The Blackhawks will be the first NHL team to face the new Utah Hockey Club.

Their 2024-25 regular season schedule, announced Tuesday, begins with a trip to Salt Lake City on Oct. 8 — the finale of an opening-night tripleheader on ESPN.

The Hawks then visit the Jets, Oilers and Flames before returning to Chicago for their first home game on October 17 against the Sharks, which will feature the last two No. 1 draft picks, centres Connor Bedard and Macklin Celebrini. This will be the fifth consecutive season the Hawks will begin with a road trip of three or more games.

Send to Soderblom

Young goalie Arvid Soderblom is definitely out of the NHL roster after the Hawks signed Laurent Brossoit for two years and a salary cap of $3.3 million. Brossoit and Petr Mrazek, whose two-year contract extension with a salary cap of $4.25 million is about to take effect, will clearly form the NHL team next season.

Soderblom had to realize that the Hawks would at least bring in someone else to fill the backup spot, given how poorly he fared in that role last season, going 5-22-2 with a .879 save percentage that ranked him 64th out of 65 goalies in the entire league. But that means a direct demotion back to Rockford.

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Coach Luke Richardson did his best on Monday to explain the message to the 24-year-old Swede.

“When goals are scored through the back door and things like that, the goalkeeper loses his confidence,” said Richardson. “He doesn't trust [the defense]and it completely threw him off. And he couldn't work on his game at the NHL level. Teams are after him. So it will allow him to work on his game and build it back to where it was.

“He has that ability, but not if his mind and confidence aren't right. I think once we're clear on who we have and where everyone fits in the organization, we'll have those conversations about setting goals.”

Pain tolerance

Last season, there were suggestions that Hawks coach Luke Richardson secretly resented the loss of some players to injuries that he believed could play despite the injury. He essentially confirmed that on Monday when he discussed signing veterans like forward Pat Maroon and defenseman Alec Martinez.

“[This will] Give us the chance to have guys who have been through injuries [teach] Guys who have never had serious injuries, how to come back and how to play a little bit despite the pain,” Richardson said. “You're not going to get hurt any more. That's hard. When you first think you're hurt, you just say, 'I'm hurt.' I think there are different levels of it.

“To bring in guys who have had long playoff runs in the Stanley Cup, you have to know that everyone is injured at that point. [They’ll help us] learn what you can and cannot do. If you harm the team by playing despite this injury, [you need to] take a break. Or will it just be there and I have to learn to play with the pain?”

Hawks Diaspora

The players the Hawks released as free agents this summer didn't generate much interest, but a significant number eventually found new teams.

Taylor Raddysh signed with the Capitals and Colin Blackwell with the Stars. Players who settled for two-way contracts include MacKenzie Entwistle with the Panthers and Reese Johnson with the Wild. Tyler Johnson, who left Chicago with arguably a bad attitude, is still looking for his next destination.