The Blackhawks’ plan for young goalie Arvid Soderblom is not only for him to play full time in the NHL this season but also to give him every chance to seize the No. 1 job.
There are so many other talented prospects slated to move full time into the NHL (Connor Bedard, Lukas Reichel, Wyatt Kaiser, Alex Vlasic and potentially Kevin Korchinski) that Soderblom, who made 15 appearances for the Hawks last season, seems almost forgotten — or at least familiar.
But there are plenty of reasons to be excited about Soderblom’s progress and sizable new role, too.
‘‘He was up with us last year for our worst six weeks of the year, so we owe him a couple of wins,’’ coach Luke Richardson said Monday.
Perhaps the lack of buzz around Soderblom’s full-time graduation to Chicago stems from his subpar numbers last season, his second in North America. He posted an .894 save percentage in those 15 games with the Hawks and a .905 save percentage in 33 games with Rockford of the AHL.
But throwing out just a couple of ugly nights makes the numbers look much better. In his first 14 games with the Hawks, he had a .904 save percentage; a seven-goal final start against the Rangers tanked his stats.
Meanwhile, in his last 25 games at Rockford — after he recovered from a groin injury in December, then settled back into a rhythm — he had a .920 save percentage. It was .927 in his last 16 games.
‘‘The games [in Rockford] have been really crazy sometimes, [with] a lot of shots, but that’s been good for development,’’ Soderblom said Monday. ‘‘It has been two great years there, and it has helped me to get where I am today. I feel ready for this next step.’’
That strong closing stretch persuaded general manager Kyle Davidson, who already believed strongly in Soderblom’s upside because of his calm demeanor, 6-3 size and decent athleticism, to commit to Soderblom and Petr Mrazek as his NHL goalie duo for 2023-24.
Mrazek probably will get more than half the starts in October and November, but the Hawks would love to find themselves giving Soderblom more than half in March and April.
Soderblom, who turned 24 in August, spent the summer at home in Sweden and focused on improving his explosiveness, particularly when moving laterally in the crease. That added explosiveness will be important as he continues adopting the overlapping position Hawks goalie coach Jimmy Waite introduced to him.
Before joining the Hawks, Soderblom (like many European goalies) positioned himself for tight-angle shots with his pad pressed against the inside of the post. In the overlapping position, his pad instead overlaps the outside of the post. That eliminates any chance of a shot finding a hole on the short side, but it gives him less leverage when moving laterally because he can’t push off the post.
This training should help compensate for that difference. He and Waite already have been working on it regularly during camp.
‘‘There’s always new things to learn,’’ Soderblom said. ‘‘The game keeps changing, so you’ve got to be open to changing your own game, as well. . . . If you don’t like it, you shouldn’t be doing it. But [with] the overlap, I like playing it that way.’’
Another thing Hawks coaches have emphasized is the importance of on-ice communication.
Although Soderblom is generally a quiet guy, Richardson said he appreciates he is still conversational and noted Soderblom ‘‘talking to the defensemen is going to be bigger than him talking to me.’’
‘‘[Goalies] look up ice the whole game, so they see everything, and we really need them to direct what they see for everybody else to hear and react,’’ Richardson said. ‘‘The forwards and ‘D’ coming back have to listen to [Soderblom] talking, as well.’’
