2010–11 Chicago Blackhawks season

Off-season

Under pressure to fit the team's player salaries under the salary cap for the 2010–11 season, the team began making trades shortly after winning the Stanley Cup. On June 24, the club traded Dustin Byfuglien, Ben Eager, Brent Sopel and Akim Aliu to the Atlanta Thrashers for Marty Reasoner, Joey Crabb, Jeremy Morin, a first-round pick (#24 overall) in 2010 and a second-round pick (#54 overall) in 2010. Later that same day, restricted free agent Colin Fraser was traded to the Edmonton Oilers for a sixth-round pick in 2010. On June 30, the Toronto Maple Leafs traded for right winger Kris Versteeg from Chicago in a five-player trade. The Maple Leafs gave up forwards Viktor Stalberg, Chris DiDomenico and Philippe Paradis. Toronto also acquired the rights to 21-year-old left winger Bill Sweatt, who was a second-round pick in 2007. On July 1, the Blackhawks traded Andrew Ladd to the Atlanta Thrashers for Ivan Vishnevskiy and a second-round draft pick in 2011. On July 9, Niklas Hjalmarsson was signed to an offer sheet by the San Jose Sharks, though the Blackhawks matched the offer on July 12, thereby retaining his services and forgoing compensation from the Sharks for signing a restricted free agent. This signing again put Chicago against the salary cap wall, and as a result forced the club to forego resigning goaltender Antti Niemi, who had filed for arbitration.

Regular season

Goaltender Marty Turco made his Blackhawks debut on October 7, a 4–3 overtime loss against the Colorado Avalanche. His first Blackhawks win came on October 15, a 5–2 victory over the Columbus Blue Jackets. Defenseman Nick Leddy made his NHL debut on October 7, and he scored his first NHL goal on October 11. Evan Brophey made his NHL debut on October 23. Patrick Sharp had a record of 13 shots on goal, the highest shot total in a single game in Blackhawks history. Marian Hossa was named the NHL's Second Star of the Week for the week ending on October 18, and Duncan Keith was named Third Star of the Week for the week ending on November 1.

Conference standings

bold - qualified for playoffs; y – Won division; p – Won President's Trophy (best record in NHL)
CE - Central Division, NW - Northwest Division, PA - Pacific Division

Schedule and results

Legend:   Win (2 points)   Loss (0 points)   Overtime/shootout loss (1 point)

Playoffs

The Blackhawks returned to the playoffs for the 3rd straight season and were defending their championship of the Stanley Cup as the 8th seed. The Blackhawks played the Canucks for the 3rd straight postseason. In the previous two rounds, the Blackhawks defeated the Canucks twice, four games to two. The Blackhawks were down 3 games to 0, but managed to tie up the series facing elimination. The Blackhawks became just the seventh team in NHL history to come back to tie an 0-3 deficit in the playoffs. The Blackhawks lost in overtime in game 7 to an Alex Burrows goal for a 2–1 loss.

Skaters

Note: Pos = Position; GP = Games played in; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points; PIM = Penalty minutes; +/- = Plus/minus; PPG = Power-play goals; SHG = Short-handed goals; GWG = Game-winning goals 

Goaltenders

Note: GP = Games Played; Min = Minutes played; W = Wins; L = Losses; OT = Overtime Losses; GA = Goals Against; GAA= Goals Against Average; SA= Shots Against; SV= Saves; Sv% = Save Percentage; SO= Shutouts

^†Denotes player spent time with another team before joining Blackhawks. Stats reflect time with the Blackhawks only.
^‡Traded or released mid-season
Bold/italics denotes franchise record

Transactions

The Blackhawks have been involved in the following transactions during the 2010–11 season.