On Monday, Bleacher Report put out a ranking of each team in the NHL’s number one defenseman. For the Chicago Blackhawks, they consider Alex Vlasic to be the number one and ranked him as the 31st best in the NHL. This is not saying he’s the 31st best defenseman; this is saying that he’s the 31st best number one.
Vlasic is a very good player. Although this feels a little disrespectful, especially since he was so good in 2024-25, it may be closer to reality than not because of how many good number one defensemen there are in the NHL.
B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) on XRanking each team’s best defenseman, league-wide, via B/R’s Adam Gretz 👀
Link to full breakdown 🔗: https://t.co/XHIf2acqAFVlasic’s a great player in his end, but he doesn’t produce points at a high rate, so he isn’t even a prototypical number one. Not every team, or even close to every team, has a guy who is elite in all three zones.
Listing him as the number one is a product of what happened in 2024-25. The Blackhawks traded Seth Jones to the Florida Panthers, and that left Connor Murphy and Alec Martinez behind on a blue line with a bunch of players under 24.
Martinez has since retired, and Vlasic is already better than Murphy. However, is he the true number one on the team? Artyom Levshunov and Sam Rinzel would like a word.
Each of them made their NHL debut in the final quarter of the season last year. Levshunov, who Chicago took second overall in the 2024 NHL Draft, played 18 games. He had six assists during that time, while having some ups and downs defensively.
Rinzel, who was taken by the Blackhawks 25th overall in 2022, played in nine games after his season with the University of Minnesota ended. In those 9 contests, Rinzel collected six assists.
By the time the season was over, all three of Rinzel, Levshunov, and Vlasic were playing big minutes. None of them looked out of place doing it, even when they were against some of the top offensive players in the world.
There are sure to be slumps for them all as they continue to evolve in the best league in the world, but they all possess tremendous skill that can help them make an impact at the NHL level.
So, if the question is, who is the number one defenseman on the team right now? The best answer is that these three have the inside track to take that role on. They all may share it throughout the year, which is probably best for a young team like the Chicago Blackhawks.
If any of them has the highest ceiling, based on what we’ve seen so far, it has to be Rinzel. He looked incredible in his stint with Chicago. However, he must come into 2025-26 and stay at that level while progressively getting better. Levshunov, being a second overall pick, has to be in the mix for the lead as well because of his pedigree.
If Vlasic turns out to be a number three, Chicago’s blue line will be in good shape. Other players like Ethan del Mastro, Nolan Allan, Louis Crevier, and Kevin Korchinski, amongst others, are looking to make an impact in the lineup as well.
The Blackhawks' rebuild has been slow and at times painful, but they've been great at adding defensemen who look the part of NHL regulars. That is the first step in becoming a contender.
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