Belief in Blackhawks young core remains the plan

Heading into the offseason, it was nearly universally agreed that the Chicago Blackhawks checklist was to add a top-six forward, size and physicality on the bottom six, and a veteran defenseman to be a security blanket for the young blueliners. General manager Kyle Davidson accomplished two of those things by signing Cole Smith and Ian Cole today. Add in Jordan Greenway, and this team is a lot harder to play against than it was last year.

The Guy We All Want Wasn’t Available Today

The top-six winger was going to be the hardest thing to come by this summer. That guy wasn’t on the free-agent market, so he wasn’t coming today. A player like that will have to come via a trade, but, so far, nobody like that has been on the move.

Davidson tried to acquire Matthew Knies from the Toronto Maple Leafs, but the reported price was the fourth-overall pick and a player like Anton Frondell or Frank Nazar. He quickly focused on bringing in Bowen Byram, who signed his big contract extension today. Some may argue that bringing in a 25-year-old No. 1 defenseman is harder to do and more valuable than finding a goal-scoring winger. I tend to agree with that, but Bowen still needs to prove he’s that guy.

“We’re always talking to other teams, but it doesn’t always work,” Davidson said. “Sometimes you think that you’ve got something that makes sense, but it doesn't always pan out that way. Normally, with good players around the league, teams want to keep them. The one thing I believe I’ve shown now with the Byram acquisition is that I’m willing to be aggressive when something is there and to be had. I’m not going to hesitate, but it's got to be there, and it’s got to make sense. We do have good assets, and that’s something we have working for us and are not afraid to use if the opportunity arises.”

The Belief is in the Young Core

The door isn’t officially shut on acquiring that forward this summer, but, as of now, he just isn’t available for a price that makes sense for the Blackhawks.

“We’ve filled some spots we needed to shore up, while leaving runway for some young players to continue to develop and grow into roles they’ve already started to mature into,” Davidson said. “At the same time, we’re going to keep looking at what’s available to us and making sure we’re leaving no stone unturned to maximize our roster.”

It is crystal clear that Davidson believes in his young core. He believes Connor Bedard will be that elite player we saw early last season. He believes that Frank Nazar will be worth the big contract that kicks in next season. He believes Anton Frondell and Roman Kantserov will make an impact in their first full NHL seasons. He believes that Artyom Levshunov, Sam Rinzell, and Wyatt Kaiser are going to be the NHL defensemen they were drafted to be. He believes Nick Lardis and Oliver Moore will take a big step forward.

Those are a lot of uncertainties to believe, but this was the vision of the rebuild from the beginning. The acquisition of Byram raised expectations for the rest of the offseason. So, only announcing the signings of Smith and Cole is a disappointment, but this team is better now than it was when last season ended. Is it good enough to make the Stanley Cup Playoffs? We’ll see. A lot will have to go right for that to happen, and that’s what Davidson is betting on. If he’s wrong, someone else will come in to clean up the mess.

Add us as a preferred source on Google

Follow