Who is the odd man out in the Chicago Blackhawks defensive unit?

Chicago Blackhawks general manager Kyle Davidson added veteran help in free agency and a top draft pick to upgrade the defensive unit.

Gone are below-average veterans Jarred Tinordi, Jaycob Megna, and Nikita Zaitsev. In are TJ Brodie and Alec Martinez along with the No. 2 overall pick Artyom Levshunov.

Now Levshunov will be starting his pro career in the AHL, so he will not have an immediate impact on the NHL roster. Megna, Tinordi, and Zaitsev gave plenty of effort every night, but their performance was not good enough.

Injuries did a number on the blue line last season forcing head coach Kyle Richardson to shuffle in pairs that should have been skating in Rockford on a nightly basis.

With the recent additions to the defensive unit, it means a lot of the young players will have to compete for an opening night roster spot.

That is by design.

That is a big reason Brodie and Martinez were added instead of the Hawks seeing if Wyatt Kaiser, Isaak Phillips, Ethan Del Mastro, and Louis Crevier can be NHL regulars.

Del Mastro showed some promise during a brief cup of coffee appearance with the Hawks last season. Kaiser made the team out of camp but struggled and was sent down to Rockford. Phillips and Crevier are probably organizational depth pieces.

Those are going to be the four that will probably compete for the seventh spot on the roster and push Martinez or Brodie to be a healthy scratch. It would be interesting to see if the Hawks ponder sending Korchinski to Rockford just to work on some tweaks to his game.

He had a ton of rookie mistakes last year, but he showed enough promise that he should not get sent down to the AHL to start next season.

Since Kaiser has already made the roster out of camp once, it would not be shocking to see him be the seventh man to make the team once again.

Suddenly, things are looking up on the blue line.

After looking helpless for most of December and lacking elite prospect depth, the defensive unit has some promise.

The good thing is the Hawks have a top pair in Seth Jones and Alex Vlasic locked up long-term. Jones will never live up to his contract and his body language shows losing can wear on him that leads to mistakes. At the same time, he plays well enough to be trusted on the ice for long periods of time.

The Hawks have two very promising prospects in Levshunov and Sam Rinzel. If Korchinski can continue to develop into a helper on the offensive side, suddenly the Hawks have five good defenders to be on the next competitive team.

It is only a matter of time before Connor Murphy is on injured reserve, so the younger blueliners will get their opportunity to earn their time on the ice and show if they can help on cheaper deals.

While Brodie and Martinez are better players than Tinordi and Megna, they are not going to move the needle toward winning the Stanley Cup. Maybe, they can be flipped during the season for future pieces and that will provide ice time for the younger defensive players.

There might not be an odd man out. It is more like these youngsters will need to earn their ice time to make sure they are not on the outside looking in.