Right now, the Blackhawks have hit a wall entering their final two games of the season. Coach Jeff Blashill has acknowledged that several times in recent days.
Right now, it’s difficult to imagine this same Hawks team competing for a playoff spot next season, considering how much they’ve struggled and how little the roster will change during the offseason.
Right now, fan anxiety seems to be reaching an all-time high, at least in the time since general manager Kyle Davidson launched this rebuild four years ago.
So what gives Davidson and the organization belief that the medium-term — not just long-term — outlook is still promising? How could this team actually compete for playoffs next season?
The first ingredient will be a couple major summer additions. Even if the roster doesn’t change much overall, the top of it needs to change.
Russian prospect Roman Kantserov, who just led the KHL in goal-scoring as a 21-year-old, will be one of those additions. His upside is extremely high, and he will likely slide right into a first- or second-line winger spot.
An established NHL star needs to be another addition. Davidson hinted after the trade deadline that he’s finally eager to make a splash, although he tries hard to keep expectations low.
If the last remaining prominent free agent (Alex Tuch) or any of the three prominent forwards who might get traded (Jason Robertson, Robert Thomas and Matthew Knies) end up changing teams, Davidson needs to do everything within his power to make the Hawks the team they move to.
The second ingredient will be internal improvement by all the young players already on the Hawks’ roster.
All 15 or so of them are poised to take substantial developmental leaps over the summer. They’re at the ages where strength, speed and emotional maturity can change dramatically over the course of five months.
They also finally have NHL experience they can use to inform their training decisions, narrowing their focus to specific areas where they noticed the largest gap between themselves and elite competition.
Ryan Greene with a sneaky little wrister to tie things up! pic.twitter.com/TDijF9Ch0Y
— Blackhawks on CHSN (@CHSN_Blackhawks) April 11, 2026
Combine 15 individual big leaps together, and that could add up to one big collective leap for the Hawks. That logic tracks to Ryan Donato, one of few current Hawks old enough to offer an informed perspective.
“If you’re a sponge like I was, or like the young guys we have in here [are], you can learn a lot through a full season,” Donato said. “You learn how to maintain your body. You learn how to be a true pro.
“We’re hoping that they take the experiences they had this year, skills that they need to work on, different things that each guy individually wants to do throughout the summer and really try to make the next step. If we do that collectively, it’ll be a sign of good things to come.”
When Donato turned pro in 2018 after three years of college, he ran headfirst into the same tsunami of new information and revelations that his Hawks teammates are running into now.
“It’s like, ‘There’s a level to it, and you have to get to that level,'” he added.
Imagine Connor Bedard and Frank Nazar level up to the next level of stardom (and continue improving defensively), Anton Frondell gets faster and more comfortable at center and Oliver Moore and Ryan Greene improve their shooting.
Imagine Nick Lardis learns how to win puck battles, Sam Rinzel and Kevin Korchinski bulk up strength-wise and Alex Vlasic and Louis Crevier add more physicality and a little meanness.
Imagine all of them get more consistent, durable, conditioned and confident, too.
All of those improvements are attainable, and altogether they would eliminate many weaknesses in this team. That’s the vision.
The worst-case scenario is discovering these kids all are who they are already. Stagnation would be disastrous. It will simply take time to see which reality unfolds.