It took until there were 12 hours to go in the official offseason, but the Chicago Blackhawks and Wyatt Kaiser finally came to terms on a contract extension late Wednesday night. The 23-year-old defenseman signed a two-year, $1.7M AAV contract through the 2026-27 season the night before the opening of training camp.
The entire offseason was a waiting game on when a deal would be done with Kaiser and the Blackhawks.
Between the end of the season and Wednesday night, Ryan Donato got a deal done, Arvid Söderblom got a deal done, Louis Crevier got a deal done, Frank Nazar got a contract extension, Spencer Knight got a contract extension, and we all waited for the Kaiser news to come.
It was odd to have waited all that time and the idea of Kaiser, having played less than 100 NHL games in his career and not having a full, continuous season in the NHL under his belt yet, holding out didn’t make sense.
After finishing last season with a strong showing together, Kaiser should start training camp on Thursday paired alongside 2024 No. 2 overall pick Artyom Levshunov. Kaiser provides a reliable and defensively sound play-style alongside the raw, offensive talent of Levshunov to begin the year and sets up both to have the chance to have their strengths showcased.
Leverage wasn’t on Kaiser’s side as the left side of the defensive group in Chicago also includes young, promising players like Kevin Korchinski, Nolan Allan, and Ethan Del Mastro. Add to it an unexpected PTO signing of left-shot veteran Matt Grzelcyk on Tuesday and it started to feel like the Blackhawks were maybe making a not-so-subtle move to put pressure on Kaiser’s camp to lower what they were expecting in his new deal.
Blackhawks GM Kyle Davidson has done a great job getting deals done in-house with the recent extensions of Knight, Nazar, Donato, and Vlasic. Still, the Kaiser situation could have presented a challenge in setting a precedent for young defensemen who need new deals that haven’t just yet proved that they were fully ready for an 82-game campaign in the NHL.
The two-year deal at $1.7M AAV gives Kaiser a very similar “prove it” opportunity to what Philipp Kurashev (two-years, $2.25M AAV in 2023) and Lukas Reichel (two-years, $1.2M AAV in 2024) have received in comparable situations over the past two summers.
Whether there was any contention in negotiations or not, the bottom line is that the Blackhawks are better with Kaiser on the team and in the lineup. Davidson has all his ducks in a row heading into training camp and roster competitions can have all hands on deck and full participation starting Thursday morning.
