Playoff talk surrounding the Chicago Blackhawks is devoid of logic

There is a reasonable discussion among Chicago Blackhawks fans. The discussion revolves around the Blackhawks being a playoff team this upcoming season.

On the surface, the conversation is completely bonkers. Yes, the Blackhawks are a highly skilled team. They have one of the league’s best young stars in Connor Bedard. And yes, there is a solid complementary core.

But they’re not quite seasoned enough yet to become serious playoff contenders. Bedard is still 21, while other stars like Anton Frondell only have a handful of NHL games under their belt.

There's nothing holding the Blackhawks back from being a surprising team. They could emerge like the Edmonton Oilers once did in the early 1980s. They could ride sheer energy and talent into the playoffs and a prolonged postseason run.

Such teams, nonetheless, are a once-in-a-lifetime type of situation. In the last 40 years, we haven’t seen a young team like the 1983 Oilers take the NHL by storm. The closest we probably have is last year's Montreal Canadiens, but they have a ton of veterans surrounding their young talent.

That’s why believing that the Blackhawks are a playoff team at this point is devoid of logic. They play in the NHL’s Death Valley division, with supremely talented, veteran teams leaps and bounds ahead of them.

Blackhawks leapfrogging Central Division opponents will be next to impossible

For the Blackhawks to be serious playoff contenders, they would have to leapfrog teams like the Utah Mammoth, St. Louis Blues, and Nashville Predators. These clubs are fringe playoff teams at the moment.

Even assuming that the Blackhawks could take such teams head-on, Chicago would slam into the Colorado Avalanche, Minnesota Wild, and Dallas Stars.

All right, so let’s be optimistic. Let’s say the Blackhawks finish third in the Central Division this season. Is it even reasonable to think they could beat a team like Dallas, Minnesota, or Colorado in a first-round series?

Let’s say the Blackhawks squeak into the postseason as the second Wild Card team. Would Chicago have enough firepower to get past a first-round matchup with the Western Conference’s top seed? That team could be the Avalanche, Oilers, or Vegas Golden Knights.

It’s tough to envision the Blackhawks really being a playoff team this season. A more realistic ETA could be two to three seasons. For that ETA to be attainable, Chicago would need to show significant improvement this upcoming season.

If Chicago can make a jump in the standings similar to the one the San Jose Sharks made this past season, the Blackhawks could be well on their way to making the playoffs sooner rather than later.

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