Determine Consolidation Options<\/p>\n
This is going to tie into two of the items later on in the column so let\u2019s get it out of the way first.\u00a0 One thing Davidson has done well in his role is accumulate assets.\u00a0 They\u2019ve gone from a team that had one of the weaker prospect pools in the league to one of the strongest young upcoming cores.\u00a0 For all the losing they\u2019ve had to endure, at least there\u2019s some light at the end of the tunnel.\u00a0 With two extra second-round picks this year and two extra first-round selections next year, they\u2019re going to only further add to that stockpile.<\/p>\n
But at some point, they\u2019re heading for a \u2018how much is too much\u2019 situation.\u00a0 Let\u2019s look at centers, for example.\u00a0 Connor Bedard<\/a> is their number one of the present and future.\u00a0 They\u2019re expecting Anton Frondell<\/a> to be their second.\u00a0 They also have Frank Nazar<\/a> who spent most of the year down the middle and is locked up on a team-friendly long-term deal.\u00a0 Then there are Oliver Moore<\/a>, Ryan Greene<\/a>, and Sacha Boisvert<\/a>, all quality youngsters in their own right.\u00a0 It\u2019s great to have that depth but would they be better off moving one of those three to fill a weak spot?\u00a0 With the demand for good centers, they\u2019d probably get a significant return.<\/p>\n There are other potential logjams down the road at other positions as well, though those aren\u2019t as pressing on the current roster.\u00a0 But as more of these prospects and future draft picks turn pro, there\u2019s going to be a point when youngster supply vastly outweighs the few roster spots that will be open.<\/p>\n All things considered, this is a great \u2018problem\u2019 to have.\u00a0 But while Davidson could play it safe and wait for the logjams to become an issue, he could also be proactive and determine which of those pieces could be expendable.\u00a0 Combining a promising center, a good draft pick, and more would get them in the mix for some of the better players on the trade front this summer.\u00a0 And if they\u2019re going to take that next step forward, they need to find a way to land one of those better players.<\/p>\n Re-Sign Bedard<\/p>\n Last summer, the Blackhawks were eligible to sign Bedard to a long-term extension but didn\u2019t do so.\u00a0 Considering that he was coming off a quieter-than-expected sophomore year, that wasn\u2019t too much of a surprise.\u00a0 Now, Bedard has played out the final season of his entry-level deal and will be a restricted free agent on July 1st.<\/p>\n To that end, AFP Analytics projects<\/a> a $13.21MM AAV on an eight-year deal.\u00a0 Chicago can still sign Bedard to an eight-year contract through mid-September before the new CBA fully kicks in.\u00a0 That date will stand as a soft deadline for a lot of negotiations this summer as a result.\u00a0 That would be the richest post-entry-level contract handed out, beating Connor McDavid<\/a>\u2019s $12.5MM price tag for eight years and would make him the fifth-highest-paid player in the league.\u00a0 But with Bedard having extra leverage if Chicago wants to get the eighth year on there, it wouldn\u2019t be entirely shocking to see a deal come in at that price tag.<\/p>\n While Bedard is eligible for an offer sheet, he\u2019s not necessarily a viable candidate for one.\u00a0 The Blackhawks have more than $40MM in cap room for next season, per PuckPedia<\/a>, so they\u2019d be able to match any offer that were to come his way.\u00a0 Bedard has already spoken about hoping to get something done before too long so it wouldn\u2019t be shocking to see both sides take a real run at this over the next couple of months before other offseason moves start to be made.<\/p>\n Add A Top-Line Winger<\/p>\n Speaking of those other offseason moves, finding Bedard an impactful winger to ride shotgun alongside him needs to be high on Davidson\u2019s to-do list.\u00a0 While it\u2019s possible that an internal option could one day emerge in that role, that hasn\u2019t happened yet and probably won\u2019t for another couple of years, at least.\u00a0 They likely don\u2019t want to wait that long so looking external is the way to go.<\/p>\n This is a spot that Chicago has tried to fill with placeholders.\u00a0 Tyler Bertuzzi<\/a> and Teuvo Teravainen<\/a> were brought in on the opening day of free agency in 2024, hoping to give Bedard a bit of a boost.\u00a0 Both have done reasonably well, though they aren\u2019t top-line players.\u00a0 They tried Andre Burakovsky<\/a> this year in the hopes that a change of scenery would give him a lift and maybe be an option for Bedard.\u00a0 That one didn\u2019t work out so well.<\/p>\n Unfortunately for the Blackhawks, free agency isn\u2019t likely to yield the solution.\u00a0 Alex Tuch<\/a> is a legitimate top-line option but he\u2019s really the only one out there.\u00a0 While it\u2019s possible that he could pick Chicago, they shouldn\u2019t be banking on that happening.