Nick Foligno’s wife, Janelle, knows to leave him alone on July 1 every year.
The opening day of NHL free agency is almost as busy for Foligno as it is for the league’s 32 general managers. That’s because the Blackhawks‘ newly named captain takes it upon himself to reach out promptly to every new player the team acquires or signs.
And this year, there were quite a lot of calls to make. Foligno’s phone contacts list — which he admits was already “pretty deep” — added several new names and numbers.
“I started making calls saying, ‘Welcome to the team,'” Foligno said. “I remember being a kid and getting calls from Daniel Alfredsson, Wade Redden and Mike Fischer, and I know it made me really excited. [It told me] they, first of all, knew who I was, but also there was a responsibility now to get in there.
“Then there’s a familiar face — like, ‘Hey, I’ve already reached out, and now he knows he can approach me.'”
A few days later, Hawks returnee Jason Dickinson rang Foligno to discuss all the news.
“The first thing I thought was, ‘We just got a whole lot older, a lot more veteran and a lot more winning pedigree,'” Dickinson said.
“I was waiting for things to die down, just to see if there was anything else left, and I called Nick after. We were both like, ‘Wow, this is a big change. I wasn’t expecting this much movement.’ We’re not privy to those details.”
Foligno had actually been more involved in the behind-the-scenes process than Dickinson may have realized. Foligno’s call to former Bruins teammate Tyler Bertuzzi on June 30, for example, played a role in convincing Bertuzzi to sign in Chicago.
Still, the overall haul of additions excited Foligno just as much. He had basically called for a roster overhaul after the Hawks’ 2023-24 season finale in April, and although Davidson made the moves not specifically because Foligno requested them but because he too believed it was time for the team to improve, they nonetheless represented a granting of Foligno’s wishes.
“I was pumped,” Foligno said. “I was really appreciative that we were addressing an area we all felt we needed to get better in. … You see the players that come in: they’re all hard-working competitors. That’s exciting for the DNA of this team.”
So far during training camp, coach Luke Richardson has spread the new additions throughout the depth chart.
Up front, Bertuzzi has been stapled to Connor Bedard’s first-line wing, Teuvo Teravainen has skated on the second line, Ilya Mikheyev has completed Dickinson and Foligno’s checking line and Pat Maroon and Craig Smith have flanked Andreas Athanasiou on the fourth line.
On defense, Alec Martinez has been paired with Seth Jones and T.J. Brodie with Alex Vlasic, and it sounds like Richardson is committed to keeping those duos together into the regular season — surprisingly splitting up Vlasic and Jones for now. New goalie Laurent Brossoit will also join the fun sometime in October (after recovering from meniscus surgery).
Jones, whose morale has been affected by the constant losing of the past few years, has noticed a difference in the competitiveness and liveliness of this camp due to the many new faces.
“I love that we have veteran guys now in this room that understand how to be professionals and show up to work every day,” Jones said. “We can really start building momentum here, helping young guys along and winning games and being competitive.”
That top forward line and top two defensive pairs will headline the Hawks’ lineup in their preseason opener Wednesday against the Red Wings. Younger lineups will presumably be sent to Detroit and St. Louis on Friday and Saturday for the second and third preseason games, respectively.