The Blackhawks' highly regarded talent pipeline must produce stars beyond Connor Bedard

The Chicago Blackhawks have acquired an impressive group of young talent just waiting to make an impact at the NHL someday.

The hockey world is taking notice.

The Athletic's Corey Pronman ranked the Hawks' collection of players under the age of 23 as the second-best group in the NHL (subscription required).

It is easy to rack up the accolades when the Blackhawks have made 11 first-round picks since 2022. It was rough watching general manager Kyle Davidson tear down the roster to the figurative studs three years ago. It is starting to pay off with all the young talent he has selected over the past four drafts he has run.

Davidson has been able to build up such an impressive group of young talent by making 27 choices in the draft's top 100 in that span. He has stuck to drafting traits such as prospects who possess speed, skill, character, and hockey intelligence. That focus did tend to have Davidson taking smaller forwards. He addressed the team's size deficiency among the prospect pool by loading up on bigger players in this year's draft.

Davidson can amass an impressive group of young talent, but it will not mean a thing if no star players emerge beyond Connor Bedard.

The sheer volume of quality prospects boosts the Hawks' chances of that happening.

Bedard is still considered a part of Pronman's pipeline because the phenom is still well under 23. Bedard has amazed so much in the NHL that sometimes people forget that he did it as a teenager. While he did not make a huge climb up the stardom ladder in his second season, he is still considered an elite NHL talent.

The Hawks have some other young players who can reach star status.

Last year's second overall pick, defenseman Artyom Levshunov, has the potential to win a few Norris Trophies. Pronman puts him in the tier of being a possible All-Star.

The Hawks took defensemen Kevin Korchinski and Sam Rinzel in the first round of the 2022 draft. Those two have the potential to be outstanding blueliners.

This year's third overall pick, forward Anton Frondell, has the size and skill to be an elite player on the top line. Davidson just handed Frank Nazar a contract extension that shows the general manager believes the young forward will become a star.

Other former first-round picks like Oliver Moore and Sacha Boisvert have traits that give them a path to be elite players. This year's other first-round choice, Mason West, has a high ceiling with his massive size (6-foot-6) to go along with being highly skilled on the ice. He is very raw.

Roman Kantserov is a scoring machine in the KHL, who could make a similar impact once he makes the jump to the NHL.

The Blackhawks have not had this impressive group of young, promising talent since the 2000s. Great drafting yielded Hall of Famer Duncan Keith and future Hall of Famers Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews. Brent Seabrook and Corey Crawford were also players the Hawks drafted to emerge as stars. Those players came together to produce the greatest era in team history as the Hawks won three Stanley Cups last decade.

The Blackhawks will not enjoy a similar championship run if Bedard is the only star to emerge out of a promising group of young talent.