Yesterday’s look at the Blackhawks’ best draft classes makes the other side of the ledger feel even rougher. Chicago’s draft history has had its share of misses, and a few classes stand out for how little they ultimately gave the franchise.
Start with 1989. Bob Pulford’s first-round swing at sixth overall was defenseman Adam Bennett, a player who had put together a strong junior run with the OHL’s Sudbury Wolves, finishing with 46 goals and 140 points over three seasons.
But that production never translated into much NHL value. Bennett appeared in just 21 games for the Blackhawks before being dealt to the Edmonton Oilers for Kevin Todd in 1993.
The only other player from that draft class to reach the NHL for Chicago was eighth-round pick Milan Tichy, a Czech-born defenseman who logged 13 games in the 1992-93 season before the Florida Panthers claimed him in the 1993 expansion draft.
There was at least one small footnote of interest in that class: the Blackhawks used their final pick in the 12th round on goaltender Mike Doneghey, who now helps run the team’s draft as VP of Amateur Scouting and Player Personnel.
Pulford’s next major misfire came in 2000, when the Blackhawks held the 10th and 11th overall picks and used both on Russian-born players, Mikhail Yakubov and Pavel Vorobiev. Yakubov managed two goals and 11 points in 40 games for Chicago before the Panthers claimed him off waivers in 2006. Vorobiev spent much of his North American career in the AHL, then had two separate stints with the Blackhawks and finished with 10 goals and 25 points in 57 games before heading back to Russia in 2006.
The third Russian in that class, Igor Radulov, went in the third round and ended up with nine goals and 16 points in 43 games for the Blackhawks before returning home in 2004. His younger brother, Alexander, would later find much more NHL success.
Beyond those names, the rest of the class barely registered at the NHL level: the other 12 players combined for 33 NHL games, and just 22 of those came in Blackhawks sweaters. Ninth-rounder Reto Von Arx accounted for 19 of them, adding three goals and four points.
Then there’s 2015, a class that reflects how the Blackhawks’ window began to crack. Stan Bowman had already built a championship team after taking over in 2009, but the combination of salary cap mismanagement and poor drafting and development helped close that window earlier than it should have. By then, first-round picks were often being moved to support the roster, and in 2015 Chicago didn’t have one at all after sending it to the Arizona Coyotes for Antoine Vermette.
That left Graham Knott as the Blackhawks’ first selection, taken 54th overall in the second round. He turned pro in 2017 and spent five seasons moving between the AHL and ECHL before going to Austria in 2022, where he’s averaged over a point per game over the last four seasons. Knott went ahead of Yakov Trenin, Vince Dunn, Kevin Stenlund, Keegan Kolesar, and Anthony Cirelli.
Only two players from that seven-player class made the NHL: defenseman Dennis Gilbert and Ryan Shea. Gilbert played 25 games for the Blackhawks before being traded with Brandon Saad in 2020 to the Colorado Avalanche for Nikita Zadorov.
Shea never actually played in the Blackhawks organization, signing with the Dallas Stars after college. He has since played 150 games for the Pittsburgh Penguins over the last three seasons, and now he’s set to join Bowman again after signing a five-year deal with the Oilers this summer.
That 2015 group was part of a broader trend of misses that pushed Chicago into the rebuild it’s in now. Too many first-round swings like Henri Jokiharju, Adam Boqvist, Nicolaus Beaudin, and Kirby Dach never delivered enough, and the franchise’s competitive window closed for good.
In Other News...
Blackhawks Fans Just Got Another Reason To Watch Expansion Chatter
The NHLs expansion talk is starting to feel less like distant league chatter and more like something worth tracking closely, especially for Blackhawks fans who know how quickly the ripple effects can reach a roster. League plans call for a jump from 32 to 34 teams in the coming years, with Texas emerging as one possible landing spot, and any serious expansion push has a way of reshaping opportunities for players, prospects and teams trying to manage their pipeline.
There is also plenty going on around the margins of the hockey world that keeps the attention moving. Los Angeles Kings prospect Liam Lefebvre has changed course and committed to Boston University after originally heading to the University of Vermont, a reminder of how fluid the college path can be for young players. Meanwhile, former Blackhawks forward Mike Hardman has verbally agreed to a deal with HV71 in the Swedish Hockey League after two seasons in the New Jersey Devils organization, another example of a familiar name taking a different route as the wider hockey landscape keeps shifting. [Read more 🡒]
Blackhawks Fans Are Revisiting One Big Kevin Hayes What If
Kevin Hayes career has become one of those familiar Chicago what-ifs, the kind that gets revisited every time a former draft pick finds a new chapter somewhere else. The Blackhawks took Hayes 24th overall in the 2010 NHL Draft, but his path away from the organization opened the door to a long NHL run elsewhere, with stops in New York, Winnipeg, Philadelphia, St. Louis and Pittsburgh.
Now there is another twist to track. Hayes has signed with AK Bars Kazan in the KHL, adding an overseas move to a rsum that has already taken plenty of turns, and it is not clear whether an NHL return is still part of the story. For Blackhawks fans, it is a reminder of how one missed connection can linger for years, especially when a player drafted by the team goes on to carve out a solid career somewhere else. [Read more 🡒]
Connor Bedard Just Entered A New Tier In Chicagos Rebuild
Connor Bedards rise has started to look a lot less like promise and a lot more like arrival. After missing the NHL Networks top-20 centers list in 2025 amid a rough stretch, the Blackhawks star forced his way back into the conversation with a strong 2025-26 season and the kind of improvement that showed up on a bigger stage. The work he put in over the summer clearly carried over, and the result was his first appearance on that list as one of the leagues most intriguing young pivots.
For Chicago, the larger picture is just as important. Bedard is now the player the rebuild is built around, and every step he takes changes how the rest of the organization is judged. That makes the latest prospect news around Nick Lardis and Sacha Boisvert harder to ignore, even if the Blackhawks long-term pipeline still has plenty of interest. The next question is how much more support Bedard gets from that group as Chicago tries to turn individual growth into something closer to a contender. [Read more 🡒]