked like not trading him was a mistake. He was playing too well down the stretch and they didn’t end up coming in last place. Luckily, they ended up winning the lottery anyway which is all that matters in the end.

Hopefully, the Hawks can score lots of goals going forward using their speed. Of course, Athanasiou will be a big part of that for the two years that he is there. Who knows, maybe he will be there even longer. You never do actually know.