3 major mistakes Blackhawks general manager Kyle Davidson cannot make in the 2024 offseason

The summer of 2024 will be a pivotal one for the Chicago Blackhawks and general manager Kyle Davidson. The Hawks finished the 2023-24 season with just 52 points. And while most fans knew what was coming, it won’t take away from a heightened sense of urgency as we officially begin Year 2 of this rebuilding project - I’m personally counting drafting Connor Bedard as the rebuild’s beginning. 

Anyway, here’s the dilemma Davidson faces: The long and almost always the correct view in a full rebuild comes with improving an organization almost exclusively through the draft and signing free agents as needed. As mentioned in the Ultimate Guide post, objectives include drafting the best players, signing cheap free agents, and, perhaps most importantly, making sure there is room for high-end prospects, which must be completed when training camp begins in September. 

Yet, Chicago, Illinois is a town synonymous with the Blackhawks success, something we saw when they hoisted the Stanley Cup three times in the 2010s. And even before and shortly after, it wasn’t like the Hawks weren’t contenders. 

Kyle Davidson must stick to a well-crafted plan for the Blackhawks rebuild

Since the Blackhawks have some significant cap space, it wouldn’t be tough for Davidson to make some serious offers to unrestricted free agents. And in a large market housing a storied franchise, who wouldn’t want to play in the Windy City? 

Couple that fact with a higher sense of urgency in Year 2, and there is plenty of temptation to go around. But this must be a time-intensive rebuild - just look at what Steve Yzerman has done with the Detroit Red Wings. But the only difference is, one team has a generational talent and the other doesn’t. 

Translation: The Blackhawks rebuild won’t take as long as the Red Wings, but Davidson still needs to keep conducting this the right way. Let’s talk about three major mistakes that he must avoid this summer and why he cannot make them.  

Panicked free agent signings will not help this rebuild

We discussed this a little in the previous slide, but signing big-name free agents to build around Connor Bedard won’t be a long-term answer. It may turn the Blackhawks into a halfway decent team in the short term and maybe even contenders in the mid-term, but it’s not worth throwing away the long term window. 

Instead of rolling with someone like Jake Guentzel just to throw a name out there and another player or two of his caliber who would make the team fun to watch, players like Guentzel would first need to build chemistry, and that could take time. Secondly, he will be 30 next season, which would give him a shorter span of seasons with Bedard. 

Davidson must find Bedard a teammate on the top line, similar to what we see with Leon Draisaitl and Connor McDavid in Edmonton or Mikko Rantanen and Nathan MacKinnon in Colorado. Despite Chicago’s major shortcomings this past season and likely in 2024-25, rolling with someone like that would pay dividends down the road instead of making a rushed and ill-informed unrestricted free agent signing. 

It’s all about finding potential stars and letting them grow together. Something we saw with MacKinnon and Rantanen, and McDavid and Draisaitl. 

Ill-advised trades could haunt Kyle Davidson

This isn’t saying Kyle Davidson will make a big trade for an established player this offseason, so it’s nothing more than a hypothetical. But it ties in well with the first point on this list - panicked free agent signings. 

Player movement is inevitable regardless of which offseason it is, and this summer will be no different. So again, this one falls into the temptation category, considering how much the fans in Chicago want to see a winner in accordance with the sheer number of draft picks Davidson has. 

Davidson has seven picks in the first three rounds of 2024 and five apiece in 2025 and 2026, so it would be easy to package them into a trade for a solid player and perhaps even a prospect. But unless that trade is for a young player who fits well with the program Davidson is building, he needs to hang onto those picks. 

Every Blackhawks fan out there would love to see a more relevant hockey team take form, and those days are coming back. But to rush a winner onto the ice at the expense of what could be a decade-long (or more) window isn’t worth it. Build around at least one (and perhaps two) generational prospects, and what you’re seeing in Colorado and Edmonton today is what you will ultimately see arrive in Chicago. 

(Statistics provided by Tankathon and Hockey-Reference)