This unintended fallout from tanking should worry Blackhawks fans

Was tanking a bad idea? I mean, the Blackhawks have been arguably the least relevant team so far this decade, and you can credit the disaster that has been since the 2020s began with tanking.

And really, historical evidence is stacked against them. In a recent mailbag, Mark Lazerus of The Athletic (paywalled) said in an answer to a fan that, "I’d argue that no team in the salary-cap era has won the Stanley Cup by actively tanking. The closest one would be the 2010 Blackhawks, but organizational incompetence isn’t quite the same thing as intentionally losing. Sure, you need a couple of big names at the top of the lineup, and the draft is an excellent way to get there. But no team successfully builds exclusively through the draft. Not those Blackhawks. Not these Florida Panthers. Not anyone. At some point, you have to start trying."

Maybe it's nothing to worry about, but that could be an omen for the Hawks, since, right now, it doesn't look like general manager Kyle Davidson has done much in the way of 'trying.'

Sure, you can argue he brought in Tyler Bertuzzi and Teuvo Teravainen, two middle-six forwards in a worst-case scenario in the foreseeable future. And yeah, he brought back Ryan Donato, a late-bloomer who finally broke out when it looked like he, too, was a career middle-six player.

So it's not like Davidson hasn't been trying to add in talent from the outside while hanging onto seasoned veterans who perform well.

Kyle Davidson has done a little, but he needs to take a hybrid method for the Blackhawks rebuild to soar

I've long been a proponent of what I call the 'hybrid method.' This means that yes, hosting a fire sale early when your team is no longer relevant or can't perform like they once did is a good idea. Not for tanking purposes, but because there's no point to suffer through a slow, steady decline into decadence.

You can argue that he brought in a lot of vets in 2024, and that would be accurate. But they were all past their primes and, other than filling gaps for a year or two, what was their purpose, really?

If you look at it, they were wasted signings that could've been used to bring in another player, either at forward or on the blue line, at Bertuzzi's and Teravainen's level. Instead, he didn't do that, and the Hawks suffered.

I get that you don't want players to get into your prospects' way, but when you have a chance to add talent from the outside that can realistically spend four or five seasons playing a high-level game, you take it every single time. And that's why the hybrid method would've done well for the Hawks starting last year.

Why the hybrid method works and should be the preferred method

Here, you're drafting future stars like Connor Bedard and Artyom Levshunov. You also have prospects who you can develop within the organization, regardless of the capacity. But, as time moves forward, you add talent in from the outside. And not doing that is one drawback from taking the 'silent' approach this offseason.

As I said earlier in the month, 'silence shouldn't mean surrender,' as it does give the Hawks the ability to call up more prospects to the NHL level and they could surprise us. But, the truth is that there are only so many spots with the big club, meaning a lot of those prospects need to go somewhere else as opposed to being stuck in the AHL.

Adding another talent or two either in 2024 or 2025, while keeping room for those high-end prospects, could've landed the potential to do way more damage, while still brewing the core predominantly through the draft.

But like I also said earlier this summer; I still wouldn't be surprised if the Hawks outplayed expectations. All I'm saying is, I'm still optimistic that they'll be better than expected, but Davidson still could've done a little more.

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