Aidan Thompson Brings Depth to Blackhawks’ Organizational Pipeline

The 23-year-old Thompson finished the 2024-25 NCAA men’s hockey season with the second-most points in the country, recording 55 points by way of 21 goals and 34 assists. He was also tied for third in the country in assists.

What Thompson Brings to the Blackhawks

As mentioned earlier, the Blackhawks and their fans are hyper-focused on first-round picks and bluechip prospects.

• Connor Bedard, the league’s 2023 first-overall pick, gets most of the attention, having entered the league with sky-high expectations.

• Oliver Moore, Bedard’s fellow 2023 first-round pick, made his NHL debut last month after thriving at the University of Minnesota.

• 2024 second-overall pick Artyom Levshunov thrived with the IceHogs in the first half of the season and has spent the last quarter of the year with the big club.

• Chicago’s 2022 seventh overall pick in Kevin Korchinski spent his first pro season with the Blackhawks, but has spent the majority of 2024-25 with the IceHogs.

• Fellow 2022 first-rounder Frank Nazar has 25 points in 52 games with Chicago, putting him on pace for a 40-point season.

• Sam Rinzel, the team’s third first-round pick, joined the NHL club this spring and has four assists in eight games.

Suffice it to say, it’s the top draft picks that take up all the attention. But ask any team executive, scout or someone in a managerial role, and it’s depth within the organization that breeds success. It’s having high-quality selections in the middle-to-lower rounds of the NHL Draft, and developing those players within your minor-league system that pushes the talent to the highest level. The Macho Man always said the cream rises to the top.

That’s where Thompson comes in. At 23 years old, the Blackhawks’ 2022 third-round pick is a relatively older prospect. Having spent three seasons playing college hockey at the University of Denver, the Fort Collins, Colo., native developed into a well-rounded junior forward, but now the test is how he performs at the professional level.

His size may be a hindrance to his development, listed at 5-foot-11 and 180 pounds. Despite the game moving towards speed and skill, if two players hold equal amounts of each, but one is a few inches taller and a few pounds heavier, nine times out of 10, they’re going to go with him. But having produced at more than a point-per-game pace this season in college, Thompson has the chance to outscore the preconceived bias against him and show that he’s meant to play at the game’s highest level.

Thousands of former professional hockey players were just good enough to be productive AHL players but could never make it work in the NHL. They end up being reliable veterans in the minors, given a letter on their sweater and asked to prepare the next generation of players to learn how to play the pro game and eclipse them in the organizational depth chart. To be honest, there’s a good chance that’s what Thompson ends up being, someone who can find production in the minors but struggles to be more than the occasional emergency recall option.

That’s not a knock against Thompson, although I’m sure some of you reading this may take it as that. But it’s not – just to make it to the AHL itself is a major accomplishment that seldom gets recognized. It’s arguably the second-best league in the world, so to be a productive player in it should be considered a success. And if the Blackhawks want to set themselves up for long-term success, players like Thompson will need to thrive at the minor-league level, pushing the talent north to the NHL.

Everyone falls in love with first-round picks and lottery selections, but the health of an organization lies outside the 20 or so players who travel with the NHL club. Sometimes, the heartbeat of a franchise rides the bus.