The Blackhawks’ plan for young goalie Arvid Soderblom is not only for him to play in the NHL full-time this season but also to give him every opportunity to seize the No. 1 goalie job.

There are so many other talented prospects also slated to move into the NHL full-time (Connor Bedard, Lukas Reichel, Wyatt Kaiser, Alex Vlasic and potentially Kevin Korchinski) that Soderblom, who made 15 appearances for the Hawks last season, seems almost forgotten — or at least familiar.

But there are plenty of reasons to be excited about Soderblom’s progression and sizable new role, too.

“He was up with us last year for our worst six weeks of the year, so we owe him a couple wins,” Hawks coach Luke Richardson said Monday.

Perhaps the lack of buzz around Soderblom’s full-time graduation into Chicago stems from his subpar numbers last season, his second in North America. He posted an .894 save percentage in those 15 Hawks games and a .905 save percentage in 33 AHL games with Rockford.

But throwing out just a couple ugly nights makes the numbers look much prettier. Through his first 14 Hawks games, he had a .904 save percentage; a seven-goal final start against the Rangers (in which every Hawk looked totally lost) singlehandedly tanked his stats.

Meanwhile, over his final 25 Rockford games — after recovering from a December groin injury, then settling back into a rhythm— he recorded a .920 save percentage. Over his final 16, he recorded a .927 save percentage.

“The games [in Rockford] have been really crazy sometimes, like [with] a lot of shots, but that’s been good for development,” Soderblom said Monday. “It has been two great years there, and it has helped me to get where I am today. I feel ready for this next step.”

That fantastic closing stretch convinced Hawks general manager Kyle Davidson — who already believed strongly in Soderblom’s upside due to his Corey Crawford-esque calm demeanor, 6-3 size and decent athleticism — to commit to Soderblom and Petr Mrazek as his NHL goalie duo for 2023-24.

Mrazek will probably receive more than half the starts in October and November, but the Hawks would love to find themselves giving Soderblom more than half come March and April.

Soderblom, who turned 24 in August, spent this past summer at home in Sweden focusing on improving his explosiveness, particularly when moving laterally in the crease. That added explosiveness will be important as he continues adopting the overlapping position that Hawks goalie coach Jimmy Waite introduced to him.

Before joining the Hawks, Soderblom (like many European goalies) positioned himself for tight-angle shots with his pad pressed against the inside of the post. In the overlapping position, his pad instead overlaps the outside of the post. That eliminates any chance of a shot finding a hole short-side, but it gives him less leverage when moving laterally because he can’t push off the post.

This training should help compensate for that difference. He and Waite have already been working on it regularly during training camp.

“There’s always new things to learn,” Soderblom said. “The game keeps changing, so you’ve got to be open to changing your own game, as well. ... If you don’t like it, you shouldn’t be doing it, but [with] the overlap, I like playing it that way.”

Another thing Hawks coaches have emphasized is the importance of on-ice communication.

Although Soderblom is a generally quiet guy, Richardson said he appreciates that Soderblom is still conversational, and he noted that Soderblom “talking to the defensemen is going to be bigger than him talking to me.”

“[Goalies] look up ice the whole game, so they see everything, and we really need them to direct what they see for everybody else to hear and react,” Richardson added. “The forwards and ‘D’ coming back have to listen to [Soderblom] talking, as well.”