Blackhawks Forward's Surprising Start To New Season

The third time’s the charm.

For Chicago Blackhawks forward Teuvo Teravainen, it’s actually the second time that is the charm.

The 30-year-old forward returned to the Blackhawks organization this past summer. He signed a three-year deal worth $5.4 million per season, which is interesting because his expired five-year contract was also worth $5.4 million.

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Teravainen is coming off of a long tenure with the Carolina Hurricanes. In his last year with the team, he registered 53 points in 76 games while skating 16:24 per outing.

Kyle Davidson’s decision to bring him back has already paid huge dividends. Since his return, he has been attached to Connor Bedard’s hip.

The two are a match made in Blackhawks heaven.

Blackhawks Forward’s Surprising Start To New Season — Teuvo Teravainen.
Perry Nelson-Imagn Images

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He’s lighting the ice on fire with seven points in five games. He and Bedard are tied for the team lead in points, even though he has more goals than his younger teammate.

Despite this, there are several reasons to remain cautious of unjust expectations.

Firstly, his shooting percentage of 27.3 percent is highly unsustainable compared to his career average of 10.8. But the goals will keep coming as long as he keeps firing pucks on the net.

Secondly, his PDO is very high. To refresh, PDO is calculated by adding the team’s on-ice shooting percentage and save percentage when that player is on the ice. According to Natural Stat Trick, his on-ice shooting percentage is 12.12, and his on-ice save percentage is 95.65.

This gives Teravainen a PDO of 1078. However, he has had a PDO of 1035 and 1033 in the last two years with the Hurricanes.

On the flip side, three of his four assists have been primary. He should be expected to gather more secondary assists as the season progresses. Especially because they are easy to obtain, it’s not unreasonable to suggest that this could happen.

Teravainen also hasn’t generated a lot of secondary assists in his career. His secondary assist rate has generally ranged from 33 to 43 percent. With that in mind, if he sticks with Bedard all season, his primary assists will continue to skyrocket.

Blackhawks fans should just sit back and enjoy Teravainen’s second tour with the team. It’s charming, to say the least.

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