Kyle Davidson’s decision to send Louis Crevier and the fourth and 45th overall picks in the 2026 NHL Draft to land and extend Bowen Byram said plenty about where the Blackhawks are headed. The rebuild has moved into a new phase. Chicago isn’t just collecting pieces anymore - it’s trying to become a team that can actually contend.
That shift changes the conversation around the organization’s prospects. If Davidson is serious about building around Connor Bedard, Spencer Knight and Byram, then some of the younger names in the system are going to have to become trade currency.
That’s the uncomfortable part of turning a rebuild into a push for the playoffs. It also means a few prospects who once looked like future building blocks could soon be on the move.
Kevin Korchinski is the name that keeps coming up. The seventh overall pick in the 2022 Draft was pushed into the NHL at 18, and the early returns have been uneven.
His game has been held back by a lack of physicality and shaky confidence and decision-making, and most of his last two seasons have been spent with the Rockford IceHogs. In 109 AHL games, he has 53 points and a -38 plus/minus rating.
He still has age on his side at 22, and the draft pedigree is real, which is exactly why he could appeal to a rebuilding club that can offer him a bigger role than Chicago can right now.
Ethan Del Mastro is in a different spot, but his name belongs in the same conversation. A fourth-round pick in 2021, he built a strong junior résumé with the Mississauga Steelheads and Sarnia Sting and added two World Junior gold medals with Team Canada.
He carried that into pro hockey, enough to earn an AHL All-Star Game invite in 2023-2024. But the momentum hasn’t carried forward.
Over the last two seasons, he’s received NHL call-ups of 24 and 19 games, yet he hasn’t done enough to lock down the staff’s trust. He’s also currently unsigned and no longer waiver-exempt, which puts the Blackhawks in a tough spot: they could lose him for nothing on waivers next season.
With Artyom Levshunov, Sam Rinzel and Wyatt Kaiser ahead of him, a move could come quickly.
Adam Gajan may not be as immediate a candidate, but he’s another prospect who could be used in the right deal. Chicago took him as the first goaltender in the 2023 Draft, and his development has gone well since then.
He wrapped last season in Rockford after two solid years at the University of Minnesota-Duluth and a spot on Slovakia’s Olympic team. The 22-year-old has good size at 6-foot-3 and plays an athletic style.
The Blackhawks don’t need to rush anything here, especially with Knight, Arvid Soderblom and Drew Commesso already in the organization and 24-year-old Stanislav Berezhnoy adding more competition in Rockford. But with that many young goalies in the mix, Gajan could become part of a package if Chicago wants to bring back an impact player and not worry about its future in net.
In Other News...
Blackhawks Prospect Buzz Centers On One Huge Oliver Moore Question
The Blackhawks prospect conversation keeps circling back to the same point: how quickly the organization can turn a deep pipeline into real lineup help. With Chicago drawing attention as one of the leagues most talent-rich systems, the next layer of the discussion is less about who belongs in the future and more about where those young players fit when they get here. Oliver Moore is right in the middle of that picture, and his long-term value will depend on how the team imagines his role as he moves closer to the NHL.
Moore brings the kind of speed and skill that make him easy to picture in a Blackhawks sweater, but his exact usage is still part of the evaluation. The team has work left to do in sorting out whether he settles in at center or slides to the wing, and that decision matters for both his development path and Chicagos larger roster puzzle. For a rebuilding club trying to build around the right young pieces, the answer to that question could shape more than just one prospects career arc. [Read more 🡒]
Blackhawks Face A Real Kevin Korchinski Decision This Summer
Kevin Korchinskis path since going seventh overall in the 2022 NHL Draft has already taken a few sharp turns, which is why his situation is one of the more interesting ones hanging over the Blackhawks this summer. He got a real look in Chicago during the 2022-23 season, then spent meaningful time in Rockford, where he was good enough to earn All-Star Game selections and an MVP award in 2025 before getting another 13 games with the big club. For a player once viewed as a key part of the rebuild, the next step matters.
What makes this especially intriguing is that there is still no clarity on where he fits, or even whether he will be part of the organizations long-term picture at all. The Blackhawks have roster competition to sort through and trade conversations always linger this time of year, so Korchinskis unsigned status only adds to the uncertainty around a summer decision that could shape both his development and the teams blue-line plans. [Read more 🡒]
Blackhawks Prospects Face A Huge College Season For Their NHL Futures
The Blackhawks prospect pipeline will have a distinctly college feel in 2026-27, with eight young players spread across some of the sports more demanding NCAA programs. Mason West is headed to Michigan State, Nathan Behm to Arizona State, Ty Henry to St. Thomas, Vaclav Nestrasil and Samu Alalauri to Massachusetts, John Mustard and Julius Sumpf to Providence, and Xavier Villeneuve to Boston University, giving Chicago a wide view of how its draft picks and developing talents handle bigger stages, tougher competition and the daily grind of a full college season.
For the Blackhawks, the appeal is obvious: each of those players arrives with a different path, a different role and a different timetable, which makes this winter less about one collective snapshot and more about tracking individual progress. Some are expected to push for major minutes, some are still refining their games, and all of them are trying to prove they can turn junior or draft promise into something closer to NHL readiness, even if the next step for a few of them remains just out of view. [Read more 🡒]