Blackhawks Daily: Chicago’s ‘Old’ Roster; New Sweater Numbers

The Chicago Blackhawks are not seen as an “old team” across the NHL world. When it comes to the conversation about the Hawks, it starts and ends with Connor Bedard. From there, it is all of the young prospects that stack their farm system.

However, they were very active in free agency this year so that the young guys could develop properly. The ones that do play in the NHL will have some good leadership around them and there is also more room for players to play in the AHL now.

Because of these signings, the Hawks are tied (with the Toronto Maple Leafs) for the sixth-oldest roster in the NHL with an average age of 29.2.

Oldest NHL teams based on the average age of my current projected 20-man game rosters:

Pittsburgh – 30.9
Edmonton – 30.5
Nashville – 29.8
Carolina – 29.7
Tampa Bay – 29.6
Chicago – 29.2
Toronto – 29.2
Washington – 28.9
NY Islanders – 28.7
St. Louis – 28.7
Detroit – 28.6…

— NHL Rosters (@NHL_Rosters) July 11, 2024

This doesn’t mean that they are old in a negative way because the veterans that bring up that average age won’t be there in a few years when these prospects start to fill in. It is more ironic that they are viewed as this young team when they have one of the oldest rosters. The one thing that’s for sure in this scenario is the veteran presence will help the organization grow.

wake up guys, new numbers just dropped pic.twitter.com/DSIc8I7Vb5

— Chicago Blackhawks (@NHLBlackhawks) July 12, 2024

Meanwhile, the Hawks revealed all of the new sweater numbers on Friday. Some new faces are wearing new numbers with Chicago, a few current players making changes, and even a guy like Teuvo Teravainen is just grabbing his number 86 that he had before he left (he also wore it with the Carolina Hurricanes).

One notable change is Lukas Reichel. He is going from 27 to 73. There was speculation that he was moving away from 27 so that Chicago can retire it for Jeremy Roenick who is going to be enshrined into the Hall of Fame this year.

Well, Scott Powers of The Athletic added some fuel to this rumor by reporting that Roenick’s Hall of Fame induction is the reason for the switch. However, he stated that the Hawks don’t have any current plans to retire it but they didn’t close the door on that possibility.

Lukas Reichel changing his number from 27 to 73 was done out of respect for Jeremy Roenick's Hall of Fame election, but it's not connected to an impending jersey retirement, per a team source. Sounds like they haven't ruled out retiring Roenick's number, but it's not imminent.

— Scott Powers (@ByScottPowers) July 12, 2024

Although it isn’t imminent, it is nice to know that the Hawks are forward-thinking when it comes to this stuff. You’d have to imagine that it gets done sooner rather than later.

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