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Sam Rinzel
Chicago Blackhawks Defense #6
Six foot four at twenty-one, eighteen minutes a night, and no evidence yet in either direction.
| Season | GP | G | A | PTS | +/- | PIM | PP | SH | GW | S | S% | TOI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025-26 | 54 | 4 | 10 | 14 | -7 | 44 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 83 | 4.8 | 18:16 |
| Career | 63 | 4 | 15 | 19 | -6 | 44 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 105 | 3.8 | 18:60 |
Last Season
Four goals and 10 assists in 54 games, minus-seven, at 18:16 a night. His first real NHL season, at 21.
The Finesse Game
Long, mobile and unfinished. The skating is good for six foot four and the club clearly believes he can move a puck, which is why he plays eighteen minutes.
The production is not there: 130 unblocked attempts from a median of 50 feet, five per cent inside twenty, four goals. Ten assists in 54 games.
The Physical Game
Six foot four and 194 pounds, which is very light for the frame, and it shows in front of the net. Forty-four penalty minutes says he competes; the strength to finish those battles has not arrived.
Two summers of weight is the obvious and unglamorous answer.
The Intangibles
Forty-two point three per cent of the expected goals, fifth percentile, with the goals 28-45 against in 856 minutes.
The same caveat applies as to every Blackhawk and it is wearing thin by this point in the section: the club was last in the league and every young defenceman here is being played above his station because there is nobody else.
He is 21, a first-round pick, 63 career games. There is not enough here to grade honestly and the games he is getting are not the kind that produce evidence. Ask again when there is a defence around him.