This is the 2024-25 edition — an archived read. Read the 2026-27 report →
Arvid Soderblom
Chicago Blackhawks Goaltender
Undrafted, 5-22-2, and an .8790 — eighty-eight points of save percentage behind the man he split with.
| Season | Team | GP | W | L | OTL | GA | GAA | SO | SA | SV% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021-22 | CHI | 3 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 13 | 5.01 | 0 | 95 | .863 |
| 2022-23 | CHI | 15 | 2 | 10 | 2 | 48 | 3.45 | 0 | 453 | .894 |
| 2023-24 | CHI | 32 | 5 | 22 | 2 | 114 | 3.92 | 0 | 942 | .879 |
| 2024-25 so far | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Career | — | 50 | 7 | 34 | 4 | 175 | 3.84 | 0 | 1490 | .883 |
This Season So Far
The 2024-25 season has not started. The empty row above is his, and both it and this paragraph fill in on their own from the morning after he first plays: what he has done, what it is worth against his own last season, and the run he is on when the two disagree.
Last Season
Thirty-two games, 5-22-2, an .8790 save percentage, a 3.92 average and no shutouts on 942 shots.
Five wins in thirty-two games is a number that belongs to a club rather than a goaltender. The .8790 does not: Petr Mrazek faced the same defence in the same building and posted a .9072, and eighty-eight points of save percentage between two men on one roster is the whole of the difference.
The Physical Game
He is 6-3 and 180, light for the height, and he plays deep in his crease and lets the frame take the puck. Against clean shots from distance it works and the height covers a great deal of net.
The rebound control is the weakness here too — the second chance goes back into the slot rather than to the corner, and on a club ranked 30th at suppressing chances there is always somebody standing there. He is square and calm on the first shot and beaten on the second more often than a starter can be.
The Mental Game
Twenty-two losses in thirty-two games, and a career record of 7-34-4 across three seasons. Whatever else that does to a young goaltender, he kept taking the starts.
The season did not improve as it went and there was no month in which the numbers turned. That is the honest reading and it is not softened by the club in front of him.
The Intangibles
He is undrafted, out of Gothenburg, and reached the National Hockey League on merit rather than on position. Fifty career games at 25 with a .8826 is a hard place to be.
He is not the answer and he is on a club that does not yet need one. Chicago will give him more starts than his numbers deserve, because there is nothing else to give them to.