Was Arvid Soderblom’s bounce-back season good enough to secure his future with the Blackhawks?

If we were taking votes for the most improved player on the Blackhawks from the 2024-25 season, it\'s probably a two-horse race between Arvid Soderblom and Ryan Donato. Unfortunately for the Hawks, they didn\'t cash in on Donato\'s career year by trading him or extending him (yet), but Soderblom could still wind up being a very significant part of their future.

What Soderblom did last year becomes even more interesting once you realize he wasn\'t even supposed to have the opportunity to do it after flaming out spectacularly during the 2023-24 season. His minus-18.2 Goals Saved Above Expected ranked him 98th, which was the worst mark in the entire league .

I'm not great at evaluating goaltending but Arvid Soderblom is absolutely painful to watch pic.twitter.com/xdea6Hix0u

— Pete Blackburn (@PeteBlackburn) February 16, 2024

Soderblom\'s play was so bad that it not only seemed to tank his stock as a prospect within the organization, but it also called into question whether or not the Blackhawks even saw him as a viable NHL backup anymore. Kyle Davidson appeared to answer that question immediately during the opening hours of free agency last summer when he signed Laurent Brossoit:

Chicago gets decent value for Laurent Broissoit who has looked fantastic in a limited role. We'll see how he fares in a bigger role behind *that* defense though. pic.twitter.com/reLdT4z8K5

— dom 📈 (@domluszczyszyn) July 1, 2024

But the best-laid plans of mice and men, etc, and now here we are 11 months later: Brossoit has yet to play a solitary minute for the Blackhawks, while Soderblom seems to have righted his career trajectory.

The bad-ish news for Soderblom, though, is that a disgruntled Seth Jones asked out of Chicago two-thirds of the way through last season, and Kyle was able to execute his best trade yet by flipping Jones to the Florida Panthers for a bona fide, blue-chip, tippity-top goaltending prospect in Spencer Knight. He made quite the first impression by not only making the decision to start the Hawks\' very next game, but then also by stealing the win during a 5-1 victory against the Los Angeles Kings (which wound up being one of the most fun games of the entire season):

Spencer Knight in his Blackhawks debut:

— 41 saves — 1 GA — .967 SV%

What a Debut! https://t.co/Srw43dBvHl #smsports #sportsdesign #NHL #Blackhawks pic.twitter.com/WITp8B1Xu4

— Chris Corr (@Chris_Studios) March 4, 2025

The initial messaging was that Knight and Soderblom would split the crease equally in 1A/1B fashion, but it certainly didn\'t feel that way as the season wound down and, if Knight has his way, it won\'t be that way going forward, either. In a recent interview, Knight said, \" I want to play 65 games a year. Not many people do that anymore, but I want to play 65. Sometimes I say 70, but that might be crazy! But that’s just the mindset I have .\"

Spencer Knight opens up about his NHL journey, becoming Chicago’s backbone, and mentoring young star Connor Bedard.

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via @MurphysLaw74 https://t.co/lXnqSdQc9v pic.twitter.com/1VAziQoCSn

— RG (@TheRGMedia) May 5, 2025

So what does that mean for Soderblom? If we take a look at his usage by month last season, we can see that his role grew incrementally at first before he really took hold in December and January, when he essentially became the Hawks\' No. 1 goalie -- which also seemed to coincide with his best individual stretch of hockey:

Month Games Started/Total Games Games Started Percentage Goals-Against Average Save Percentage October 2 out of 11 .181 2.52 .911 November 4 out of 12 .333 2.28 .933 December 10 out of 15 .666 3.04 .893 January 7 out of 13 .538 3.14 .912 February 5 out of 8 .625 3.65 .895 March 6 out of 15 .400 4.13 .852 April 2 out of 8 .250 2.40 .907

February was a weird and truncated schedule because of the 4 Nations Face-Off. Then Knight arrived in early March, and Anders Sorensen handed him the majority of the starts from there on out.

If we look at Soderblom\'s numbers in totality for last season, he was below league average in both goals against average (3.18 for Soderblom, league average was 2.81) and save percentage (.898 for Soderblom, league average was .900), but remember he was doing that behind a Blackhawks roster that was the second-worst defensive team in the NHL. And Soderblom\'s numbers are actually slightly better than what Knight was able to do once he arrived in Chicago, as Soderblom has the edge in Save Percentage (.898 for Soderblom, .893 for Knight) and they both finished with an identical 3.18 GAA.

