- Blackhawks sign Kevin Korchinski to a two-year deal worth $2.65 million
- The 2022 seventh overall pick has played 29 NHL games the past two seasons combined
- Read below for why waiver eligibility changes everything for him this fall
Kevin Korchinski finally has a contract. He also has a problem.
The Blackhawks announced Saturday afternoon that they re-signed the restricted free agent defenseman to a two-year deal worth $2.65 million, a $1.325 million cap hit that runs through 2027-28. The wait is over roughly two weeks before training camp opens.
The catch is waivers. Korchinski is no longer exempt. If he doesn’t make the opening-night roster, the Blackhawks can’t just bus him to Rockford anymore. The other 31 teams get a look first.
That’s a real risk for a player Chicago took seventh overall in 2022, using one of the three first-rounders Ottawa sent over in the Alex DeBrincat trade.
Korchinski jumped straight from the WHL to the NHL in 2023-24 and it went badly. Five goals and 15 points in 76 games, minus-39, most of his shifts starting in the offensive zone. The Blackhawks pulled him back to the AHL and he has mostly stayed there since.
His NHL time has dried up to almost nothing. Sixteen games in 2024-25, then 13 last season with two assists and 13:38 a night. He put up 26 points in 53 games with the IceHogs in 2025-26, which is fine production and not a leap forward.
The $1.325 million number tells you where he sits. That is a bottom-pairing price for a top-10 pick entering his fourth pro season, and it buys Chicago two more years to figure him out.
Getting on the roster is the hard part. The Blackhawks paid a steep price to land Bowen Byram this summer, and the left side behind him is crowded:
- Bowen Byram: the summer acquisition, locked into the top four
- Alex Vlasic: the only other regular blueliner signed past 2026-27
- Artyom Levshunov, Sam Rinzel, Wyatt Kaiser: all pushing for the same minutes
Chicago has spent two years telling everyone Korchinski is going to be a piece of the next good Blackhawks team. He’s 22, so there is still runway.
Two days ago the story was that Korchinski still didn’t have a deal with camp closing in. Now he does, and the deadline that matters has moved to opening night.
