Nick Foligno has a chance to reach a few career milestones in 2024-25 with a strong season playing the game he's known for.
Nick Foligno has a chance to reach a few career milestones in 2024-25 with a strong season playing the game he's known for.
Nick Foligno made a great impression on the Chicago Blackhawks in his first season with the team. He played where he was needed, stepped up as a leader, and had a bit of a career resurgence, putting up his best numbers since 2016-17. This all led to him being named captain of the Blackhawks for the 2024-25 season.
While he has a chance to once again be the captain of a team, he has a big season ahead of him in a different regard. Foligno is approaching three big career milestones this season.
It's going to take another strong season by Folingo on an improved Blackhawks team, but he can reach 600 points, 1000 penalty minutes, and 2750 hits. All these sum up the type of player the veteran has been throughout his career.
Foligno had 37 points in 74 games last season and averaged 17:46 of ice time. He hasn't seen that kind of ice time since he played in Columbus in 2020-21. He got time with Connor Bedard importantly. That isn't likely to happen much in 2024-25 as the Blackhawks are healthy and added some top-6 talent to the lineup. It's not going to be the easiest thing for Foligno to put up similar points as 2023-24, but he needs 38 to reach 600 for his career.
If Foligno is back in a full-time bottom-6 role, it will be more likely he roughs it up and totals more penalty minutes by the end of the season. He needs 68 penalty minutes to reach 1000 and has had that many in a season just twice. While it has been rare to see him get that many in a season, he hasn't been in a bottom-6 role all that often.
Foligno would've hit 68 penalty minutes in both seasons as a Boston Bruin (2021-22 and 2022-23) if he had played closer to a full season. He only played 64 and 60 games. So assuming his workload drops, he is put in more of a checking role, and he stays relatively healthy, reaching 1000 penalty minutes this season is not out of the question.
Foligno has been physical no matter where he plays in the lineup. That has been a constant throughout his career and isn't going to stop now that he is the captain of a team once again. The veteran needs 193 hits to reach 2750 hits for his career. That is very reachable as he had 192 in 74 games last season.
The new Blackhawks captain has had 193 hits in a season four times in his career, and not all in full seasons either. I'll again stress that he will be in a bottom-6 checking role, so the physicality will be even more expected.
While Foligno might not hit all three of these big milestones this season, there's a good chance he at least gets one if he manages to stay healthy and play at least 75 games. He is needed in the room with his great leadership as the Blackhawks try to climb out of the rebuild and compete for a playoff spot this season.
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