{"id":554469,"date":"2026-04-17T11:04:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T11:04:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/554469\/"},"modified":"2026-04-17T11:04:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T11:04:08","slug":"hawks-gm-calls-it-major-step-for-blackhawks-to-make-playoffs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/554469\/","title":{"rendered":"Hawks GM calls it major step for Blackhawks to make playoffs"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Chicago Blackhawks held their end-of-season availability Thursday at the Blackhawks Ice Center, one day after they capped the 2025-26 campaign with a 5-2 win<\/a> over the San Jose Sharks at the United Center.<\/p>\n

For the sixth straight year and eighth in nine, their exit interviews occurred the same week as their regular-season finale \u2014 in other words, without a playoff appearance.<\/p>\n

Which begs the questions: Will they be at the same time next year?<\/p>\n

Photos: Chicago Blackhawks 5, San Jose Sharks 2<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The Hawks finished 29-39-14 for 72 points, the second-fewest in the NHL but a year-over-year improvement from the two seasons prior. They saw young star Connor Bedard set career highs in goals, assists and points, an up-and-down season from Frank Nazar, the trades of their three captains and a pile of questions about their future.<\/p>\n

But there is a consistent consensus from the Hawks: It was a step forward for the organization.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know for certain we took more steps in the right direction than wrong,\u201d said Jeff Blashill, who completed his first season as Hawks coach. \u201cGoing in the year, we wanted to set a standard, we wanted to begin the process of setting a culture (and) I know we\u2019ve done those two things.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat doesn\u2019t always show in wins and losses. When you have gone through a stretch of some games where you\u2019re struggling, it feels like those steps backward have wiped out all the steps forward, but that\u2019s not the case. Let\u2019s say you took 100 steps forward and 20 steps backward, even though those 20 feel bad, it doesn\u2019t wipe out the other 80.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Hawks are learning how to win consistently. The 53 losses would tell you they are far from figuring that out, but things weren\u2019t as bad as they appeared.<\/p>\n

They were eliminated from playoff contention with six games to spare, a decrease of 13 games from last year. There are hopes for a postseason push in 2027, when Bedard enters his fourth NHL season, but general manager Kyle Davidson may be pumping the brakes \u2014 for now.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe players are very motivated to make sure that we\u2019re pushing for the playoffs next year, I think that\u2019s realistically something that is a goal,\u201d Davidson said. \u201cIt\u2019s something that would require a major step forward, but the group is motivated and talented enough that we feel that it\u2019s not unrealistic to expect that, so we need to take another step forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

Column: United Center closes up shop for its 2 tenants with no signs of relief for Bulls and Blackhawks fans<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The Hawks on Wednesday announced a multiyear extension<\/a> for Davidson before the season finale. His plan was to build the team from the ground up, and the front office remains on board five years in.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe started this a couple years ago with a plan, and we\u2019re starting on our end to see some of the fruits of that labor show up in the NHL and start to develop in big numbers,\u201d Davidson, 37, said. \u201cWe\u2019re going to keep building the way we have been and to keep the positive momentum going. I have a great deal of belief in this organization and the direction we\u2019re going.\u201d<\/p>\n

They\u2019re guaranteed a top-four pick in the NHL draft in June, with a 13.5% chance at the No. 1 pick. That\u2019s a shot at Ivar Stenberg, Gavin McKenna or another top prospect to join the young Hawks core.<\/p>\n

And a chance to draft the solution to not being in this position next year.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we\u2019re fully healthy and we\u2019re picking top three again (next year) \u2014 without a lottery win to put us there \u2014 we\u2019ll probably be disappointed with that.\u201d Davidson said.<\/p>\n

The Hawks had 35 games decided by one goal, another increase from previous seasons. While almost winning isn\u2019t going to get the Hawks into Stanley Cup contention, it\u2019s a baby step in the process.<\/p>\n

\"ChicagoBlackhawks center Connor Bedard (98) tries to gain control of the puck against the Sharks on April 15, 2026, at the United Center. (Chris Sweda\/Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s a privilege to be in those close games,\u201d goaltender Spencer Knight said. \u201cYou want to win every game, but you just have to be in the game sometimes to get to that point.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can have that mindset (of) winning needs to happen next year, but it\u2019s more or less like \u2026 let\u2019s take steps. Let\u2019s try to collectively buy into what it takes to win, not necessarily just focus on the outcome. That\u2019s to me is the most important thing, and wins are probably a byproduct of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Hawks last made the playoffs in 2020, when they fell to the Vegas Golden Knights in the first round. Their last non-pandemic postseason appearance was in 2016-17, which saw the same result at the hands of the Nashville Predators. They haven\u2019t been close to making playoff noise in recent years, but that\u2019s not stopping the players\u2019 hopes of flipping their fortunes.<\/p>\n

\u201cGoing into next season, playoffs are the expectation. We\u2019re not here to do this again,\u201d defenseman Alex Vlasic said. \u201cWe have confidence in our group and going into the summer, we\u2019re all excited about coming back here next year and really making a push.\u201d<\/p>\n

Consistency is key \u2014 and it\u2019s also the hard part. They need to be attentive for 84 games \u2014 the NHL is adding two games to its schedule next season.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we were on our game, we were a tough team to play, and even if you knew a guy on the team and talked to him after, they\u2019d say the same thing,\u201d Bedard, 20, said. \u201cSome games when maybe we didn\u2019t have our legs, it was tough.<\/p>\n

\u201c(We also need) consistency throughout the games. We have moments where we gave up chances that we maybe didn\u2019t need to, and I think we\u2019ll get better at that each and every game next year. It\u2019s something we all know now going into the summer.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Chicago Blackhawks held their end-of-season availability Thursday at the Blackhawks Ice Center, one day after they capped…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":554470,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5115],"tags":[1569,521,37,96,5263,508,800,5,3140,859,4,488],"class_list":{"0":"post-554469","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago-blackhawks","8":"tag-alex-vlasic","9":"tag-blackhawks","10":"tag-chicago","11":"tag-chicago-blackhawks","12":"tag-chicagoblackhawks","13":"tag-connor-bedard","14":"tag-frank-nazar","15":"tag-hockey","16":"tag-jeff-blashill","17":"tag-kyle-davidson","18":"tag-nhl","19":"tag-spencer-knight"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116419719856654339","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554469","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=554469"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554469\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/554470"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=554469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=554469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=554469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}