The Blackhawks‘ last piece of offseason business entails re-signing their restricted free agents, and they finalized the first of those contracts Thursday.
Towering defenseman Louis Crevier signed a two-year, one-way deal that will carry a $900,000 salary-cap hit.
Crevier, 24, has emerged as a solid depth option for the Hawks the last two years. He made 24 NHL appearances and 41 AHL appearances in 2023-24, then followed that up with 32 NHL appearances — scoring his first three NHL goals — and 15 AHL appearances in 2024-25. His analytics significantly improved this past season, too.
“His positioning is good,” now-assistant coach Anders Sorensen said in March. “He kills plays defensively really well. The next step for him is being more comfortable with the puck and making that next play after he gets a stop.”
The Quebec native’s journey from waiting seven hours to hear his name called in the seventh round of the virtual 2020 draft to get to this point is an interesting story in itself.
Goaltender Arvid Soderblom and defenseman Wyatt Kaiser remain unsigned RFAs. Soderblom has filed for arbitration.
New goalie
The Hawks picked up an intriguing goalie prospect Wednesday, signing Russian Stanislav Berezhnoy, 22, to a two-year entry-level contract.
Berezhnoy put up excellent numbers last season in the VHL, the Russian second division (the equivalent of the AHL), with save percentages of .926, .931 and .921 in various regular-season and postseason stints with two teams.
He’ll compete for starts with Drew Commesso in Rockford this upcoming season.