It hasn’t been a successful last few seasons in the win-loss column for the Blackhawks as the team is set to miss the postseason for the sixth straight year and eighth time in the last nine seasons. However, the general consensus is that the team is on the way up as their rebuild continues.
Someone who feels that way is Team Chairman and CEO Danny Wirtz. He revealed on CHSN during tonight’s pregame show (Twitter link) that the team has signed GM Kyle Davidson to a contract extension. Terms of the deal were not revealed. Minutes after that, the team officially announced the extension, noting it’s a multi-year agreement. Wirtz released the following statement:
Kyle’s exceptional body of work to date has set us down the path of bringing sustainable, championship-caliber hockey back to Chicago. In a short amount of time, he’s rebuilt the team through strong drafting and player development, delivering a league-leading prospect pool and the beginnings of our future core. He alongside Head Coach Jeff Blashill have redefined our locker room’s culture and mentality, and we are seeing improvements in all of the underlying areas that make winning possible. We believe in Kyle’s vision for this team and remain fully committed to his plan to return the Blackhawks to the top of our sport.
Davidson is in his fourth season at the helm in Chicago after taking on the job in the 2022-23 season. Initially promoted as an interim GM, the interim tag was taken off in March 2022. As Wirtz indicated in his announcement, Davidson was tasked with restocking a prospect pool that, at the time, was one of the weaker ones in the NHL.
To accomplish that objective, Davidson embarked on a full-scale rebuild, trading away several key veterans and even some younger core pieces that didn’t fit in the plans. In doing so, the team dropped sharply in the standings, but doing so allowed them to secure several key cogs, including centers Connor Bedard and Anton Frondell and defenseman Artyom Levshunov. Additionally, moving out Kirby Dach allowed them to add the draft pick that secured them Frank Nazar, who has quickly become a core piece as well.
But while Davidson has indeed put together a very strong prospect pool that’s set to graduate some more youngsters in short order, that’s only one part of getting this team back to playoff contention. He has brought in quite a few veterans in recent years to either act as bridge players to the prospects or, more recently, serve as pieces to help the team’s floor. Tyler Bertuzzi and Teuvo Teravainen were signed in free agency while Andre Burakovsky was added via trade to try to help push the team forward while also bringing in a more established head coach in Blashill. Instead, while they’ve added nine points from a year ago in the standings, they’re actually scoring even less than a year ago, despite better than a point-per-game showing from Bedard.
For the Blackhawks to truly take that next step forward, they will need to find a way to add more prominent veterans to help bring the team along while their youngsters continuing to improve will also aid in that objective. Davidson has a little more than $40MM in cap space for next season as things stand, per PuckPedia, so they certainly have the flexibility needed to add more core pieces to their roster. With this vote of confidence, Wirtz is banking on Davidson being able to do just that.
There is job security for a GM in a rebuild, Who sits back and collects draft picks, And, does little else to move the team forward, The Blackhawks have averaged 25.5 wins annually for the last five seasons, The rebuild seems stalled.
That’s kind of what I was thinking Grapes. After 4-5 years and STILL they are second last in the league? Didn’t the Sharks start their rebuild after Chicago? Every year we hear about these great prospects coming, and every year they are bottom feeders. Guess we’ll see next year….
I mean it’s not Kyle’s fault Macklin >>>>>>> Bedard. The Sharks are still kinda wonky–Celebrini is a part of nearly all their goals. Bedard is a different kind of player, and needs a better supporting cast to feed him pucks, and that’s why the full rebuild is taking longer.
Knight is a good young goalie (a smart move by Davidson), but they really need Levshunov to take a step forward. Frondell looks amazing already, Nazar looks is still young, Rinzel has some potential. They could shore up their D this summer, and look a lot better next year as a couple of these guys start to hit their prime.
The Hawks have to add solid vets, And get to 40 wins next season.
Just proves that neither of you actually watch what’s going on with smatinup guy being the dumbest guy here with about a hundred variations of the same name. Unfortunately none of them know anything with him just saying a couple of days ago that KD was gonna get fired. People in Chicago know what’s going on and love what KD is building. When it goes off it’s going to be great and long time sustained. Well deserved Kyle.
And when our Hawks are flying high again they’ll probably use good ol’ revisionist history to act like they never said any of this garbage.
Book it.
We know who the real fans are though, so they’re in for a rude awakening. 🤷♂️
Trust the Process lol
Why didn’t he take Sennecke or Demidov instead of Levshunov?
Because Arty is a RH Defenseman and the Hawks have enough guys in the system who can play C or wing. What they need and still do is an elite D man. A Norris trophy type. So why do you think he did it?
