Blackhawks goalie Arvid Soderblom approached this season with the perfect mindset.
Even though it appeared he would only enjoy a couple weeks on the NHL roster before Laurent Brossoit’s return pushed him down to the AHL, he was unperturbed.
“If I’m good enough, I’ll be at the NHL level,” Soderblom said in late September. “If not, then I won’t be. … All of that kind of stuff will handle itself. It’s up to me to show what I can do. There’s nothing that scares me, really.”
His faith in meritocracy has paid off. Two weeks have stretched to two months, and he remains on the NHL roster. Brossoit’s unexpected difficulties recovering from meniscus surgery opened a window for him, and he has taken advantage of the opportunity.
Soderblom has allowed three or fewer goals in all seven of his starts so far this season. His .919 save percentage and plus-3.9 GSAA are both well above league average; they’re tremendously different from his disastrous .879 and minus-22.9 marks last season.
The biggest reason behind that turnaround is his improvement tracking pucks and scanning his surroundings.
He spent the summer saving shots while getting screened by his 6-8 brother Elmer, a forward in the Red Wings organization. And during training camp, he received a helpful bit of advice from Hawks goalie coach Jimmy Waite about taking a second to survey the relative positions of every opposing player before a rush reaches him.
“Then your brain gets more info and it’s easier to make the right decisions on every play,” Soderblom said Wednesday. “It slows the mind down a little bit.”
That small adjustment has positively impacted some of the more visible weaknesses of his game, such as rebound control and right-to-left movement. He has also gotten better at handling the routine of being a backup goalie making infrequent starts.
“[Every day] I’m on the ice, in the net, stopping pucks,” he said. “I’m doing the same thing no matter if it’s practice, morning skate or a game. That makes me feel comfortable going into games.”
Back in spring 2023, when Soderblom completed his second consecutive excellent AHL season, the Hawks viewed him as their potential goalie of the future. Goaltenders’ development paths are notoriously unpredictable, so a large asterisk accompanied that projection, and by spring 2024, that optimism had vanished.
But now Soderblom, who’s still only 25, looks like a potential part of the Hawks’ future again. And over the next few weeks, he could force management’s hand with that decision and possibly re-secure a permanent NHL roster spot.
That’s because, once Soderblom plays in three more games and reaches 60 appearances in his career, he will require waivers to be sent down. The Hawks would be reluctant to risk losing him for nothing like that.
At this point, it’s so inevitable he’ll reach that 60-game threshold that the Hawks might as well stop spacing out his starts so much, especially considering the strain that’s putting on workhorse Petr Mrazek. It’s safe to say Brossoit’s absence has dragged on so long that Soderblom’s situation has permanently changed.
Even if Brossoit recovers smoothly from his recent second surgery and gets cleared for action in January or February, the Hawks will have a goalie logjam. At that point, they might at least look into trading Mrazek or either trading or waiving Brossoit.
Soderblom’s seven-game sample this season is small, and he is a pending restricted free agent, so his Chicago future is hardly certain. It has gotten more promising since September, however, and it could get a lot more promising soon. And his even-keel mindset still hasn’t changed.
“It’s never fun when a teammate is injured or taking a step back, but that’s how it is,” Soderblom said. “There’s enough to focus on being a goalie, so I’m trying to not think about stuff like that.”