TAMPA, Fla. — Just like the ocean waves lapping up on Florida’s Gulf Coast, Blackhawks rookie defenseman Sam Rinzel relies on a relationship between salt and water to keep him healthy.
The 21-year-old Minnesota native has to think about such things because of a fact he’s always been aware of: He tends to lose more weight during the course of a game than most hockey players.
At his height (6-4) and playing his position, however, he can’t afford to drop many of the 195 pounds he carried into the season if he wants to continue holding his own against NHL opponents.
“It’s pretty hard to maintain,” Rinzel said this week. “Obviously I may lose a little, but [I’m] making sure it’s as minimal as possible.”
That’s where salt — such as in the form of electrolyte drink mixes — comes in.
The body seeks to maintain a steady salinity ratio at all times, so the more sodium consumed, the more water it will hold. As long as Rinzel diligently hydrates during the game, he has an effective strategy to maintain weight.
On the ice, he scuffled through the first week of the season, but he has recently looked more like the well-rounded Calder Trophy candidate that analysts expected.
The Hawks have outscored opponents 5-1 and generated a 59.8% expected-goals ratio during his five-on-five ice time in his last four games — after getting outscored 3-2 with a 27.0% expected-goals ratio in the first four games.
He has recorded three points in the eight games overall while averaging 20:38 of ice time, which ranks second among rookies (behind Islanders top pick Matthew Schaefer). After he played 25:18 in the opener, coach Jeff Blashill has delivered on a promise to reduce that workload moving forward.
Rinzel credits his improvement to getting more accustomed to Blashill’s systems, which require defensemen to gap up tightly at the blue line and to be aggressive physically to try to kill plays in the defensive zone.
That system immediately played into somebody like Wyatt Kaiser’s strengths, but not so much Rinzel’s strengths, because he’s still not quite at the NHL standard in terms of strength. In the meantime, he must rely on other devices to win puck battles.
“[I told him], ‘Don’t draw contact to you that’s unneeded,'” Blashill said recently. “Because he’s not going to win those contact battles right now, just from a physical standpoint. He’s still learning that balance. I still think he’s got to get harder on his stick defensively and [have] better body position defensively to help him negate a couple chances.”
Rinzel did deliver a crushing hip check on Ducks forward Cutter Gauthier in the neutral zone Sunday, using his momentum to add power to the hit, so perhaps he’s figuring out what works for him physically.
And even though he briefly left the Hawks’ win Thursday over the Lightning after getting bloodied by a hit from behind into the boards — something that has already happened to him a few times this season — he also stepped up confidently at the blue line to force a turnover in the first period, leading to a Colton Dach should-have-been goal the other way.
Colton Dach gets a near tap-in goal on a play that started with a Sam Rinzel takeaway pic.twitter.com/Z7A1H0Lhx9
— BHF (@BlackhawksFocus) October 23, 2025
That was notable because much of Rinzel’s offensive generation so far has come from breakouts, not forced turnovers. More of the latter would add a transition element to his game and demonstrate his growing comfort level within Blashill’s systems.
Because once he has possession, he can do things few defensemen can do.
“He’s at his best when he’s making plays and skating with the puck without overdoing it,” Blashill said. “By that, I mean if there’s a simple play to be made, you still make that simple play. If there’s open ice, make sure to take that open ice — because he can be really effective.”