Blackhawks helping Andre Burakovsky become more responsible defensive player

The Blackhawks have been impressed by veteran forward Andre Burakovsky's ability to transport the puck on his stick. His comfort level doing so has taken a load off of Connor Bedard, in particular, freeing up Bedard to focus on other things.

"He's one of the best I've seen at holding the puck and getting away from checks and making plays out of it," Bedard said Wednesday.

Because of that skill, though, Burakovsky has never paid as much attention to his habits when he's not possessing the puck. Defense, for example, has never been his top priority.

During his three seasons with the Avalanche, one analytics model rated his offensive play in the 74th percentile of all NHL players and his defensive play in the 18th percentile. (During his three frustrating seasons with the Kraken, he fell into the 37th and 21st percentiles, respectively.)

"I've always been more of an offensive player and want the puck a lot," said Burakovsky, 30. "When I played in Europe, I played like [Connor] McDavid — I had the puck a lot. I wasn't spending much time in the 'D'-zone back then."

Hawks coach Jeff Blashill is working to change that, to make Burakovsky into a more competent defender.

His biggest piece of advice: When Burakovsky enters the defensive zone, he needs to come to a full stop — and then engage — instead of just swinging through.

"Stops on 'D'-zone arrivals make you a better defensive player," Blashill said. "A lot of offensive guys, they want to come back and get the puck in full motion, so they tend to try to keep their speed in those scenarios. But if you don't get it, you're leaving the slot area exposed a lot of times. That's an area that he and I have talked about, that he's continued to improve upon."

Burakovsky confirmed he has bought into that new approach.

"It helps a lot because it puts you in a position where you defend your net better," he said. "You've got to recognize there's a time when we have the puck where you can swing and keep [your speed], and when they have it, you've got to come back and protect the house a little bit.

"I've worked on it. Sometimes in games, you're focused on one play, and it happens sometimes that you don't stop. That's just something I've got to get in the back of my head [so] it happens automatically every time."

Blashill has also worked with Burakovsky on his defensive sorting, which entails figuring out which opposing player he needs to be guarding upon arrival into the defensive zone — as well as when opposing defensemen pinch down.

Earlier this season, Burakovsky looked shaky defensively, but he often managed to get away with it because he and Bedard were so explosive offensively. Through Dec. 7, the Hawks had outscored their opponents 21-18 during Burakovsky's five-on-five ice time, masking a subpar 45.1% scoring-chance ratio.

More recently, Burakovsky has looked more responsible and attentive defensively, even if he hasn't been rewarded appropriately. From Dec. 10 through Monday, the Hawks had been outscored 16-8 but had generated a 51.6% scoring-chance ratio during his ice time.

With Bedard healthy again, skating on a line with Burakovsky and rookie Ryan Greene, the Hawks would love it if they could stay above 50% in terms of both goal and scoring-chance differential moving forward.

It's worth noting that, in terms of box-score stats, Burakovsky is already enjoying a revival year. He's averaging 17:24 of ice time (a career high), and he's on pace to finish with 54 points in 77 games (which would be easily his second-most productive season).

"The thing about Andre is he wants to be a really good player, wants to be a winning player, wants to be a guy put out there in important situations," Blashill said.

Big-picture thoughts

When the Hawks acquired Burakovsky last summer, he didn't know much about his new team aside from "how Chicago played last year, and obviously it wasn't a great season for them."

The Hawks' improvements this season — they entered Thursday on pace for 80 points, up from 61 last season — have impressed him. And with another year left on his contract, he hopes to witness another big step forward in 2026-27.

"I think 'Blash' is doing an unbelievable job with the group," Burakovsky said. "We've had moments and games and periods where we can beat anyone. We play really good, but then we have moments where we sit back, [where] we're not doing what we're supposed to do. That's something we definitely can mature from and get better at.

"We've been playing games where it's really hard to play against us, where we shut down the other team and outplay them and outwork them and out-compete them. We have it. We just have to bring it on more of a daily basis."