An early look at the Blackhawks needs for the 2024 NHL Draft

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The Chicago Blackhawks have a big club that needs a ton of talent upgrades, and the best way for general manager Kyle Davidson to further maximize those upgrades is through the 2024 NHL Draft. So far, Davidson has a couple of high-end centers, two goaltenders, and a pair of blueliners among his best prospects, so there is some variety.

But being so early in what is an organizational rebuild, there are still a few positions Davidson must address. Once he enhances the following areas of need, the Hawks will be poised to enter the next phase of this long, drawn-out process.

A few left wingers would seriously bolster the pipeline

To the Blackhawks credit, they have quite a few versatile wingers in their prospects pool, but none are pure left wingers in Scott Wheeler of The Athletic’s rankings until you reach Gavin Hayes, so it would be ideal for Kyle Davidson to snag at least one winger with an early-round pick. This doesn’t mean he must forgo drafting Macklin Celebrini or Ivan Demidov to address the position if he has a chance to get one of them, as the Blackhawks still need to take the best player who falls to them in the first round.

Neither Celebrini nor Demidov is listed as left wingers, but that’s okay, as there will be plenty of talent either with the second first round pick or later in the draft. If the Blackhawks see someone like Igor Chernyshov or Trevor Connelly fall to their second selection, Davidson would be wise to grab them.

But even then, with the Blackhawks still figuring to be one of the bottom 10, if not bottom five teams next season, Davidson could once again grab the best available and wait until a later round to address the left wing.

Regardless of what he decides here, there is no wrong answer unless he reaches for a left winger. The entire point is that he simply must address the position sooner than later, but not at the expense of the best available.

Right wingers will also be in high demand

Just as they need pure left wingers, you can say the same about right wingers. When it comes to the position, their best prospect is Lukas Reichel, whose NHL experience hasn’t gone as planned. Reichel, listed on Wheeler’s board as someone who can play center, left wing, and right wing, has seen 99 games of action with the Hawks, yet 32 points and 12 goals is not a good sign of progress.

Reichel’s ice time also dropped, as did his overall productivity, going from 0.652 points per game in 2022-23 to just 0.246 in 2023-24. Nick Lardis is another winger who can play both sides, while Roman Kantserov is the only one listed as playing purely on the right in the top 15.

This slide, and the previous slide, isn’t saying that it’s a bad idea to go after versatile players, as it’s always a good idea to have a few ranked highly in the prospects pool. But you always want a mixture of players who give you versatility and those who primarily play on just one end.

Instead of a pure left winger, the Hawks could use their second first-rounder on a right winger if they feel that player will serve the organization well. If not, they still have five picks in the second and third rounds.

So there is a good chance they will scoop up both positions of need if and when Kyle Davidson rightfully rolls with the best available in Round 1, and that best available is NOT a winger.

A right-handed defenseman would be ideal

The University of Minnesota’s Sam Rinzel ranked third on Wheeler’s list, but the other four blueliners were all left-handed defensemen. Just because the need for an RHD appeared on the final slide, it doesn’t mean Kyle Davidson must prioritize it any lower, especially if, you guessed it, the best player available in the first round is a defenseman.

Ideally, that prospect would be an RHD, and someone like Michigan State’s Artyom Levshunov would be great if the Blackhawks picked No. 2 or lower, and they passed on Demidov. At 6’2, 209 lbs, Levshunov looks like he could play in the NHL today - not saying it will happen - and his productivity was also more than respectable with 35 points, and nine goals in 38 contests.

If Davidson wanted to get bold and say the Hawks landed the fourth pick, it would be tough to pass on a player like Zayne Parekh, whose 96 points and 33 goals in 66 contests in the OHL this past season foreshadows a blueliner quarterbacking power plays and creating a lot of opportunities for Connor Bedard a few years (or less) from 2024.

Overall, Kyle Davidson has a lot of decisions to make, but with so many draft picks, he could more than remedy those decisions early in June’s draft. Better yet, there are a lot of productive wingers and right-handed blueliners to choose from.

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(Statistics provided by Hockey-Reference and Elite Prospects)

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A few left wingers would seriously bolster the pipeline

Right wingers will also be in high demand

A right-handed defenseman would be ideal

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