The 2023-24 season was a challenge for the Chicago Blackhawks. Their depth, which wasn’t that great to begin with, was crushed by a rash of injuries rarely seen in the NHL. Clearly, this team needed more NHL-caliber talent to help young players like Connor Bedard excel at the game’s highest level.
General manager Kyle Davidson said during his exit interview in April that the time had come for his team to take the next step and strive to be better on the ice. Many expected him to be active in free agency and add two forwards and a defenseman. If you include the pre-draft trade with the Vancouver Canucks, he added five forwards, two blueliners, and a goaltender.
These moves led some to pull back and say Davidson did too much, and now some of the top prospects are being held back. The organization does not feel that way. They want to create competition and let these talented young players earn their NHL spots rather than just having them handed to them. He doesn’t feel that anything he’s done in the last few days has or will hinder the big picture.
“It’s about competition,” Director of Player Development Mark Eaton said this week. “That’s what we’re trying to create as our prospect pool gets deeper. When you have more competition, it allows the cream to rise to the top. They will push each other more in a positive way and get more out of each other. To me, that’s the greatest benefit of having fewer spots. Competing for fewer spots allows that cream to rise to the top.”
Guys like Frank Nazar and Landon Slaggert, who got a taste of the NHL at the end of last season, are not guaranteed a spot on the opening night roster. Some may not agree with that, but the team wants their future stars to be here and ready to improve the team from the moment they step on the United Center ice.
“There are always going to be spots,” Eaton added. “There are development plans in place, and we’ll get to the point where the best players will play. We say, ‘How do you know when a guy is ready?’ They’ll tell us based on their play. So, just because there are veteran guys here doesn’t mean that’s not allowing the cream to rise to the top. A handful of spots will be up for grabs, so let’s see who earns them.”
Davidson echoed these sentiments when he spoke to the media on Friday. He doesn’t look at his plethora of moves as hurting the growth of his future stars. If anything, he believes it is helping them.
“I don’t see anyone being blocked, especially to the point of development being hindered,” he said. “If young players are ready to come in and elevate the group more so than a player in a post, then we’ll decide on how to best find a role for them. But we couldn’t do what I believe happened a little last year, when we had spots for young players, and they weren’t quite thriving. You can’t fix that in September. You must have bodies to make sure that if you need to give a prospect more time, you do that in July. So, there is an opportunity for development, whether in Rockford or a lesser role here. You can’t fill those spots with veteran players ahead of some young guys who aren’t quite ready in September. It’s too late.”
Guys like Craig Smith and Patrick Maroon know what is going on here. They know that they are going to be pushed by a crop of hungry young players. That is good for everyone. Davidson mentioned the development path of the Dallas Stars and how they used patience with some of their young players, like Thomas Harley and Logan Stankoven. Yes, they are in a different situation, but when those two players got to Dallas, they became difference-makers right away.
“It’s a tough league for young guys to thrive in, and we want our players to thrive,” he said. “And the one thing we’ve got at our disposal is Rockford. I don’t know if we’ve had a player go down and come back up that hasn’t gotten better in Rockford. We’ve got a ton of trust in Anders Sorensen and the development staff working in Rockford to make sure that players go down there will be better. All the evidence has shown that they do get better in Rockford. So, if that’s the path we need to build for them, we’ll use it.”
The new influx of talent also means guys like Kevin Korchinski and Lukas Reichel are not guaranteed to start this season in Chicago.
“Korchinski, much like anyone else, has to come in and take a spot,” Davidson said. “The young guys will have to be convincing in doing so. What we don’t want is to give them a spot, then after a month or so, it’s just not working, and we had to clear someone out to open a spot for them and then we can’t get that player back.
“And that goes for the veterans, too. You have to come in and make this team. No one is given anything. This is the NHL, and we’re going to use the players who give us the best opportunity to push this thing forward and make positive strides.”
For those who think Davidson has gone into a “win now” mode, that just isn’t true. This roster is not good enough to go from 52 points to a playoff spot. Getting up to 75 points would be a gigantic improvement. The main goal is to be improved at the NHL level while having your foundation for the future take the necessary strides.
“You’re always trying to challenge but not overwhelm,” Davidson said of his development strategy. “I think that’s the balance we always try to strike with development. You want them to be challenged and pushed, but you also don’t want them just to be treading water. Or even slightly better than that. You want them to be pushed but be able to excel to the point where their confidence is always growing. This is all about achieving their ceilings long term. We won’t put players in the NHL just to say we have young players in the NHL. It’s got to be the right thing to do.”
This will be an intriguing season for the Blackhawks organization in Chicago, Rockford, and across the development plane.
