Oliver Moore is ready to move on.
Moore has decided to forego his remaining college eligibility and sign an entry-level contract with the Chicago Blackhawks, according to a league source. Moore’s sophomore season at the University of Minnesota came to an end on Thursday with the Gophers losing in overtime in the NCAA Tournament. Moore is expected to join the Blackhawks for practice on Saturday and could make his NHL debut as early as Sunday.
Moore, a 6-foot, 185-pound center who turned 20 at the end of January, was the 19th pick in the 2023 NHL Draft and finished fourth on the Golden Gophers in scoring with 33 points in 38 games this season as a sophomore, a year after also registering 33 points in 39 games as a freshman (for which he was named to the Big Ten All-Rookie Team).
He also won back-to-back gold medals with Team USA at the World Juniors.
Moore finished his sophomore season strong with the Golden Gophers, finding the scoresheet in eight of the team’s final nine games and scoring five goals and 10 points during that span. In Minnesota’s 5-4 overtime loss to UMass in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament on Thursday night, he registered an assist and played 22:46, second-most among Gophers forwards.
Moore went through some offensive inconsistencies during his sophomore season, but Minnesota coach Bob Motko was confident he’s play through it.
“The points aren’t coming, and sometimes that gets in your head, but he is becoming so responsible in the defensive end,” Motzko said early in the season. “He’s a force on the forecheck, you know, how he attacks the puck. He just needs to get rewarded. Sometimes you see sophomores go through this. You do. But the good thing, all the great ones go through it, but they come through it. It has a start, a middle and an end.”
Moore also discussed working through that.
“You’re not going to have your A-game every single night,” Moore said. “I think I’ve found a very good B-plus game. I pride myself on that, obviously using my speed offensively, defensively, creating forecheck chances, just kind of being a hunter out there and being all over the ice. It’s something when things aren’t going in offensively, I can kind of go back to that and good things will happen.”
Moore spent time in the offseason working with Blackhawks skills coach Brian Keane and they focused on getting Moore into better areas to score around the net.
“That’s a big part of the college game and translates to the next level,” Moore said.
In The Athletic’s 2025 top 100 drafted NHL prospects ranking, released in February, Moore ranked 64th — fifth among Blackhawks prospects.
Scouting report
Moore has always had a consistent game-to-game impact even when the points aren’t going in (he rarely has a bad game and works and finds ways to involve himself and make things happen). His game is defined by his world-class skating ability (both in straight lines, where he turns defenders with ease out wide, in quick bursts from explosive stops and starts and rounding corners and winding up through his edges) and consistency of presence on the ice. He’s got gallops, cutbacks, crossovers, all of it. He regularly creates breakaways, wins races he shouldn’t and sends defenders sliding when he stops up on them with a head of steam. He also hunts pucks and applies pressure with the best of them and his motor doesn’t stop, bouncing from one won battle to the next.
He wants to hang onto the puck and make plays but he’ll also hurry it up and dominate in and out of give-and-gos. He’s got quick hands. He’s got a one-timer from the right flank and can really rip his catch-and-release or in-stride wrister when he gets clean looks. He’s an impressive athlete who is strong for a 5-foot-11 player, which should help him stick at center up levels. He has learned to use some more diverse movement patterns to make defensemen miss and get to his spots as a shooter. He’s strong in the faceoff circle. Increasingly, his game isn’t all just about the speed/hound element and he has shown his puck protection in and out of stops and starts in the offensive zone, changing directions to beat defenders off the wall into valuable ice.
But he just doesn’t seem to finish off plays around the slot or in all alone enough and that lack of finish despite the tools to do so and some pretty goals over the years on both dekes and shots, has become a bit of a constant, raising questions about his offensive upside in the NHL. There isn’t much to nitpick in his tools or his approach, although he does need to think the game a little better with the puck at times. He can impose his will on games. But while his game is fast and tenacious, you’re more likely looking at a fast and determined third-liner.
(Photo: Michael Miller / Getty Images)