2025 Blackhawks Top 25 Under 25: Lardis, Del Mastro highlight group ranked 11-15

The 2025 version of Second City Hockey’s Top 25 Under 25 rankings moves into its next group of five prospects who were ranked on individual ballots submitted by SCH staffers .

No. 15 — Lukas Reichel

Position: Center/Wing

Birth date: May 17, 2002 (23)

Acquired via: First-round pick (17th overall) in 2020 NHL Draft

2023-24 team: Chicago Blackhawks (NHL)

2023-24 NHL stats: 22 points (8 G, 14 A) in 70 regular-season games

Size: 6-foot, 170 pounds

Contract: One year, $1.2 mil AAV

Rankings: 14 (Dave, LBR), 15 (Eric), 18 (Zack)

Last T25U25 ranking: No. 12, down three spots

It feels like the story has been the same for Reichel this entire decade: flashes of promise that don\'t sustain long enough to be considered anything worthwhile. He\'s not as much of an NHL novice, now, with 70 games played this season and 65 in the prior one, part of a 169-game sample across the last four hockey seasons. The overall production hasn\'t quite lived up to what would be expected from a No. 17 overall pick, yet he\'s still just 23 years old and multiple years away from the typical prime years of a hockey player\'s career.

Reichel was just 19 years old when he debuted near the end of the 2021-22 season and then raised eyebrows with a 23-game stretch at the end of the next season when he produced 15 points (7 G, 8 A), which equates to a pace of roughly 54 points over an 82-game schedule. He hasn\'t reached that rate of production since, though, and having a sample of roughly two full NHL seasons under his belt suggests that time may have been more of the exception than the rule.

But, yeah: he\'s still 23. He\'s still a first-round pick, with glimpses of the skill that warranted his selection at No. 17 overall. And, as the article below detailed, Reichel had areas of legitimate success while skating in a fourth-line role for most of the 2024-25 season, and he\'d be far from the first young player to find his footing at the NHL level in a reduced role before leaping up the depth chart.

https://www.secondcityhockey.com/searching-for-signs-of-progress-from-lukas-reichels-second-full-nhl-season

Reichel enters this season on the final year of a two-year contract worth $1.2 million annually, and he\'ll be a restricted free agent at the end of it. This season is almost certainly not a make-or-break one for his entire career, but it certainly feels like that\'s the case when it comes to his future with this franchise.

No. 14 — Sacha Boisvert

Position: Center

Birth date: March 17, 2006 (19)

Acquired via: First-round pick (18th overall) in 2024 NHL Draft

2024-25 team: North Dakota (NCAA)

2024-25 stats: 32 points (18 G, 14 A), 94 SOG, 10 PIM in 37 games

Size: 6-foot-2, 176 pounds

Contract: Unsigned

Rankings: 13 (Eric), 14 (Zack), 16 (LBR), 17 (Dave)

Last T25U25 ranking: No. 15, up one spot

Boisvert was the Rookie of the Year in his league, finishing second in scoring on a North Dakota program that fell short of its own lofty standards in the 2024-25 season, leading to coach Brad Berry\'s firing and a slew of transfers out of the program, including Boisvert:

Let's meet our newcomers for the 2025-26 season!

First up, the reigning NCHC Rookie of the Year, Sacha Boisvert! pic.twitter.com/x7kvNWdGqb

— BU Men's Hockey (@TerrierHockey) August 26, 2025

Boisvert led North Dakota in goals (18) and points (32) during an overall impressive freshman season, making good on the pre-draft profiles that touted his goal scoring prowess as one of his top talents. Just look at the nifty hands Boisvert displayed on this breakaway tally:

Kid has moves! #UNDproud | #LGH pic.twitter.com/Jnm5SgRfCB

— North Dakota Hockey (@UNDmhockey) March 9, 2025

Improved skating would go a long way towards raising Boisvert\'s ceiling, which already has decent heights to it given his early NCAA success. Boston remains one of the top hockey programs in the NCAA, so there should be ample opportunity for Boisvert to take his game to an even higher level in the next season or two. More progress there could see Boisvert creep up even higher on this list and perhaps result in a contract with the Blackhawks in one of the upcoming springs.

No. 13 — Wyatt Kaiser

Position: Defense

Birth date: July 31, 2002 (23)

Acquired via: Third-round pick (81st overall) in 2020 NHL Draft

2024-25 team : Blackhawks/IceHogs

2024-25 stats: 3 points (3 A), 7 PIM, 21 SOG in 17 AHL games; 8 points (4 G, 4 A), 14 PIM, 66 SOG, 18:07 ATOI in 57 NHL games

Size: 6-foot, 173 pounds

Contract: Unsigned restricted free agent

Rankings: 12 (Zack), 13 (Dave, LBR), 14 (Eric)

Last T25U25 ranking: No. 17, up four spots

Like Reichel above, Kaiser feels like a player who\'s been around forever despite turning 23 years old this summer. That\'s likely a symptom of the recent youth movement in Chicago, where attention has been more about the prospects working their way towards the NHL than the players already there. Kaiser is now up to 98 games across three seasons, with 57 of them coming last season.

