In first Blackhawks season, Tyler Bertuzzi has been what he has always been
Through many starts and stops, Tyler Bertuzzi’s first season with the Blackhawks has ended up being about the same — production-wise — as his last season with the Maple Leafs.
Bertuzzi entered Friday with 20 goals and 21 assists, one tick shy in both categories of his 21 goals and 22 assists a year ago in Toronto. During the season’s last few weeks, he likely will surpass those numbers and wind up having his highest point total in three years.
There are three reasons, however, why Bertuzzi’s production nonetheless seems disappointing. The first is the extremely inconsistent way those points have been accumulated.
He erupted for 12 goals in a 20-game span from Dec. 9 to Jan. 20, and he has heated up again with three goals in his last five games entering Friday. Excluding those stretches, he has only five goals in his 47 other appearances — including eight droughts of three-plus games without points.
“It seems like he’s a little streaky at times, for sure,” Hawks interim coach Anders Sorensen said Wednesday.
“Sometimes the game ebbs and flows a little bit. He is really good around the back wall and around the net, and that’s where he’s had his success. I can’t pinpoint exactly why [he’s streaky]. But I thought even during that colder period . . . he still did those things but just didn’t get anything out of it.”
The second reason is Bertuzzi’s contract. He’s the Hawks’ highest-paid forward with a $5.5 million salary-cap hit, and he also has the most years left (three more).
One would reasonably expect a player fitting that description to be more of a difference-maker than Bertuzzi, who temporarily fell to the fourth line earlier in March, has been.
General manager Kyle Davidson had to slightly overpay Bertuzzi last summer to convince him to sign with a rebuilding team, and he is overpaid (though not egregiously so). Among 126 NHL forwards with cap hits at or above $5 million who have played at least 40 games, he’s tied for 95th in points.
The third reason is Bertuzzi’s relative ineffectiveness in every aspect of hockey except one: around the net, especially on the power play. During five-on-five play, he’s certainly not an analytics darling; his 40.2% scoring-chance ratio ranks second-worst among Hawks forwards, only above Lukas Reichel.
Bertuzzi isn’t exactly a liability defensively, but he doesn’t add much in that realm, either. And he’s one of the slower forwards in the league, so he’s not involved at all in moving the puck up the ice; he averages the fewest offensive-zone entries per minute of any Hawks forward, according to All Three Zones.
But his streakiness, expensiveness and limitedness were well-known entering the season. He has fallen short of many fans’ expectations, but not because he changed as a player — rather because those expectations were set too high.
If the Hawks ever buy out Bertuzzi, it would make more sense financially — based on his contract structure — to do it in the summer of 2026 (or the summer of 2027) instead of this coming summer, so he can be safely penned into next season’s roster.
He probably won’t be the highest-paid forward on that roster, though. Connor Bedard will be eligible for an extension starting July 1, and Davidson will try his best this summer to sign or acquire a high-end forward to complement Bedard. No matter how much the roster changes around Bertuzzi, though, the odds are he’ll be this exact kind of player again.
That’s not necessarily a bad thing. His one skill is an elite skill, and there will be occasional hot streaks in which he helps Bedard and Bedard’s new partner in crime convert pretty plays into ugly goals. But there also will be weeks when he accomplishes nothing, and that shouldn’t be surprising.