Do the Blackhawks need to make a big move this offseason? GM Kyle Davidson answers
BUFFALO, N.Y. — Blackhawks general manager Kyle Davidson answered a variety of NHL Draft questions last week, being that he was at the NHL Scouting Combine, but there wasn’t much intel he was divulging.
Davidson did clear up why some of the top prospects who you’d expect the Blackhawks to draft with the third pick hadn’t met with the organization over dinner in Buffalo.
“We didn’t do any dinners this year,” Davidson said. “It was much more doing it in the room. I think it’s probably born out of, we don’t learn anything. We haven’t learned much new in those interviews in the past. … It’s funny because there’s no place to hide here either, right? There’s only so many (restaurant) options, and everyone’s bopping around to the same spot. I don’t know if I’ve ever really drawn any connection between dinners to list/ranking or anything like that. So I don’t really pay attention to it. And this year we didn’t take anyone out, not for any other reason than we just feel comfortable with everyone.”
Outside of that, Davidson pretty much said what you’d expect about the draft. Basically, the Blackhawks are going to draft the best player available and believe there are plenty of forwards who can play center or wing if taken.
Davidson didn’t mention specific players Thursday. But my educated guess is the Blackhawks look at Anton Frondell and Caleb Desnoyers with the third pick if Michael Misa is gone, or choose Misa if he’s available.
What was of note Thursday from what Davidson said during his media availability was everything else about the offseason and next season. That’s where most Blackhawks fans are interested right now, too. What can they expect from the Blackhawks in the coming months? Davidson got into that.
We’ll break this up into the three big questions.
Does Davidson feel he has to make a big move this offseason, as many others assume he does?
“I feel like that’s been the consensus every single year I’ve been GM, other than the first. I feel like every summer, it’s like, ‘Well, they’ve got to go do something now.’ Look, we’re always open to exploring these things, but it’s got to be right. It’s got to make sense. We can’t do something that’s going to be counter to the path that we’ve set out on. If there is a big move that presents itself, that makes sense, then I’m all for exploring that and pursuing something that does make sense. But to say we’re going to do something just to say we did something, and then it doesn’t make sense with where we’re at or where we’re going, then I don’t think we can do that. That would be irresponsible.
“The other thing, too, is the idea of a big splash, that’s so hard to do, right? That’s so hard to find. Especially with the salary cap going up, there’s a lot of teams that have access to space and money that wasn’t in the system before. That’s either going to probably hold players in their current place or create new teams that are in the mix on a few players that do become available. So it creates more competition for a smaller number of players and just makes things harder, right?
“I think the fortunate thing for us is we’ve got some really exciting young players. We’ve got some young players on the way. We’ve got a lot of assets, both in the system with our draft capital and in the future. And so it’s something that we can explore, and we’ve got the ammo to access if something comes available. And so we’re open to it, but it’s really hard. Everyone wants good players, and then when they get them, they don’t want to give them up. That’s why a lot of these players are either acquired via the draft or using their assets that they’ve gotten from the draft or draft capital. Everything stems back to the draft. It’s very rare — expansion teams are different — but a lot of core teams are developed through the draft. Once you’re at a point to leverage either players, pick capital or prospects, then you can jump at opportunities. We feel like we’ve got a lot of capital to do something if we wanted to, but wanting it is different than being able to do it. And so it’s something we’re always exploring, but it’s got to be available.”
Would the Blackhawks seek to acquire an NHL roster player by trading draft capital?
“Yeah, of course. That’s something we’re very open to. Very murky and not clear to me if that’s even available. Something that the rising salary cap did is give people, in the majority of the cases, the flexibility to keep their players. Normally, the No. 1 motivator of movement is salary-cap constraint, and a lot of teams have been relieved of that this year. There seems to be a little more comfort, I’d say, around the league. That’s something that feels a little more new this year. But yes, we would be very open and comfortable exploring that if it arose.
“I think with each year you get from our draft process, you get more and more willing. The first couple years of our process, if you were to ask me that I was willing to move first-round picks or second-round picks for players, you know, I would have, but it was probably less likely. As we go, it’s more and more likely to acquire people that fit where we’re going and maybe some gaps that we need to fill. As we go, I think it’s something we’re always really exploring, exploring hard, but you can’t manifest that out of nothing. There’s a supply and demand there, and the supply in the NHL with good players that become available is just limited. It’s just the way it goes.”
Is Davidson willing to stomach another losing season if the youth is on track?
“It’s all about the trajectory. You hope that through the improvement of your young players and the development of your young players that continues to elevate the improvement of your group and your team and your spot in the standings. That’s always what you’re shooting for.
“I think we are going to be younger. We are going to be way younger than where we started the season last year. I think that’s exciting. That also brings a much more volatile ebb and flow of what you get. Youth goes through growing pains at different times and for different reasons. That’s something we’re likely to see just based on youth. But you hope that keeps ticking upwards, and the development of those talented young players will break into the NHL full-time this year, elevates your group and continues that upward trajectory.
“It’s going to be a totally different look this year. There’s going to be a lot of excitement in that and a lot of exciting moments from young players where you can see what’s coming, you can see what this is going to look like and you can see how they’re all going to impact the team at the NHL level. There’s excitement in that. And that’s what we expect. We expect our players to continue to improve and that improvement to improve the team and the results.
“What that looks like you never really know. Youth is unpredictable, especially at the NHL level, but we feel they’re ready. It doesn’t mean there’s going to be players that struggle and they need the instruction, need the education, need the information to continue to improve, kind of dig themselves out of little ruts as they figure out the NHL grind and the NHL schedule and how you need to be successful and the way you need to play at the NHL level. But with the new coaching staff, really excited for them to get their hands on this group and to dig in and see all these players taking steps and getting to know some of these players even better because some of them were here for just a very short time at the end. I think that’s something that’s exciting, something that we need to continue to see improvement out of this young group, and through that we should see improvement not only in our style of play but hopefully results-wise, too. But I think there is excitement that we ended the year with.”
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