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<\/p>\nCHICAGO \u2014 Kyle Davidson\u2019s plan when he was named the Blackhawks\u2019 permanent general manager four years ago was to build from within. He didn\u2019t put a timetable on how long it would take to accomplish that, but the assumption was that it would take many years, probably longer than fans had patience for.<\/p>\n
Since then, Davidson hasn\u2019t deviated from his plan. He traded away beloved and established players, acquired draft picks, and then more draft picks. He used those picks to select 11 first-rounders over the last four years and build a prospect pipeline nearly unmatched in the league. Headlined by Connor Bedard, those draft picks have arrived more and more in the NHL in recent years. Anton Frondell, the No. 3 pick in the 2025 NHL Draft, recently joined the team from Sweden.<\/p>\n
As Davidson did that, though, the on-ice results haven\u2019t changed a whole lot. While the Blackhawks have looked more competitive each season and accumulated more points, their place in the standings has been about the same. They\u2019ve finished 30th or 31st in each of the last four seasons, including the current one. Many questioned how long his leash would remain.<\/p>\n
Although some fans have expressed frustration, others have been more understanding and willing to be patient. But at the end of the day, the one person who has always controlled whether Davidson would be able to see out his plan has been Blackhawks chairman and CEO Danny Wirtz. What he says goes. And Wednesday, before the Blackhawks\u2019 regular-season finale, Wirtz expressed his utmost confidence in Davidson, whose contract was nearing an end, and announced that the Blackhawks had extended their general manager on a multiyear deal.<\/p>\n
\u201cKyle\u2019s done everything we\u2019ve expected of him,\u201d Wirtz said on CHSN. \u201cWhen he got the job, his first task was to rebuild our prospect pool. If you remember, our cupboard was pretty bare. We didn\u2019t have a lot coming in. He very systematically, very confidently built that to where I believe right now we have the best prospect pool in the NHL. Many of those prospects are now actually NHL players, contributing and highly impactful on our team.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut at the same time, we didn\u2019t hire Kyle to be the prospect GM. He\u2019s building a championship-caliber team. It goes to the point we\u2019ve extended Kyle\u2019s contract. We are committing to Kyle to continue the plan he\u2019s put in place. We feel confident in that. We believe he has the right insight, the right team around him and the belief he can continue to build a championship team.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n Connor Bedard, the No. 1 pick in the 2023 draft, is the most prominent of 11 first-round picks the Blackhawks have made in the past four drafts. (Michael Reaves \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Davidson expressed gratitude at being able to continue building the Blackhawks into a team that could once again compete for the Stanley Cup.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am extremely grateful for the support that Danny Wirtz has shown me these last four years,\u201d Davidson said in the news release. \u201cHis commitment to our shared vision for the future of the Blackhawks has been vital to the success we\u2019ve seen as we\u2019ve worked to build our roster into a team that can compete for years to come. We still have lots of work to do as we strive to bring the Stanley Cup back to Chicago and I\u2019m excited to continue building a team that our fans can be proud of.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wirtz specifically mentioned seeing more competitiveness from the Blackhawks this season.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou mention the nine points (better than last season), but I think beneath that, a couple things that I look at that give me some real optimism for where we\u2019re going,\u201d Wirtz said. \u201cI think it\u2019s the competitiveness we showed this season. I think there were 35 games (with a) one-goal differential, a quarter of our games going to overtime. This tells me we\u2019re more competitive more nights. Now obviously, we\u2019ve got to close those games out, we\u2019ve got to finish those games off. But I think that\u2019s what you hear when you listen to Blash (head coach Jeff Blashill), how he\u2019s talking about teaching players about how to win those games. That\u2019s part of the process. That gives me a lot of hope we\u2019re showing up to compete every night.\u201d<\/p>\n
This competitiveness is at the core of what he thinks the next step is for the team.<\/p>\n
\u201cA couple of things,\u201d Wirtz said. \u201cOne, these players in their own development has to take another step. Even Connor (Bedard) needs to take another step and he will. He\u2019s that competitive. But across the board, those are the things; the collective improvement each of those players makes translates into team competitiveness and ultimately wins. That\u2019s what we\u2019re going for.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur intention is to be competing and winning Stanley Cups but we can\u2019t race to that conclusion until we do all those right things. I feel really good with our pipeline, I feel really good with our prospects, but prospects turning into real players as we\u2019ve seen this year is going to be continuing the trend.\u201d<\/p>\n
When asked about whether his optimism would change if the Blackhawks are in the same spot next season, Wirtz said the focus is on improving as they did this year.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to continue to get better every year,\u201d Wirtz said. \u201cIf we stayed flat this year, I think we would be disappointed. But again, I look to those really important ingredients that lead to winning hockey as being the biggest things that end up translating to wins.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wirtz also noted the team culture being built by the Blackhawks\u2019 young players.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat locker room right now is tight,\u201d Wirtz said. \u201cThey believe in themselves. They expect more from each other. They\u2019re holding each other accountable. And when we\u2019ve seen great teams in this organization in the past, it\u2019s always started in the locker room. I think our fans should be excited; there\u2019s really something special happening with our young players. Especially after the trade deadline, those veterans were dealt; this became their team. I really think you\u2019re really starting to see how they think of themselves as leaders and how they\u2019re building the culture of the next winning team of the Chicago Blackhawks.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CHICAGO \u2014 Kyle Davidson\u2019s plan when he was named the Blackhawks\u2019 permanent general manager four years ago was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":341430,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[377],"tags":[96,5,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-553800","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-hockey","8":"tag-chicago-blackhawks","9":"tag-hockey","10":"tag-nhl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116414261446230295","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553800","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=553800"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553800\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/341430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=553800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=553800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=553800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}