\u00a0 The next-best scoring wingers are Anthony Mantha<\/a> (who has bounced around but seems likely to stay in Pittsburgh where things worked out this year) and Alex Ovechkin<\/a> (who may or may not play next season and would only play in Washington).\u00a0 Patrick Kane<\/a> isn\u2019t a viable long-term option at 37 but could be a short-term one and there would be a nostalgia element as well.\u00a0 But they should be aiming for a better fit than that.<\/p>\n This is where the consolidation trade could come into play.\u00a0 With so few options in free agency, the trade route is going to be the best way to try to fill that void.\u00a0 With the potential package outlined earlier, that should be good enough to get into the bidding war for some of those wingers and give them a good shot at getting one who could fit in at least a top-six role for the next several seasons.<\/p>\n Add Impactful Veteran Defenseman<\/p>\n In recent years, Chicago has drafted some young defensemen in the first round of the draft.\u00a0 Artyom Levshunov<\/a>, Sam Rinzel<\/a>, and Kevin Korchinski<\/a> have all seen time with the big club already with varying degrees of success.\u00a0 All three figure to be part of the long-term plans at a minimum with a chance to be big parts of their core down the road.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Alex Vlasic<\/a> and Wyatt Kaiser<\/a> are a little further along in their development with Vlasic, in particular, now established as a legitimate shutdown defender.\u00a0 They also have Ethan Del Mastro<\/a> and Louis Crevier<\/a> in the fold as younger players who have had a bit of success in the NHL already.<\/p>\n With what they have, there is the makings of a good future defense corps.\u00a0 But it\u2019s especially hard to fast-forward the development of young defenders.\u00a0 It\u2019s even harder to do with a largely inexperienced group.\u00a0 Teams can get away with that when they\u2019re rebuilding but when the time comes to flip the switch, an all-young back end probably isn\u2019t going to get the job done.<\/p>\n That makes getting an impactful veteran a necessity this summer if Davidson wants to move his group forward.\u00a0 Not someone like Connor Murphy<\/a> (who filled a useful role for many years), someone who can play on the top pairing and in all situations.\u00a0 That will take some pressure off the younger players and give them a chance to develop in slots on the depth chart that are a little better suited to their skillsets at this time.<\/p>\n The problem for the Blackhawks here is, again, there aren\u2019t a lot of options available.\u00a0 In terms of big-minute players, Jacob Trouba<\/a>, John Carlson<\/a>, and Rasmus Andersson<\/a> are pending UFAs.\u00a0 Other than maybe Andersson, none of the players ideally fit on a top pairing.\u00a0 Yes, Darren Raddysh<\/a> is out there but his track record isn\u2019t as big and until this season, his minutes had been managed relatively carefully.\u00a0 That could mean turning to the trade market again where the type of package mentioned earlier \u2013 perhaps augmented by a young roster blueliner to make the package more appealing \u2013 might be enough to bring in that type of player.<\/p>\n Davidson has swung some big moves as GM but between this need and the one up front, his biggest ones will be needed over the next couple of months.<\/p>\n Photo courtesy of Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The offseason has arrived for half of the league\u2019s teams that aren\u2019t taking part in the playoffs.\u00a0 Accordingly,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":559418,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5115],"tags":[521,37,96,5263,5,4,63047,697],"class_list":["post-559417","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-chicago-blackhawks","tag-blackhawks","tag-chicago","tag-chicago-blackhawks","tag-chicagoblackhawks","tag-hockey","tag-nhl","tag-offseason-checklist-2026","tag-pro-hockey-rumors-originals"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116467257170174265","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/559417","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=559417"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/559417\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/559418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=559417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=559417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=559417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/connor-bedard-chicago-237x300.jpg\")
<\/a>The decision not to sign early proved to be the right one for the 20-year-old.\u00a0 After seeing his point-per-game output drop in his sophomore year (though his point total increased), he bounced back this season, leading the way in scoring with 30 goals and 45 assists despite missing 13 games due to injury.\u00a0 Over a full 82-game season, that\u2019s an 89-point pace.\u00a0 Given the pedigree he had coming into the league, it\u2019s reasonable to expect that Bedard will eventually hit and surpass that mark.\u00a0 That has to be factored into what this next deal is going to cost; it won\u2019t just be about what he has done over his first three seasons.<\/p>\n