{"id":535661,"date":"2026-04-02T00:19:14","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T00:19:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/535661\/"},"modified":"2026-04-02T00:19:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T00:19:14","slug":"the-chicago-blackhawks-are-closer-to-contention-than-they-seem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/535661\/","title":{"rendered":"The Chicago Blackhawks Are Closer to Contention Than They Seem"},"content":{"rendered":"

Something Davidson emphasized in his opening press release<\/a> for the Blashill hire was developing young players. So far, he has proven that his approach includes a developmental methodology.<\/p>\n

Nick Lardis<\/a> spent most of his most recent NHL stint on the fourth line after questions about how he would adapt to the NHL pace of play. During that time, he noticeably improved his physical grinder mentality that is necessary to compete at the pro level. This improvement led to stellar production he was once promoted into the top six.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Of course, it doesn\u2019t look the same for each player. Anton Frondell<\/a> has yet to play a game below the top six, for example. Artyom Levshunov<\/a> has been running the first power play unit for most of his rookie season.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, Blashill and his staff understand the developmental needs of individual players. If he treated Lardis like a Frondell or a Levshunov all season, who knows if the production follows?<\/p>\n

It Just Takes Time<\/p>\n

The last time the Blackhawks were on the rise, it felt like the turnaround happened in no time. Using the Patrick Kane<\/a> timeline, he was winning his first Stanley Cup by the end of year three. Many have used that as a reason to believe the rebuild is behind schedule, with Bedard wrapping up year three back in a bottom-three spot in the league.<\/p>\n

The Blackhawks selected Frank Nazar<\/a> a year before Bedard, much like Toews to Kane. The truth is, the Blackhawks\u2019 dynasty didn\u2019t start its formation in 2006.<\/p>\n

In 2002, 2003, and 2005, the Blackhawks drafted Duncan Keith<\/a>, Brent Seabrook<\/a>, and Niklas Hjalmarsson<\/a>, respectively. Corey Crawford<\/a>, the goaltending anchor for two of the three Cups, joined the Blackhawks organization in the 2003 draft. The team traded for Patrick Sharp<\/a> in 2005. The truth is, Kane and Toews hit the squad on the upswing, while the current stars were a bit closer to the bottom of the pendulum.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Keith is an especially interesting case. He played his first NHL game as a 22-year-old. Defenseman Kevin Korchinski<\/a>, Davidson\u2019s first draft pick, doesn\u2019t turn 22 until this upcoming June.<\/p>\n

Development is a marathon, not a sprint. Korchinski is being put in \u201cbust\u201d conversations before he would have even made the league in the previous generation of Blackhawks stars. With players starting their careers earlier than ever, the timeline is only stretching out.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t2026-27 Is the Litmus Test<\/p>\n

In his introductory press conference in March of 2022, Davidson kept a timeline for his rebuild close to the chest.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to take time, and we\u2019re not going to put a timeline on it. Whether it\u2019s three, five, I don\u2019t have that answer right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Next season will be his fifth full season as General Manager of the Chicago Blackhawks.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ultimately, next season doesn\u2019t have to end with a Stanley Cup. It doesn\u2019t even have to end with a playoff berth. It just has to show that the Blackhawks are on the rise and are no longer an easy win on the other team\u2019s schedule.<\/p>\n

Maybe some Wild Card interest, as the season concludes, on top of a big season from Bedard, Nazar, Knight, and the crew would prove that this team has the backbone to be something special. Not for a season, not for two seasons, but for seasons to come.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Something Davidson emphasized in his opening press release for the Blashill hire was developing young players. So far,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":535662,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5115],"tags":[521,37,96,5263,5,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-535661","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago-blackhawks","8":"tag-blackhawks","9":"tag-chicago","10":"tag-chicago-blackhawks","11":"tag-chicagoblackhawks","12":"tag-hockey","13":"tag-nhl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116332250051464627","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/535661","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=535661"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/535661\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/535662"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=535661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=535661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=535661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}