Nearly four years ago, Kyle Davidson chose to completely rebuild the Blackhawks through the draft rather than reconstruct them via trades and free agency.
Now, it seems the approach he happened to choose might be the only one still viable.
The NHL’s skyrocketing salary cap has temporarily squashed the trade and free-agency markets (with a few exceptions). It’s no longer possible to do what, for example, the Panthers did: create a Stanley Cup contender by bringing in loads of established talent from the outside.
During a conversation with the Sun-Times last week, the Hawks’ young general manager examined this new league dynamic and explained the next steps of his plan for the franchise to progress forward within it.
“It just feels like more and more, you have to do it yourself,” Davidson said. “That’s always been our philosophy. That was going to be the bedrock of how we build this thing. We’ll stick to that, and then if something comes up along the way, we’ll explore that.
“But it just doesn’t feel like there’s going to be the ability to trade or sign your way into contention. It just doesn’t feel like that’s the environment we’re in. Which is, I don’t want to say advantageous to us, but I’m glad we did what we did. … The depth and strength of our prospect pool is going to serve us very well in this environment.”
That’s because the Hawks have a river of talent that will flow into the NHL over the next several years. Teams with weaker prospect pools who plan to roll the dice on the tenuous trade and free-agent markets have no such guarantee.
The bounty of prospects — and potentially picks, if the Hawks maneuver this spring to acquire more — will also allow them to make substantial offers when trade opportunities do arise. Davidson believes it’s not quite time to do that, though. That’s why, for instance, he wasn’t involved in the Quinn Hughes sweepstakes.
Indeed, Davidson remains an extremely patient man. And the Hawks’ NHL roster remains flawed, as Connor Bedard’s injury has starkly revealed in recent weeks. They’re better than last season, but so is every bottom feeder, and thus they’ve slipped back into last place in the standings.
So what should less-patient fans expect during the next couple years?
“We’re going to continue to prioritize youth and hand things over to the young players and let them run with it and show us where they’re at,” Davidson said. “We’ll determine where the team is at then and determine what we need to do to assist or augment.
“We’ve invested a lot of time and energy in these young players, and we believe in them. So we have to give them the opportunity and the runway to make good on that belief.”
It’s worth reiterating the Hawks’ roster contains six players aged 20-22 (Artyom Levshunov, Nick Lardis, Oliver Moore, Frank Nazar, Ryan Greene and Bedard) and another six aged 23-24 (Wyatt Kaiser, Ethan Del Mastro, Colton Dach, Alex Vlasic, Spencer Knight and Louis Crevier). Those lists include their leading and fourth-leading scorers, their top three defensemen by average ice time and their No. 1 goalie.
Outside the NHL, their prospect pool features Sam Rinzel, Anton Frondell, Roman Kantserov (the KHL’s leading goal-scorer), Marek Vanacker (the OHL’s leading goal-scorer), Kevin Korchinski, Drew Commesso, Vaclav Nestrasil, Sacha Boisvert and dozens of others.
This season is interesting because the first fruits of the rebuild can now be seen in the United Center, with more fruits en route. But it takes time for kids to learn how to succeed against experienced NHL competition.
“These guys coming up, I guess there was an if they’re going to arrive in the NHL, but more so when,” Davidson said. “You’re learning the when, which is now and next year. Now it’s, ‘How good can they get to be?’ And, ‘When can they arrive at their potential?’ That’s what remains to be seen.
“What we learn over the next year or two will determine where this group goes and what we need to add.”
Not every prospect will pan out, but there are many more prospects than available roster spots anyway.
“Some guys are going to overshoot where they’re on track for right now, and then there’s naturally going to be players that just don’t reach that,” Davidson added. “That’s the nature of development in pro sports. We’ll constantly evaluate who’s trending in the right way.”
At home, Davidson has two young daughters, and he knows there will eventually come a time when he must let them “grow up and figure things out on their own.” At work, he feels similarly about the Hawks, as he hands off prospects to coach Jeff Blashill and his staff.
He derives fatherly pride watching friendships and chemistry form between players who never would’ve crossed paths if not for his draft decisions.
But after years of personally sculpting the Hawks’ future through those decisions, it’s mostly out of his hands now whether his divisive plan will ultimately succeed. That’s simultaneously scary and exciting.
“When you get to make a merger between…players with high upside, players you believe in and players that really enjoy playing together and being around each other, it’s exciting,” Davidson said. “I believe we have [done that], but we’ve got a long way to go.”