Can Tyler Bertuzzi replicate the numbers from one of the best seasons of his career?

Tyler Bertuzzi was the Blackhawks leading goal scorer this season, notching a career-best 32 in 79 games to fuel the second highest point output of his career at 58. Considering the Blackhawks\' leading goal scorer from the prior season -- Ryan Donato -- went from 31 goals in 2024-25 to just 15 this season, the question that followed Donato into the last offseason is now attached to Bertuzzi: can he do it again?

Bertuzzi, who has two years remaining on his deal at $5.5M annually, boasts career numbers that offer more reasons for optimism than Donato, considering that Bertuzzi has cracked the 20-goal plateau six times and surpassed 30 for the second time this season. His highest point total was 62 (30 G, 32 A) in just 68 games for Detroit in 2021-22, a season he followed with 30 points (8 G, 22 A) in 50 games split between Detroit and Boston thanks to a midseason trade. That drop-off in production coincided with a decrease in ice time, as Bertuzzi went from a game average of 19:52 in 2021-22 to just 16:29, and his ice time remained in the 16-minute range until he jumped back up to 18:27 with Chicago this season. That\'s probably the main story here -- the increase in ice time -- although credit is certainly given to Bertuzzi for not letting that increase in ice time lead to a decrease in production: he was actually up about 25 percent in terms of goals scored per 60 minutes and up about 13 percent in points per 60 across all strengths last season.

The power play was Bertuzzi\'s biggest time to shine, leading the team with 11 PPGs after finishing second to Bedard\'s team-leading 11 last season with 10 of his own. Most of those Bertuzzi PPGs looked something like the one below, with Bertuzzi going to the net and being rewarded when a rebound was there for the taking:

Tyler Bertuzzi scores on the power play for his 26th goal of the season. #Blackhawks pic.twitter.com/RjjTpCxJqX

— Charlie Roumeliotis (@CRoumeliotis) February 27, 2026

Deflections were common occurrences as well:

Tyler Bertuzzi tips in Frank Nazar's shot on the power play for his 13th goal of the season. #Blackhawks pic.twitter.com/tZUiwxFTRX

— Charlie Roumeliotis (@CRoumeliotis) November 30, 2025

Perhaps the signature Bertuzzi goal this season, though, was him waiting on the back door with his stick on the ice, only needing to redirect a hard pass from his teammate into the net:

Tyler Bertuzzi - Chicago Blackhawks (20) Power Play Goal pic.twitter.com/5DAVFqtBbH

— NHL Goal Videos (@NHLGoalVideos) March 27, 2025

The Blackhawks\' CHSN broadcasts often touted Bertuzzi\'s penchant for high-danger goals, and he ended the season with 29 of his 32 scored from those portions of the ice nearest the net, second only to Dallas\' Wyatt Johnston, who had 30. Bertuzzi\'s game wasn\'t always so reliant on those high-danger goals, though. Here\'s the goal chart from the NHL\'s new EDGE data for Bertuzzi\'s 30-goal season with the 2021-22 Red Wings:

Starting with his arrival in Toronto during the 2023-24 season, though, Bertuzzi seemed to go all-in on the most dangerous parts of the ice, scoring 18 of 21 from high-danger with Toronto that season, 20 of 23 with Chicago last season and then the aforementioned 29 of 32 this season.

It\'s also worth noting that over half of Bertuzzi\'s 164 shots on goal from this season came from these high-danger areas:

The question lingering underneath all of this is: can he do it again?

The answer: it certainly seems possible. Matching his career-high in goals again next season could be a taller task considering Bertuzzi will be 32 by the end of it, and players typically experience some decline in production once they\'re past their third decade on Earth. But Bertuzzi\'s method of scoring guards against that somewhat, as it\'s not predicated on physical gifts removed by Father Time: it\'s more about his willingness to get to those high-danger areas, where he\'s proven to be rather successful for several seasons.

Bertuzzi did enjoy a bit of a shot percentage bump this season, scoring on 19.5 percent of his 164 shots -- another career-high. Take his career mark of 15.2 percent and apply it to those 164 shots and the result would\'ve been 25 goals, which is a perfectly fine number of goals for a player making $5.5M in this salary cap era. That\'s probably the rough area where Bertuzzi\'s targeted production should continue to reside for the next two seasons, as a player who can chip in 20-25 goals and 45-50 points while playing in a top-six role and occupying the net-front areas during power plays.

One way to ensure that Bertuzzi can maintain those goal and point totals is to increase how often he\'s generating shots and chances in the offensive zone, because he was doing that far more often during his peak season with Detroit (note all the blue bars below) ...

... than he was this season with in Chicago (note all the red bars in the top sections):

Above all else, though, a continued willingness to get to those dirty areas -- where Bertuzzi has reaped most of his goal-scoring rewards this decade -- should result in similar production levels as he experienced this season.

Talking Points