Denver junior forward Aidan Thompson has signed a two-year, entry-level contract with the Chicago Blackhawks.
Thompson will report to Chicago’s AHL affiliate, the Rockford IceHogs, on a professional tryout for the remainder of the 2024-25 campaign. His NHL deal will start with the 2025-26 season.
Thompson recorded career highs during his junior season with the Pioneers by registering 21 goals and 34 assists while playing in all 44 games. He finished second in the NCAA in scoring with 55 points, trailing only teammate Jack Devine (57). He was one of 19 skaters in college hockey to record at least 20 markers this year and his 34 helpers were third-most in the country, with only fellow DU players Devine (44) and Zeev Buium (35) having more.
The Fort Collins, Colo., native played on the top scoring line in the country with Devine and Carter King and finished top 10 among all players in shots (164), finished with a plus-16 plus-minus rating, won 68.5% of his faceoffs and recorded personal bests with seven power-play goals and three game winners, including an overtime marker and his second tally of the night on Feb. 7 at Arizona State.
Named to the NCHC all-conference second team and a member of the NCAA Northeast Regional all-tournament team, Thompson became the third Pioneer to reach the 20-goal threshold after scoring on March 28 against Providence in the regional semifinals in Manchester, N.H. He registered 11 points (five goals, six assists) in his final nine games and had eight goals and 17 assists in his final 19 contests, including scoring in the NCAA Frozen Four semifinals against Western Michigan on Thursday in St. Louis.
The DU alternate captain began this season by registering a point in each of the first 14 games, a career-long point streak from Oct. 5-Nov. 23 that featured 10 goals and 12 assists and was the third-longest overall in the NCAA during the year. The forward’s run was the longest season-opening point streak by a Pioneer in the last 10 years (since 2015-16), surpassing Henrik Borgstrom’s 11-game run to begin the 2017-18 campaign. The 14-game streak was also tied with Bobby Brink for the second-longest by a Pioneer in the last two decades (Dec. 31, 2021-Feb. 19, 2022), with only Danton Heinen’s run of 18 straight contests from Jan. 22-March 27, 2016 being longer. Thompson also registered a personal-best seven-game assist streak from Oct. 18-Nov. 8.
He had 16 multi-point games during the campaign, including setting a career high for assists and points in a game with four helpers on Oct. 19 versus Northeastern—tied for the most in a contest by a Pioneer during the season. He recorded a three-point outing two weeks later with an assist and his second of three multi-goal efforts on Nov. 2 at Yale. He finished the two-game series at Yale with four points (two goals, two assists) and earned his first career forward of the week honor from the conference on Nov. 4.
A Hobey Baker Award nominee, Thompson led the NCHC in scoring during the month of November with 11 points (six goals, five assists) and was named the league’s player of the month, his first such honor of his collegiate career. Overall, he recorded a point in 36 of the 44 outings and never went more than two contests without registering a point.
He appeared in his 100th career game on Jan. 25 at Minnesota Duluth and became the 104th member of the Pioneers’ 100-point club after recording an assist on Feb. 21 at Miami. Thompson finished his Denver tenure with 42 goals and 75 assists for 117 points, ranking tied for 62nd on the program’s all-time scoring list. After missing the first eight games of his career with a lower-body injury suffered at the 2022 World Junior Summer Showcase with USA Hockey, Thompson never missed another outing and played in all 120 contests at Denver.
Thompson made his DU debut on Nov. 4, 2022 versus St. Cloud State and recorded his first point the next night with an assist. He tallied his first goal and added an assist for a multi-point performance on Nov. 11, 2022 at North Dakota and recorded a second goal the next day against the Fighting Hawks in Grand Forks, helping him earn NCHC rookie of the week honors on Nov. 14, 2022.
Finishing his rookie campaign in 2022-23 with 10 goals and 22 assists, Thompson was named the team’s recipient of the Barry Sharp Freshman of the Year award. As a sophomore in 2023-24, he helped Denver win its NCAA-record 10th national championship and registered 11 goals and 19 assists while skating in all 44 contests during the campaign.
Thompson was selected by the Blackhawks in the third round (90th overall) of the 2022 NHL Draft. He attended the team’s prospect development camp in each of the past three summers.
