Will the Blackhawks draft for need or for the best available in June?

Which philosophy is preferable? And which will the Blackhawks use in the coming draft?

The prevailing thought these days seems to be that drafting the best player available is the correct decision. Kyle Davidson has made it clear that he is an adherent to this philosophy and there is no reason to believe that he will stray from it in the 2024 draft.

The key is to not be so strict in your adherence to either philosophy that you fail to react properly to what is happening on the draft floor. For instance, if you are drafting by strictly by position you may miss out on the clear cut better player simply because you don't "need" his position.

Conversely, if you are strictly drafting best player available, you still need to be aware of how many prospects you already have at that position in your system. If the best player available is a center, but you have picked 11 centers in the last three drafts that all project to play in the NHL, you may want to draft a different position.

So now that we know that the Blackhawks officially own the 2nd overall pick in the 2024 draft, I would expect Kyle Davidson to simply select the player that he thinks is the 2nd best in the class behind Macklin Celebrini. This would be consistent with his philosophy of drafting the best player available, and no matter who is selected, you can be certain that the Blackhawks will be walking away with an excellent addition to their prospect pool.