It's time for Kyle Davidson to build on the foundation he's laid

The Chicago Blackhawks spent Thursday cleaning out their locker rooms and conducting exit interviews instead of preparing their first-round opponent in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. While the postseason was not a realistic expectation for the 2025-26 season, finishing much higher than 31st in the NHL was.

Overall, I was quite happy with how our season went,” general manager Kyle Davidson said. “We took some really nice steps forward. Obviously, more points in the standings. We didn’t climb the standings necessarily, but there were a lot of positives and forward momentum when you take the season as a whole.

“I was really excited to see these young players get experience, understand what the league is, take that information into the offseason, use it to grow during the summer, and come back hungry. You can really feel optimism and excitement from the players for what’s going on here. You can feel the positive momentum that was built this year, and they’re excited to get to work this summer.”

There is no doubt that fans have become frustrated with the lack of winning and are growing impatient with waiting for things to get better. It was refreshing to hear that the players feel the same way. Many of them expressed a desire to quickly change course and return to the Stanley Cup Playoffs as soon as next spring.

Take the Trust….

Davidson has a new contract extension in hand, and now it’s time for him to move into the next phase of the Blackhawks’ rebuild. His first job was to tear down the roster to the studs and rebuild the prospect system. He inherited a team that was trying so hard to keep its window of contention open seven years after its last playoff series win.

The combination of years of trading away first-round picks to add at the deadline and Stan Bowman’s lack of success in the draft, Davidson’s top two prospects when he took the job were Lukas Reichel and Philipp Kurashev. When Bowman did have his first-round picks, he showed little patience with development. He rushed prospects like Adam Boqvist and Henri Jokiharju to the NHL, then traded them away before they were even close to hitting their potential.

Davidson has done a tremendous job at restocking the prospect cupboard. That is the biggest reason he was rewarded with a new contract. Eight of his 11 first-round picks have already played in the NHL. He’s done a masterful job at stockpiling draft picks and turning them into quality prospects. But you can only talk about how bright the future looks for so long. It’s time to put together a team built to win now, as well as two years down the road.

“It’s a unique time that we’re in,” Davidson said. “We are such a young team. We knew this season was going to be full of ups and downs. This last home stand wasn’t great, and I understand that recency bias certainly factors into something like this. That’s what people may remember, but this season as a whole had strong momentum. We saw over a 10-point increase while missing our top two centermen for around a month. That’s a pretty big hurdle for any team, but certainly for one with so many young players.

“There were also points in the year when we saw the potential of some of these young players. This is a league where that’s not a fluke. When players go out and can do what some of our young players did this year, that’s not an accident. This league is far too good for that. That gives us a lot of optimism.”

Coming back with the same roster next season won't get this team where it wants to be. Yes, there is still a lot of growth to be made, but asking all these young players to make big strides at the same time is not ideal. If it fails, we are right back where we are today, except the frustration will have hit an all-time high, and the cries for change will become deafening.

…And Shoot Your Shot

Next season, the Blackhawks will have Anton Frondell for a full year. Although it’s not official, Roman Kantserov is expected to make the jump to North America. Plus, you might have one of the top two draft prospects on the roster, in Gavin McKenna or Ivar Stenberg. All of those are great additions and will make the Blackhawks better, but they remain unknowns. They are all still very inexperienced players who will make mistakes.

This young roster needs to be insulated with an established star and a couple of veteran leaders. With a weak free agent class, Davidson will need to be active on the trade market for that established star.

“Being in Chicago, and with our history, it’s 'When are you going to get your Marian Hossa?’” Davidson said. “It’s not that simple to just go get a Hall of Fame winger. We are always trying to explore options to try to improve. It hasn't occurred. I think we are far more active in our attempts than people may think, but it has to be right and make sense. It can’t compromise the core of our group. It has to be supportive. It has to be additive and not something that is going to move us sideways and backward long term.

“We’re definitely going to explore what’s out there. I don’t think I’m shy to try things. Nothing has arisen in the last little while to make that happen. We’re going to look at what we can do to add to the roster, of course. We’ve got a lot of assets, should we find something that is available to us that we want on the trade market. We’ll look at UFAs. The UFA market is well-documented as maybe not the fruitful ground that it once was, but sometimes there are pieces out there that can be appealing. If there is something out there that makes sense, we are certainly going to do it.”

Who Are the Targets?

Davidson has the cache of picks and prospects to go out and make any trade he wants. Connor Bedard will enter his fourth NHL season, the first on his new big contract, and he needs a true running mate. Enough of Andre Burakovsky and Ryan Greene. Get him somebody who is an established goal scorer to play with him for years to come.

We’ve heard that Matthew Knies and Jason Robertson may be available. I’m not sold that either one is actually on the trading block, but if they are, you shoot your shot. Acquiring either one of them will be very expensive, but you do what you must to land one of them on Bedard’s line.

The trade market will shape up over the next month or so. There are always a few unexpected names that end up being moved after a front-office change or a disappointing playoff run. With the Vancouver Canucks making a general manager change, maybe Elias Pettersson is finally dealt. The St. Louis Blues have been rumored to be trading Robert Thomas or Jordan Kyrou. There will be plenty of options, but something needs to be done.

Trading away the entire leadership group of Nick Foligno, Jason Dickinson, and Connor Murphy left a young group lacking veterans who bring a lot to the ice and the locker room. It shows that this group still needs another veteran up front and on the blue line. When you look at the Anaheim Ducks, they have plenty of exciting young talent, but they supplemented them by bringing in the likes of Chris Kreider, Jacob Trouba, Radko Gudas, and John Carlson. Those guys also made them a lot harder to play against, which the Blackhawks need.

So, what should Davidson do? First and foremost, the final year of Burakovsky’s contract should be bought out. I’d also put Teuvo Teravainen on the block and see what you can get for him. He’s been a nice addition, but this team needs more. You have to think that a Stanley Cup contender with a deep roster would love to add a player like him for one season. That clears up two roster spots.

Davidson has stated many times that he wants to re-sign Ilya Mikheyev, and I’m on board with that. He exemplifies the style of play that head coach Jeff Blashill wants from this team. However, if he decides to go elsewhere, it’s not the end of the world.

After taking care of that business, do whatever it takes to get that top-line player. It won’t be easy and will likely cost a prospect or two that we’ve fallen in love with. That’s ok. You have to turn the corner. I’d then add another veteran forward who adds some grit and toughness to this team. The Blackhawks lose too many one-on-one battles and are too easy to separate from the puck. A guy like Erik Haula, Michael Bunting, Scott Laughton, or Michael McCarron fits that bill.

It’s pretty clear that the Blackhawks need another veteran on the back end. They lost some stability with Murphy’s trade and Matt Grzelyck’s injury. This young group needs a safety net, and preferably one that can add some physicality. Would Carlson take an overpayment to come here for two years? Does someone like a Zach Bogosian or Luke Schenn make sense? Carson Soucy is another name that would fill that role nicely.

This is a very important summer for Davidson. He’s not being asked to abandon his vision for the rebuild. He’s laid a really solid foundation. Now it’s time to build that beautiful, state-of-the-art home on top of it.

Add us as a preferred source on Google

Follow