Kaiser was closer to solid than spectacular during those appearances, which isn\'t the worst way for a defenseman to appear, especially one who has more of a defensively sound archetype such as Kaiser\'s. When Kaiser is at his best, the combination of his adept skating, smart gap control and effective use of his stick all add up to a defender who can break up opposing plays before they have a chance to get started. Data from Corey Sznajder\'s All Three Zones project are indicative of this, with zome of Kaiser\'s better marks from last season coming in the transition parts of the game, such as getting pucks out of his own zone and into the offensive one:

Kaiser is currently an unrestricted free agent with no new deal in place, although all signs point to him remaining with Chicago for the next season. Still, it\'s an increasingly crowded blue line in Chicago and there are several younger prospects possibly ahead of Kaiser on the depth chart -- there are five other defenseman ahead of Kaiser in these rankings, and only one of them is older than he is. Like his fellow 2020 draftee detailed above, Kaiser probably has an NHL future beyond this season, but whether or not it\'s in Chicago may be decided between October and next April.

No. 12 — Ethan Del Mastro

Position: Defense

Birth date: January 15, 2003 (22)

Acquired via: Fourth-round pick (105th overall) in 2021 NHL Draft

2024-25 team : IceHogs/Blackhawks

2024-25 stats: 9 points (9 A), 39 SOG, 39 PIM in 47 AHL regular season games; 2 points (2 A), 7 SOG, 0 PIM in 7 AHL postseason games; 6 points (2 G, 4 A), 19 SOG, 6 PIM, 18:19 ATOI in 24 NHL games

Size: 6-foot-4, 205 pounds

Contract: One-year, $855,833 AAV (entry-level contract)

Rankings: 12 (Dave, Eric, LBR), 16 (Zack)

Last T25U25 ranking: No. 11, down one spot

Del Mastro experienced a bit of a role change in the 2024-25 season, thanks to Kevin Korchinski and Artyom Levshunov spending so much of the season with the IceHogs. Those more offensively gifted players led to a more defensively oriented role for Del Mastro, an assignment which he improved upon as the season continued. It was also encouraging for Del Mastro to receive an NHL call-up in late January and remain with the parent club for the remainder of the season, indicative of his solid player overall following the promotion. The Blackhawks also seemed impressed, considering that Del Mastro\'s ice time only eclipsed the 18-minute mark twice during the nine games he played in January and February, but then he was over 18 minutes of ice time in 11 of the 15 games he played in March and April, including a season-high 23:22 during a 4-3 overtime win against Utah on March 7.

Here\'s a little sample of Del Mastro\'s work during his time in Rockford:

Really awesome defensive stick-work here from Ethan Del Mastro (#38) #Blackhawks #IceHogs #HawksProspects pic.twitter.com/tJJ8CeYz6d

— Chicago Prospects (@Chi_Prospects) April 24, 2025

Take everything said about Kaiser at the end of the prior section and apply it to Del Mastro as well, noting the exceptions that Del Mastro is a year younger and is in the final year of his entry-level contract. The rest holds up, as the battle for blue-line spots in Chicago among the Blackhawks plethora of D prospects will be one of the most intriguing things to watch during the upcoming training camp.

No. 11 — Nick Lardis

Position: Left Wing

Birth date: July 08, 2005 (20)

Acquired via: Third-round pick (67th overall) in 2023 NHL Draft

2024-25 team : Brantford Bulldogs (OHL)

2024-25 stats: 117 points (71 G, 46 A), 375 SOG, 16 PIM in 65 regular season games; 15 points (11 G, 4 A), 48 SOG, 0 PIM in 7 postseason games

Size: 5-foot-11, 185 pounds

Contract: Three-Year, $896,667 AAV (Entry-Level Contract)

Rankings: 10 (Dave, LBR), 11 (Eric, Zack)

Last T25U25 ranking: No. 9, down two spots

Lardis probably had the most stand-out performance among Blackhawks prospects during the prior hockey season, with his small slide in these rankings the result of Chicago adding higher-ranked prospects in the draft and via trade (spoiler alert!).

There really isn\'t much more that Lardis could\'ve done at the pre-professional levels, although context remains important with Lardis\' numbers. An easy comparison to Alex DeBrincat can be made here, given their similar OHL paths and reputations as undersized snipers. Lardis is largely a year behind the developmental arc of DeBrincat, who turned 19 in December of the 2016-17 season when he tallied 127 points (65 G, 62 A) with the Erie Otters before racking up 52 (28 G, 24 A) with Chicago in his first NHL season. Lardis was already 19 at the start of the season when he lit up scoreboards across the OHL. Expecting a similar 50-point rookie NHL season out of Lardis is unwise, but it also wouldn\'t be a total shock if he skipped the AHL altogether following an impressive enough showing at training camp.

At least one projection out there has Lardis on the similar path of a skater with seven 50-point seasons among his career accolades:

For the guy that's been asking me for Nick Lardis every day for a month or so...

Very nice progression for Lardis. Model isn't fully sold on him because he's a bit small. Looks basically identical to Vincent Trocheck (also small) though. pic.twitter.com/kEVtJJMBG0

— Byron Bader (@ByronMBader) February 10, 2025

2024 Blackhawks Top 25 Under 25 list (so far): Nos. 16-20: Dach, Nestrasil, Commesso, Greene, Vanacker Nos. 21-25: Allan, Slaggert, Behm, Spellacy, Mustard Honorable Mentions: Pridham, Savoie, West

No. 15 — Lukas Reichel

Talking Points