3 acceptable reasons the Blackhawks reached with their other first-round picks

Chicago Blackhawks general manager Kyle Davidson took two major swings with the boom-or-bust players he picked with the team's other two first-round picks.

That is how he planned it when he took super-sized forward, Vaclav Nestrasil with the 25th pick and then traded back into the first round to select forward Mason West with the 29th pick.

His hunch is trending out toward being right when he picked Sam Rinzel during the 2022 draft in a similar fashion. Perhaps it does not hurt for him to follow his instincts rather than conventional wisdom. Plus, these are teenagers Davidson selected. Mason West is going to be a senior in high school where he is an elite two-sport athlete.

At the end of the day, the NHL Draft is just a guessing game once you get outside of the top couple of picks. It is trying to make the best educated guess as possible, but it is a guess.

That is why drafting for certain traits is better than drafting the best player available. The Hawks want to draft good skaters with skill and a high hockey IQ. These two prospects meet those traits.

The NHL Draft is one of the few drafts where a team can also pick for needs over the best player available, and it will not be franchise-altering if the decision is wrong. This is not the NFL, where teams passing up on a more talented player for needs can be soul-crushing because the chances of immediately playing on Sunday are greater than a draft prospect ever skating in the NHL.

That is not the biggest reason that it was fine the Hawks may have reached by taking Nestrasil and West.

There are three reasons it is okay that the Hawks took gambles on those two prospects...

1) These were bonus picks for the Blackhawks.

The Hawks have to get it right with Anton Frondell, who they took at No. 3. That was their pick, and it was a top-five choice where the odds of getting a legit NHL player are greater.

The other two picks were bonuses because of prior trades.

The Hawks had the 25th pick because of a 2023 trade with the Toronto Maple Leafs. They leveraged their two second-round picks, one of which they acquired from Dallas in a 2023 trade, to trade back into the first round to acquire Carolina's pick at No. 29.

These were luxury picks. If they bust, it is not going to be franchise-altering because they technically were not going to have these choices unless they got those two teams to agree to a trade.

2) The Hawks needed some size and screeners in front of the opponent's net.

The Hawks forward unit needed to get bigger, and that was accomplished by taking Frondell, Nestrasil, and West.

Frondell is 6-foot-1, and he looks like a shrimp compared to Nestrasil and West.

Nestrasil and West are massive at 6-foot-6. Nestrasil can still add more bulk to his 185lb frame, and West is already 218lbs. Where the Hawks can easily develop those two is to be large screeners to park right in front of the opponent's net. That should be their floor.

Good luck trying to move those two out of the opposing netminder's vision when they fill out much like it was hard for teams to push Dustin Byfuglien and Bryan Bickell on those Stanley Cup-winning teams last decade.

Those two plopping in front of the opponent's goal led to their teammates getting "greasy" goals or Big Buff or Bickell burying the rebound into the back of the net. The current Blackhawks have been missing that. While it will be years before they are skating in Chicago, their size could be the final piece the club needs to start contending.

A bonus, both skate better and have a little bit more skill than Buff and Bickell, to be more than just big dudes to put in front of the net.

3) The team's draft board matters more than outside rankings.

Draft publications and expert rankings are great for providing information to the general public. They do not mean anything to the actual team making the pick.

The Blackhawks employ a lot of scouts to compile their draft board. These are the scouts likely watching prospects a lot more than the experts. That is not to say draft experts do not watch the players they rank, but scouts are typically "deeper in the weeds."

A scout might see a fit that a draft guru's bias might miss. It can work both ways, but guys like Scott Wheeler are employed by the Athletic, not the Blackhawks. The organization makes the pick, and for better or worse, the front office's opinion is the only one that matters.

While Vaclav had a second-round grade, according to most publications, the Hawks clearly felt he was better. If there is something they loved about his game, it does not matter what the Athletic's Corey Pronman thinks.

While it can be uncomfortable trusting Davidson, considering the Hawks have done nothing but lose under his leadership, he has put together a highly regarded prospect pool. Plus, losing has been done by design to build up a good farm system.

Davidson is already trending toward getting it right with Rinzel. Maybe he will trend toward getting it right with these two picks, too.