Kane, Toews highlight Blackhawks’ NHL quarter-century team

The best Chicago Blackhawks of the last 25 years have been revealed.

In the midst of the 2025 NHL Winter Classic, the league began rolling out its multi-phased celebration, honoring the best players for each of the 32 franchises, starting off with one of the Original Six.

As many expected, the two teams of six players most represent the Blackhawks’ glory days over the past 15 years, which saw the franchise win three Stanley Cups in six years.

The First Team features pretty much the starting lineup for the 2013 and 2015 championship teams. Forwards Patrick Kane, Patrick Sharp and captain Jonathan Toews are alongside defenseman Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook, along with goaltender Corey Crawford.

Kane and Toews were joined at the hip. The two players became the faces of the franchise as soon as they were drafted in back-to-back years, leading the resurgence of the team in the Windy City. Kane scored the most points as a Blackhawk since the turn of the century, scoring 1,225 points in 1,161 games with the Hawks.

Sharp was an offensive catalyst who posted 532 points in 749 games during his extended time with the franchise.

Keith was the third Conn Smythe winner during Chicago’s dynasty, as he was named playoff MVP during the 2015 postseason. He and Seabrook played over 1,000 games with the Blackhawks, most of the time on the same pair.

Crawford was a netminder who came up through the Hawks system and was the franchise’s top goaltender for close to a decade, winning the Cup in 2013 and 2015.

The Second Team saw a couple of the key players during the Stanley Cup runs. Marian Hossa, Brandon Saad, Brian Campbell and Niklas Hjalmarsson became household names in Chicago, as did forward Alex DeBrincat and goaltender Jocelyn Thibault for a brief time.

Hossa, who bounced around the league before finding a stable home in Chicago in 2010, was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2020.

Saad had two stints with the Hawks, most notably in the mid-2010s, being a key secondary scorer on the 2013 and 2015 Cup teams. DeBrincat became an instant star with the Blackhawks, creating a solid connection with Kane, scoring 307 points in 368 games with Chicago.

Campbell was one of the more overlooked players in the Blackhawks’ return to glory, while Hjalmarsson became a fan favorite during his several years of service to the team.

Some might forget Thibault’s contribution to the team. “The Arena Closer” played for the Hawks from 1998 to 2004.