The Blackhawks cannot wait to get Connor Bedard help anymore

It is October 2021, and Kyle Davidson has just taken over as general manager of the Chicago Blackhawks, replacing the impatient Stan Bowman. In the offseason of the 2022-2023 NHL season, Davidson would initiate a full rebuild, trading Brandon Hagel, Alex DeBrincat, and Kirby Dach, and allowing other talent to walk in free agency. The tank worked, and the Blackhawks drafted Connor Bedard in 2023, which should have been the beginning of the end of losing hockey.

Welp, that was the wrong mindset. The Blackhawks would go on to miss the playoffs, as not a middle-tier, promising team, but a lost, young team at the bottom of the standings on a yearly basis. Bedard has had no help, and while he has improved defensively, his offensive output has taken a hit due to the lack of help. Davidson has done nothing to find Bedard any kind of help on the top line, and Jeff Blashill seems to be convinced Frank Nazar and Anton Frondell are centers to lead their own line.

History shows it is REALLY hard to have three skill lines, as the salary cap rises, so do player salaries, making it difficult to sign and retain talent across all three lines. Blashill has placed Nazar on Bedard's line for one game, and that was probably the best game both had in their horrid 17-game stretch. Frondell should be the second line center, and the bottom six should be made up of checking forwards, and the fourth line should be an energy line instead of a line of players who fell out of the top six. The Blackhawks need to focus on building a winning roster rather than on a cupboard of draft capital.

Please, get some help

Davidson has benefited from a patient fanbase for the last three seasons following Bedard's arrival. People thought that Bedard would mark the beginning of the end of the rebuild, but Davidson has done nothing to bring in established help for the young forwards. This patience has caused some of their trade assets to depreciate in value, such as Kevin Korchinski not being seen as a top-pairing defenseman anymore.

The patience to "see what you have" is a great mentality... Just not this long. Korchinski, Oliver Moore, and Ethan Del Mastro have likely taken hits to their trade value, where it may have only taken one of them to trade along with draft picks in a potential move to requiring two of them and the same draft capital.

To clarify, it would have been likely that Korchinski and a first could have brought in a serviceable forward a couple of years ago. He was still young and had a ton of upside, showing what he could do in the AHL. While he was seen as a "project," more teams would have been willing to take him and a draft pick. Now, it will likely take Korchinski and Moore, along with the first-round pick, for the same player due to the depreciated value.

Patience is not always key

There is no longer room for patience in the front office, and clearly not with the fanbase. The city of Chicago is fed up with losing hockey, and the arrival of Bedard makes this impatience even more effective. Sidney Crosby made the playoffs in his second season and competed for a Stanley Cup while on his entry-level deal. The GM of the Pittsburgh Penguins at this time, Ray Shero, made the moves necessary to surround his generational star with talent to succeed immediately. Meanwhile, Davidson has allowed Bedard to essentially suffer with players who can't keep up with him for three seasons.

This is the season of reckoning for the Blackhawks, and it begins with Davidson's drive to get the team help. I genuinely don't care if Davidson has to overpay for the likes of Jason Robertson or Matthew Knies by this point; the team is logjammed with similar-style players up and down the lineup, making the roster too one-dimensional. The embarrassment of riches could quickly become a stockpile of mediocrity, and Davidson has to be willing to part with pretty much everyone not named Connor Bedard, Anton Frondell, and Spencer Knight.

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