Kyle Davidson Addresses the Current State of the Rebuild

Here's the crux of the issue. The Blackhawks are currently in 31st place when Davidson promised to be out of the basement.  

Kyle Davidson made a mistake by publically making a goal of "improvement." He failed to hit that goal with the players he acquired this past offseason.

The players Kyle acquired have done nothing to improve this team out of the basement. Tyler Bertuzzi has 17 goals. What about everyone else? If Davidson based these signings off of their Madhouse database (shhh, it's a secret), then I'm very concerned about this team's scouting abilities of current NHL players. 

In the big picture (and we'll get to the prospects), this season probably won't mean much. Like a toddler going through growing pains, this season is but a really bad diaper. A diaper that our prospects are still figuring out how to wear. 

But drafting prospects isn't the only way to add talent to a team. 

Good luck convincing a solid free agent to come to Chicago and endure the rest of this crap. As much as I would love to have a big name signed in the off-season, it probably won't happen. Davidson isn't even committing to saying that's what he's going to do. So don't get your hopes up. 

Players like Mikko Rantanen want to win. 

And here's the thing: free agents are the most expensive players you can acquire, and they usually have already peaked. To me, focusing on the free agent deal is slapping the win now button, which we aren't going to do for some time. 

So, let's worry about free agents when it's time to add that last piece.

Unless, of course, they go after a restricted free agent. Which you could offer sheet. Let's ask Stan Bowman how that went last summer. With that precedent set and an unspoken code broken, offer sheeting an RFA and weaponizing your plethora of draft picks sounds like a smart move instead of throwing money at an aging player just at their peak.

Davidson drafted a lot of prospects. Yes, we have no idea how any of them will turn out. We're not counting Connor Bedard because a drooling orangutan could have made that pick. And he's not a prospect anymore.

Davidson has a plan for what type of players he wants, and he's happy with them. Of course, there are holes. He likes to draft fast players, hasn't added a lot of size, or drafted a forward who is going to be a star (remember, Bedard doesn't count). 

But we are too early to "panic" over this. There's a good few years before Davidson's players start showing who they are. We still don't know what Frank Nazar is. 

And all those kids on the blue line? They were all Stan Bowman picks. Alex Vlasic is in his second NHL season after getting drafted six years ago in 2019. 

Do you think a free-agent star is going to want to sit through this? Davidson is building a core built around drafted prospects, which we don't even know who they will be. 

Buckle the hell up. It's going to be bumpy.