What are the Chicago Blackhawks getting with their final first-round pick, Marek Vanacker

The Chicago Blackhawks ended up trading back into the first round toward the end of the draft and selected forward Marek Vanacker with the No. 27 overall pick.

The Hawks sent their two second-round picks, No. 34 and No. 50 overall, to the Carolina Hurricanes to get back into the first round.

General manager Kyle Davidson left the Las Vegas Sphere with an elite defensive prospect in Artyom Levshunov after Davidson selected the Michigan State defenseman with the No. 2 overall pick. The hope was Davidson would select Russian forward Ivan Demidov who came with a higher upside, but the Blackhawks were not the only team to pass on that prospect.

Davidson did address the forward position with the team's other first-round pick when Sacha Boisvert was selected at No. 18 overall.

Davidson had Vanacker as a target to select at No. 34, but there was some fear he would not be on the board, so Kyle from Chicago made the move to get back into the first round to get his guy.

Vanacker was on the Blackhawks' radar after being teammates with Hawks prospect Nick Lardis.

Chicago Sun-Times beat reporter Ben Pope wrote that Davidson noticed Vanacker when the GM made a scouting trip to see the OHL's Brantford Bulldogs despite Lardis being hurt.

" came away, every single time, really impressed,” Davidson said. “He always impacted the game very positively. just love the mentality he plays with.”

Vanacker picked up the scoring slack for the Bulldogs once Lardis went out as he scored 36 goals and had 46 assists last season.

Most importantly, Vanacker is not under six feet tall like a lot of the Blackhawks' forward prospects. Granted he is listed exactly at that height, but he does provide a little bit more to the forward prospect pool.

Vanacker varied on the draft experts' prospect rankings. He was ranked 25th among North American skaters by NHL Central Scouting. Sportsnet also rated him among the top 30. TSN's Bob McKenzie rated him 47th. He does have some impressive tape.

Remember, the only rankings that matter are how the individual franchises have players on their boards. Clearly, Davidson had Vanacker rated high enough to jump back into the first round to get his guy.

Vanacker is also tough as he played last season with a shoulder injury. He will be out until later this year as he just had surgery to fix the issue. Since he is ineligible to play in the AHL until he is no longer a teenager, he would not be able to help the Blackhawks organization this season anyway.

This is the second draft in the three years that Davidson has been general manager where the Hawks left the first round with three picks.

Davidson has added mostly forwards with those picks as he continues to rebuild this franchise back into a Stanley Cup contender.