CHICAGO — Enough is enough.
There was always going to be a lot of losing early on in Kyle Davidson’s tenure as Chicago Blackhawks general manager. His rebuild plan required it. He sought to make at least a couple of top-five picks in his first few years, obtain a ton of early-round picks and stockpile potential high-end talent while replenishing the prospect pipeline.
Last season, it was all about tanking for a shot at Connor Bedard. This season, Davidson wasn’t aiming as low as the Blackhawks finished, but with all the injuries and players failing to meet expectations, they actually have a better statistical shot at the No. 1 pick come next month’s draft lottery. Davidson isn’t likely complaining in private about that. Another top-four pick could do wonders for his plan.
But Davidson knew it was vital to stick to that plan over the first few years whether they had Bedard or not. He witnessed Stan Bowman avoid and later deviate from what was necessary to build the Blackhawks back into a Stanley Cup contender. Davidson wasn’t going to repeat that mistake. He was given the rare gift of patience by NHL ownership, and he wasn’t going to waste it regardless of what might be said in these comment sections.
Davidson also understood there had to be a time when the Blackhawks had to cease losing at such an extreme rate. They won 49 games in the last two games, one fewer than they did during the 2016-17 season. The fans can only take so much. This is more like year six of the rebuild than year two in their minds. The players and coaches can only take so much. The Blackhawks veterans made no secret of their patience wearing thin during Saturday’s exit interviews. Seth Jones seemed to question Davidson’s strategy of signing short-term deals.
“When you have a team of one-year deals, it’s extremely difficult to get everyone on the same page of a common goal,” Jones said. “Everyone wants points; everyone’s going to do that to look out for themselves. It’s extremely difficult. Not saying it can’t happen, but I think that will be one of our biggest challenges moving forward when you have a bunch of guys on one- or two-year deals. It’s tough. That’s why we have to hammer home that team success will drive your next deal. If people see you play in the playoffs, they see you’re a winner; people respect that.”
On top of that patience evaporating, if your end goal is to develop elite young players, they eventually need some talent around them to get better. You want the young players to carry more and more of the burden as time goes on, but they’ll get there quicker if they’re being assisted earlier in the rebuild. Supporting them is part of the process. The abundance of injuries and Corey Perry’s contract termination affected that season, but it was also obvious the Blackhawks’ younger players could have benefited from a few more teammates with more skill. Kevin Korchinski’s season comes to mind.
The sense before Saturday was Davidson intended the Blackhawks to move forward in the rebuild this offseason, but it still needed to be said. He had to say, enough was enough. And he did.
“We want to take the next step here and progress,” Davidson said. “We don’t want to finish where we finished this year moving forward. That’s not what we’re looking to do anymore. It’s something we’re going to be conscious of moving forward. Hopefully we can see a little more success and some positive steps in the standings and on the ice here moving forward.”
Davidson was very careful in what he said Saturday. For one, he’s not promising a Stanley Cup contender next season. He just promised better.
“I don’t know how many points or standing slots that is, but we can’t finish second-last in the league,” Davidson said. “I think the standard has to be raised. The expectation has to be raised. Through that, accountability will be raised. That’s the nature of the path we’re on. Eventually we have to start making positive steps. And I think we’ve reached that point.
“I’m not saying that we’re going to be competing for playoffs or Stanley Cups or anything next year. I don’t know how realistic that is. It’s the best league in the world, best players and best teams in the world. To say we’re just going to improve a whole great deal in the standings is difficult. But we need to be better. And it’s time to take a step forward. Previous to this year, we finished third-last. This year, we finished second last. That can happen again. We need to start moving up and onward. That’s the exciting part of the process. It may not be a huge leap, but there has to be some positive momentum to be carried forward starting next year.”
Davidson didn’t go into exact details of how the Blackhawks will improve, but he laid out a few objectives come the 2024-25 season. One is improving the roster.
“Are we going to bring in some new players? I think that’s likely,” Davidson said. “Yeah, there’s going to be turnover. Who’s available, what you can get? That’s yet to be determined. There’s a lot more that goes into that than just wanting certain players or wanting a type of player. It’s got to fit short-, long-term. It’s got to fit contractually. It has to make sense.”

Can the Blackhawks find Connor Bedard another linemate before next season? (Harry How / Getty Images)
Luke Richardson was hopeful the Blackhawks would add another top-six forward to join the mix and give Bedard another potential linemate.
“I think Taylor (Hall) fit there pretty well and did well with Connor at times at the beginning on both the power play and five and five, so that’s definitely something to look at,” Richardson said. “I think obviously adding to that role, top line, top six, I think that would be great for our organization to get to that. You never know where the young guys are going to be between now and the summer. It’s a long summer, but that’s a big step to really kind of hope for and hold your breath for. So, I’m sure that’s on the list for July is to get someone to help in that area.”
Through that addition, Davidson would like for there to be more real competition in training camp. Aside from a roster spot or two to begin this season, everyone knew who was making the team.
“We want to create battles,” Davidson said. “We want training camp competition for spots. And that comes with a little bit of addition and honesty with the players, both veteran and young, that you’re all fighting for the same spot. Your experience level, your age, where you’re at in your career, whether you’re new here or not, that’s not going to play a role into if you’re on the team come day one. You’re going to determine if you’re on the team based on your play in camp. Part of that is players we bring in.”
It sounded like there would be more accountability throughout the organization come next season, too. Davidson mentioned thinking more about how to realistically evaluate Richardon’s job as head coach with benchmarks. A few players mentioned being more honest amongst themselves, too. Jason Dickinson thought some players like to say the right things, but it wasn’t translating onto the ice.
“I think it’s pretty easy to see and say,” Dickinson said. “We have video evidence of it all. We can go back and watch it the next day. We can watch it the day after that. I’ve got all of my clips sent to me after every single game, so there’s no hiding when it comes to saying certain things and doing others, cause we get to watch it, we get to analyze it, we get to pick it apart, so accepting roles, playing to them, it’s hard when you have certain expectations for yourself, so I do understand that, that guys expect certain things of themselves, it’s not so much that they expect the team or management or coaching staff to give it to them, but you know what you’re capable of, you know what you can do, you want to help the team win, so maybe you have a different understanding of what the team expects from you from what you expect from yourself.”
What is clear is expectations are higher for the Blackhawks next season. It won’t be OK to be among the league’s worst teams. It won’t be OK to be in the discussion for another top-four draft pick. Some of that will fall on Richardson and the players, but Davidson is also putting himself out there more than he has so far. He largely achieved what he wanted in the first few seasons, and now he’s raising the bar. With that, he and everyone else has to get over it come next season.
“It starts from the top,” Davidson said. “It has to start with me, on down to the coaches, coaches to the players, and it has to cascade down that way.”
(Top photo: Chase Agnello-Dean / NHLI via Getty Images)