Grading Kyle Davidson's first-round picks in his third draft as Chicago Blackhawks GM

Davidson's Draft Philosophy

Something that bears discussion in assessing Davidson's draft philosophy is that he clearly decides on a player he wants, targets that player, and then moves heaven and earth to get that player.

For example, in 2022 when Davidson moved Alex Debrincat for the chance to draft Kevin Korchinski, and then moved Kirby Dach to draft Frank Nazar, what did he say? "We got our guys."

Similarly, when Oliver Moore kept falling and falling as Davidson was desperately attempting to move up to get him, you could see the jubilation on his face when he realized that at 19th overall, he was again getting, "his guy."

Davidson is fearless in moving assets from his team (established and sometimes elite assets at that) to select his hand-chosen prospects.

Now, I admire his bravery in making such moves, as it is far better to have an aggressive GM who trusts himself and his staff. It is a sign that Davidson has immense confidence that he continues to make such trades (we will discuss his trades in this draft later on).

However, this strategy comes with inherent and tremendous risk. For example, Kevin Korchinski looks like he does have all the tools necessary to become an elite defenseman at the NHL level, but it is fair to say that he struggled mightily at times last season.

Let's play around with this hypothetical. What if Korchinski never puts it together and his career follows the trajectory of noted failed Hawks top ten pick, Adam Boqvist?

If that were to happen, I think that people would have to look at Davidson's instance on moving heaven and earth to get "his guy" as a gamble that didn't pay off.

Davidson's drafts have been marked by two things in my opinion: 1) getting "his guys" or the guys that he and his staff are most enamored with. And 2) being hyper-aggressive in trading up. Case in point, this little tidbit...

Pierre LeBrun is a very well connected reporter, I believe that he has a good source here. So if that is true, then man oh man, the Hawks could have had an A+++++ draft in my opinion.

The thinking here is that had they pulled this trade off they would have taken Demidov who was still available at this point. Imagine if after all the consternation over "who should the Hawks take? Levshunov or Demidov?", they ended up with BOTH. Davidson is a fearless general manager and I love that.