Kyle Davidson keeps adding pieces, but the Chicago Blackhawks still look stuck in the same place.
For the fifth straight season, the Blackhawks are projected to land in the bottom five of the NHL standings, and that reality puts the spotlight squarely on the general manager. Since 2022, Chicago has poured premium draft capital into the rebuild, but the return has been thin enough to raise real questions about where this is all headed.
The first-round haul under Davidson is a long list of big swings: Kevin Korchinski, Frank Nazar and Sam Rinzel in 2022; Connor Bedard and Oliver Moore in 2023; Artyom Levshunov, Sacha Boisvert and Marek Vanacker in 2024; and Anton Frondell, Vaclav Nestrasil and Mason West in 2025. Eleven first-round picks in four drafts. That group has produced 647 games and 373 points, and 203 of those points - 54% - belong to Bedard alone.
That can be read two ways. It either says everything about Bedard’s impact, or it says plenty about how little help he’s had.
To be fair, not every pick is ready for a verdict. Nestrasil and Boisvert are still too young to be judged properly.
Vanacker and West haven’t played an NHL game yet, and Boisvert is only just getting started. But even with that caveat, 11 first-rounders plus other NHL-ready talent should have yielded more than what Chicago has shown so far.
And that’s where the pressure starts to build on Davidson.
The Blackhawks’ direction is hard to pin down. They traded heavily for defenseman Bowen Byram and made him the highest-paid defenseman in the NHL.
They also brought in marginal-at-best free agents like Ian Cole and Cole Smith. Yet after years of tanking and taking players in the top three every year since 2024, the team still doesn’t look any better than it did last season or the season before.
So what exactly is the plan for this season?
Chicago isn’t talented enough to make a real run in the Central Division, and another year spent chasing a high draft pick doesn’t sound like much of a solution either. After five straight seasons near the bottom of the league, patience starts to wear thin - with players, with fans, with everyone involved.
Davidson still has work to do, and plenty of it. If his aim this offseason was to make the Blackhawks better, that hasn’t happened yet.
Byram is clearly the best defenseman on the roster, but that also highlights how much the team still lacks. He has offensive upside, sure, but he’s only topped 40 points once, and the decision to pay him more than any NHL defenseman in history is a huge gamble.
The next move has to be about helping Bedard. That means finding him a high-end winger, and ideally one with real NHL experience.
Anton Frondell could eventually be part of that answer, but right now Chicago needs a proven commodity to lift Bedard’s game. Matthew Knies of the Toronto Maple Leafs has been mentioned as one possibility, and Kirill Marchenko of the Columbus Blue Jackets as another.
There are options out there. Until Davidson makes one of them happen, the outlook for next season remains bleak.
In Other News...
Blackhawks Already Facing A Brutal Reality About This Season
The early read on Chicagos season is not exactly flattering. The Hockey News slotted the Blackhawks 30th in its NHL rankings on paper, a reminder that even after years of rebuilding, this roster is still being viewed through a long-term lens rather than as one ready to make a leap. There is room for growth, but the outside expectation remains that the Blackhawks are still climbing out of the leagues lower tier.
The challenge is even sharper in the Central Division, where the competition is crowded and unforgiving. Chicago will need its young core to take real steps forward while the rest of the division keeps pressing ahead, and that leaves little margin for a slow start or uneven play. Improvement is possible, but for now the Blackhawks look like a team still trying to prove it belongs in the conversation with the divisions better clubs. [Read more 🡒]
Blackhawks Face A Painful Reality In Their Search For A Center
The Blackhawks search for a center keeps running into the same problem: the market is thin, and the cost of getting the right one looks steep. That has only sharpened the frustration around a rebuild that has already asked patience from its fan base, with the sense that another rough season could start forcing harder questions about the direction of the roster.
Around the league, the center trade chatter is only adding to the pressure. Vancouver has explored the market for Seattles Shane Wright while also trying to sort out possible moves involving Elias Pettersson, and Djurgrden has released 18-year-old Viggo Bjrck from his SHL contract so he can pursue opportunities with the Winnipeg Jets organization. For Chicago, it is another reminder that finding help down the middle may require either a big swing or a longer wait. [Read more 🡒]
Blackhawks Fans Wont Love What Edmonton Just Decided After That Trade
When the Blackhawks moved Jason Dickinson, Connor Murphy and Colton Dach to Edmonton at the 2026 NHL Trade Deadline, it looked like the kind of deal that could reshape both rosters down the line. For Chicago, it was a chance to turn veteran pieces and a young forward into a new direction. For the Oilers, it was about adding players who could help right away and maybe stick around longer than a rental.
Now Edmonton has made its intentions clear by extending all three after the season, a sign those deadline additions were never just temporary fixes. It is the kind of follow-up Blackhawks fans probably expected to see from a contender, and it only adds another layer to how the trade will be judged in Chicago as the Oilers keep building around the group they acquired. [Read more 🡒]