The Chicago Blackhawks may be stuck in the wrong place at exactly the wrong time.
That’s the uncomfortable reality hanging over a rebuild that has dragged into year seven, depending on who you ask, with the bigger frustration being that Chicago still looks nowhere near where it should be. The blame for that can be split a few different ways, but the timing is brutal no matter how you slice it.
Around the league, a clear pattern has emerged: players who suited up for the American Olympic team have wanted out of their situations. A lot of those names have come from Canadian markets, but the same kind of movement is now showing up in places like Detroit, where Dylan Larkin has reportedly expanded his trade list to include 10 U.S. teams, according to The Athletic on 10/20/2026. Another theme running through these situations is that several of these players have no interest in Canadian markets at all, using no-trade clauses to stay in the United States.
That’s where Chicago should be positioned to benefit. The Blackhawks are arguably the biggest American hockey market in the league, and if they were even halfway competitive, they’d make a lot of sense for players looking to pick their next landing spot. A great city, a huge fanbase and a superstar already in the building, with Connor Bedard as the kind of centerpiece teams covet, should be a powerful draw.
Instead, this should be the stretch where Chicago is taking big swings to push itself into true Cup-contender territory. That’s not what happened.
General manager Kyle Davidson waited for prospects to fill in roles, and when he finally made a move, he paid heavily in a trade package for Bowen Byram. Even with the cap rising, Davidson also handed Byram a six-year deal with an average annual value of $12.5 million.
There is some luck involved here, too. This is the first time in recent memory that multiple major names have forced their way out of their markets, and that wasn’t something many people saw coming until the USA won gold at the Olympics.
But the bigger issue is that Chicago’s rebuild has simply gone on too long. Davidson did inherit a team that wasn’t good, and he has been trying to keep it afloat. Still, the lack of real progress has become impossible to ignore, and that falls on him.
He brought in Jeff Blashill as head coach. He signed older veterans who haven’t been effective.
The idea of bringing in those kinds of players to help mentor Bedard makes sense, but if the goal is development, the young guys need useful teammates around them. Right now, that part of the roster is hard to find.
Patrick Kane has seven points in eight games, which has been a positive, but he has only one goal despite what feels like plenty of chances.
For one of the NHL’s most historic American franchises, it adds up to a missed opportunity. And a lot of it feels self-inflicted.
In Other News...
Bowen Byram Update Has Blackhawks Fans Questioning A Costly Commitment
Bowen Byrams latest status has added another layer of uncertainty to a move the Blackhawks made with real long-term intent. The defenseman, acquired from Buffalo and already tied to Chicago on a six-year extension that begins in 2027-28, has been medically cleared by team doctors to play through an upper-body injury, but the club still lists him as day-to-day.
The wrinkle is that Byram has not yet felt comfortable getting back on the ice, and there is still no confirmed return date. The injury is not related to concussion protocol, which only sharpens the focus on how Chicago handles a player it expects to be part of the blue line picture for years to come. [Read more 🡒]
Alex Vlasic Incident Should Have Blackhawks Fans Arguing About NHL Discipline
A late-game scrum can usually be filed away as just another chippy moment between two teams, but the NHLs Department of Player Safety decided the Bruins Nikita Zadorov crossed a line in Bostons game against Chicago. Zadorov was fined for roughing Blackhawks defenseman Alex Vlasic, and the leagues discipline came after a night in which he was already drawing multiple penalties.
For Blackhawks fans, the bigger question is what the league thought of the play itself and how it chose to handle it. The incident happened in the second period, and while the fine brings some accountability, it also leaves the usual frustration around NHL discipline hanging in the air for a team that has seen enough of those scrums to know how quickly they can turn ugly. [Read more 🡒]
Blackhawks Showed Real Progress Before Another Brutal Late Collapse
For long stretches against Boston, the Blackhawks looked like a team taking a real step forward. They controlled play enough to outshoot the Bruins 41-32, got offense from Connor Bedard and a much-needed breakout from Anton Frondell, and kept answering every time the game seemed ready to slip away.
But the finish was still a gut punch, the kind Chicago has been trying to leave behind. Boston came back three times to tie it before finally ending it in overtime, leaving the Blackhawks with another reminder that progress and pain can show up in the same night. [Read more 🡒]