The Blackhawks newcomer brings passion to the winning team

In June 2010, 15-year-old Ryan Hartman cut class — even though he had a final that day — to attend the Blackhawks’ Stanley Cup parade. The franchise hadn’t won a Cup since the 1960s, and, growing up in the suburbs, Hartman had been a fan his entire life.

Three years later, the Hawks won again — and less than a week after that, they drafted Hartman. “[Since] they won the Cup that year, they had the last pick of the first round,” Hartman remembers. “I was told I was going to [be picked] anywhere from tenth to fifteenth of the 30, so I didn’t really know. Around 25th pick, that’s when I kind of started hoping I wouldn’t. … You never really hope you don’t get picked by a team, but I was hoping everyone was going to pass on me because I knew [the Blackhawks] were at 30.”

By 2015, when the Hawks won their third Cup in five years, Hartman was a “black ace” — emergency backup — during the playoffs run. Now, at 22, he’s playing his first full season in the NHL. He was pulled up from the minor league affiliate Rockford IceHogs, in a sense, to bring the type of gameplay Andrew Shaw, who was traded to the Montreal Canadiens, provided; Hartman shows the same sort of grit and scrappy determination that Shaw was known for. He’s a fighter, quite literally: When Hartman smiled for our camera he revealed a missing bottom tooth — he has a retainer with a fake tooth, he told us, but doesn’t really see the point in wearing it.





Hartman is a soft-spoken yet tough-as-nails Midwesterner — he was born in South Carolina but grew up in West Dundee — and is one of a few locals on the Chicago team. There’s also Scott Darling from Lemont, and Vinnie Hinostroza from Bartlett. Hartman and Hinostroza have been friends since they were young teens; they played on the same traveling football and hockey teams. Now, they live together in Chicago, and are roommates on the road for away games. “All of the older guys have families, so you don’t see too many people outside the rink,” Hartman says. “So it’s nice to have this younger group.” Are they competitive? “Hockey-wise, no — we’re a team. But outside the rink there’s definitely a lot [of competition] between Vinnie and me; we’re almost like brothers.”

For as long as he’s been following the team — his father and grandfather before him were also Blackhawks fans — Hartman has seen the hockey landscape change. “Growing up, you didn’t really see many jerseys around, or shirts with Hawks logos,” he says. “Now you can’t go anywhere without seeing [them]. The winning atmosphere [has changed that]. Everyone likes to watch; hockey becomes the first sport people think of when they’re in Chicago. Parents who are fans are like, ‘Hey, let’s get my kid into the game,’ and there are new rinks going up every year.”

In fact, now there’s a rink right near where he grew up, but it was just a cornfield when he was there. Without the ubiquity hockey has now, Hartman tried his hand at other sports as a kid — he played golf, baseball and football — but always came back to the ice. “It was probably freshman year of high school that I started really taking it seriously and wanting to make a career out of it,” he says. “I moved away from home [to play for the U.S. National Team Development Program in Michigan] right after that, my freshman year. Once you make that commitment to move away and pursue it, that’s kind of when you put all your eggs in one basket.”

It took almost eight years, but the hard work has paid off. This season, Hartman is ranked sixth among NHL rookies for goals with 16 (as of press time) — three of which he scored in a career-first hat trick in January. And though some things can’t be ranked, it’s easy to see he’d place just as high when it comes to truly playing with heart.

< At the shoot

We hung out with Blackhawks newcomer Ryan Hartman after practice earlier this month. Leaving the rink after the shoot, we saw young fans lined up outside the parking garage — and caught Ryan in our rearview mirror, putting his pickup into park and rolling down the window to sign autographs and chat with the kids.

Photographer: Maria Ponce

Grooming: Tonya Noland, Ford Artists

Shot on location at: Johnny’s IceHouse West, 2550 W. Madison

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