Revisiting the best statistic for measuring a goalie\'s relative worth in Goals Saved Above Expected -- and remembering that in 2023-24 Soderblom\'s minus-18.2 was the worst mark in the entire league -- Soderblom rebounded dramatically last season, where his plus-1 ranked him 43rd, only 15 spots behind Knight (who came in at 28 and built up a significant chunk of his plus 6.9 GSAx while playing on the Panthers).

Soderblom is only 25 and, as Betsy likes to remind us, goalies take time. Watching him last season, he looked like a completely different player than the goalie we saw the year before. His biggest issues in 2023-24 -- his inability to read plays correctly while often losing his net or his angles -- both suddenly looked like strengths, as we saw him aggressively challenging shooters while staying positionally sound and making impressive saves time and time again:

DENIED X3 🤚

Arvid Soderblom makes a crazy save to keep the Oilers off the board. 😱 pic.twitter.com/y4FZsgkBWm

— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) February 6, 2025

Arvid Soderblom. Wow. pic.twitter.com/gaW1WZtj2Y

— BHF (@BlackhawksFocus) February 6, 2025

Here’s a closer look at Arvid Soderblom’s save to rob Nick Suzuki in the final moments of the 2nd period. #Blackhawks pic.twitter.com/zatwdBA0su

— Talkin’ Hawkey (@TalkinHawkey) January 4, 2025

The Blackhawks are 5/5 on the PK tonight thanks to saves like these from Arvid Soderblom (and a little help from the post) pic.twitter.com/8lXiSglXFq

— BHF (@BlackhawksFocus) February 26, 2025

Pfosten oder Save? Arvid Söderblom und den Chicago Blackhawks dürfte es egal sein! 🤩 #Blackhawks | @NHLBlackhawks | #Soderblom pic.twitter.com/5fA5hZqvL9

— NHL Deutsch (@NHLde) December 10, 2024

Soderblom\'s strong play last season should cement him in the Blackhawks\' plans for the foreseeable future (while also affording him a chance to try and prove he can be a No. 1 goaltender), but the arrival of Knight seems to have called that all of that into question. Looking back at the organization\'s goaltending depth just a year ago, it didn\'t seem all that strong. But with the addition of Knight, the reemergence of Soderblom, and Drew Commesso\'s stellar play in Rockford during the final stretch of the season and into the playoffs, the Blackhawks seem to have turned their goalie depth into a significant strength, which they may need to use at some point to help fill some of the many other glaring holes on their roster.

Broissoit remains a wild card in all of this, as well. He missed the entire season after having two separate knee surgeries during the year, but during exit interviews at locker clean-out day, Kyle Davidson said he expects Broissoit to be healthy enough to compete for a roster spot next season (thought I wouldn\'t be surprised in the slightest if Broissoit is still bought out this summer).

After the Blackhawks season concluded, Soderblom was tabbed as one of the three goaltenders for Team Sweden at the IIHF World Championships, but didn\'t see any game action:

stick taps for Sodie!🏒

Arvid Soderblom is joining Team Sweden at the @IIHFHockey World Championships!🙌🇸🇪 https://t.co/KFWhzWaYjH

— Chicago Blackhawks (@NHLBlackhawks) April 28, 2025

Soderblom seems to have turned a significant corner in his development this past season. He\'s a restricted free agent and, while he\'s due a new contract this summer, it certainly shouldn\'t be a number significant enough to give the Blackhawks pause. The length, however, could go a long way toward letting us know how much the Blackhawks envision him as a part of their future. He\'s probably their best (human) trade chip barring something ridiculous, but it would be a huge mistake to move him now. He appeared in a career high 36 games last season, while Knight also set a new career high in appearances with 38. Neither of them have experienced an entire season\'s workload as a No. 1 starter yet, and they both have more to prove before they should be given that chance. I know the discourse around Knight is that he\'s already at the top of the depth chart, but after last season, I have renewed faith in Soderblom. He certainly did his best to earn it.

Talking Points