Levshunov isn’t a Norris type. His -41 is the 2nd worst in the NHL. 24 points, half of them on PP.
He is a waste of 2nd overall pick.
You must be the same guy who also has said Bedard is a failure at 20 and Arty is a failure at 20 just proving you’re really not smart and say ridiculous things just to say them. Face it, You’re a troll, hate the Hawks and say dumb crap just to say it. Probably hate the Hawks because your hero was Luongo and they made him cry like a 2 year old. Hawks will be fine. You just act foolish.
None of your guesses is correct.
People start insulting their opponents when they’ve lost the argument.
You just lost your own argument because you’ve been insulting the Hawks with every post with your nonsense. Only a complete idiot would say a 20 year old with 1 year of experience is a waste of a #2 pick. You’re a troll and that’s indisputable. Leave Mom’s basement. Go outside and get a life.
Keep it going, I love this.
S/His argument was lost when they said the hawks regressed.. even though evidence showcased they didn’t.
KD is not as good as some think and not as bad as others say. He’s been okay, but we’ll see when he has to worry about cap space in a few years. They are about 1/2 way tonight in their finale and have 6 SOG vs SJ. Mason West might help in 3-4 years so we’ll have to be patient.
He’s done a great job of taking no shortcuts, No quick fix to win a couple of games now which means nothing. Sharks have won a couple more games so what? They’ll be at home watching TV just like the Hawks. If all goes to plan and the Hawks get Stenberg they have the luxury of just letting him play pro in the SHL just like Frondell. They both have the same amount of Cap Space next year so they’ll be at it again. Signing some FA’s just to sign a name means nothing just bide your time and make a play when you can. One of these days you might see a move like the Quinn Hughes deal where the Hawks move some of these guys for an All Star. The Sharks are no better off than the Hawks. As far as Mason West goes there isn’t even any assurance he will even be able to make the team when he gets here. Nobody here is looking at him to be the savior. LMAO Mason West is what ya got? Then you got nothing but a hope he even turns out.
The Sharks are miles ahead of the Hawks just because they have Celebrini.
That’s not necessarily Davidson’s fault but maybe he could find a coach who would make Bedard be as brilliant as Celebrini is under his coach. Under the coach Davidson hired, the Hawks have regressed where they should have progressed.
Hawks were 11 points better than last year. Just sayin’
The Hawks absolutely have to draft Stenberg, and probably a couple more D-men. And maybe one or two turn out to be the next Duncan Keith. The offense upside is thru the roof, we need to stop the puck going in our own goal.
Miles ahead… Ummm no, a little ahead due to Nazar/Bedard injuries sure.
How does an 11 point increase from last season seen as a regression? Bedard career high in Goals/Points.. regression?
The Hawks are doing just fine. They need to change a few things and work on a couple more. Korchinski finally is filling out and doesn’t get bullied out of the way anymore. What he needs to do is work on his shot. His shot is really lame. I don’t know if he ever becomes elite, But he should be just fine until something better comes along or can be obtained. He was much better on his last recall.
Somebody needs to bring electric dog collars to practice and any time somebody tries to throw a pass all the way across the rink East-West they need to zap the crap out of him. Especially Bedard. Bedard needs to stop taking dumb penalties and see a shrink or something to work on his emotions. I can’t believe people want him to be the Captain. You want your Captain to be the calmest and most level headed guy on the team. That probably will never be Bedard and that’s OK.
Lardis needs to shoot more. In fact they all need to shoot more. Too many times I see a guy with an open shot try to make some impossible pass, Usually cross ice and the next thing you know it’s in their own net.
The Power Play was getting better and had promise. Then they took Bedard of the wing and put him at the point and we watched him mostly skate around with the puck until he got it stripped away. He needs to be closer to the net.
Obtain a veteran Defenseman and a B/U G who can challenge Knight. Competition brings out performance. Knight is good but I think he can even be better.
Sign Kantserov. Draft Stenberg. Draft another G. If Commesso isn’t the future move him and Soderblom or walk away. Preferably draft a G from Scandanavia so he can play in the SHL so he and Gajan don’t get in each others way.
All things that are easily doable. Hawks had 14 OT losses and played 46 1 goal games. For a team that young it was amazing and the end of games were too crazy. Experience of this year should help. They might seem like small things and they might be, But hopefully the lessons were learned. Things will be much better next year. I’m sure of it.
Wells spoken and I agree with everything you mentioned. We can use a little more muscle and size… And I think the hawks have led the league in scoring golds by just passing the puck thirty times east and west… Ohh, wait.None of those passes turned into goals. I would love to snag Olivier from the blue jackets. He is intimidating and can score. I and definitely clear some space for east west guys to go north south.