The Hawks haven\u2019t made any notable postseason noise since that fabled summer day. A fall was bound to happen, as Kane \u2014 now with the Detroit Red Wings \u2014 put it back in November<\/a>.<\/p>\n That fall ended up being harder than the franchise would\u2019ve liked. More than a decade later, the Hawks find themselves still in recovery mode.<\/p>\n General manager Kyle Davidson, upon being handed the keys full time in March 2022, made the decision to leave the past behind and rebuild. Now headed toward his fifth full season in charge and first with a new contract extension<\/a>, how far along are the Hawks?<\/p>\n Past the starting point, but they need to show more than that in the 2026-27 season.<\/p>\n This past season was a step forward \u2014 an 11-point increase from 2024-25<\/a>. It deserves to be noted, and Davidson did just that during exit interviews.<\/p>\n \u201cI was quite happy with how our season went,\u201d he said. \u201cI think we took some really nice steps forward. A lot of experience for young players, some nice steps forward in their style of play.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s really exciting to see these young players get experience, understand what the league is, take that information into the offseason and use that as motivation to grow over the summer and come back hungry to start next year.\u201d<\/p>\n A focus on building talent through the draft brings with it the trials and errors of youth. We saw a fair share of both from the 2025-26 Hawks.<\/p>\n Ryan Greene\u2019s ice vision has validated his top-line status, while Oliver Moore\u2019s speed can contend with any skater on the ice. There also are question marks. Artyom Levshunov<\/a> didn\u2019t have the best rookie season, and Kevin Korchinski<\/a> has yet to prove he can be a consistent NHL defenseman.<\/p>\n The Hawks had some ugly showings. A 9-3 shellacking in Buffalo<\/a>. A 4-0 loss in Columbus<\/a> before the Olympic break. A 7-2 home loss to a Carolina Hurricanes team<\/a> filled with call-ups from the Chicago Wolves.<\/p>\n The explanation was that the team is young \u2014 and still will be in 2026-27 \u2014 and the players have to grow from these experiences and be content with that learning wavelength. It\u2019s reasonable for now, but the Hawks can\u2019t keep recycling the same explanation after every bad loss.<\/p>\n Comparison is the enemy of progress, but it\u2019s hard to overlook what the Montreal Canadiens have accomplished with a similarly youthful group. The Habs went 48-24-10 in 2025-26 and made the playoffs for the second year in a row, a stark improvement from their 22-49-11 record in 2021-22. Their roster that season was the 17th-oldest in the league; this season they had the second-youngest roster, led by rookie Ivan Demidov, 20, and 51-goal scorer Cole Caufield, 25.<\/p>\n The Hawks already had an experienced team in 2022-23, Davidson\u2019 first full season in charge, but tried adding different veterans to make up for the departures of Kane and Jonathan Toews and to help season Connor Bedard, the No. 1 draft pick in 2023. Then they switched gears and became the league\u2019s youngest team in 2025-26. They\u2019ve finished in the bottom four of the NHL in each of the last four seasons.<\/p>\n That\u2019s not the plan for next season.<\/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 He added that he would have to see how the next season plays out to make a determination on the progress of the rebuild. What\u2019s the plan if the Hawks do indeed finish with a top-three pick again while healthy? We don\u2019t know, and that\u2019s worrisome in itself.<\/p>\n If nothing else, Bedard\u2019s play is enough to look forward to as he aims to play a full season in 2026-27. There\u2019s not much extra to say about his skill outside of oohs and aahs \u2014 he finished with a career-high 75 points despite suffering a separated shoulder in December and missing 12 games. Not only is he expected to take another step forward in his game, but he might be doing it with a captain\u2019s patch<\/a>.<\/p>\n Bedard, 20, hasn\u2019t shown any outward displeasure with the team\u2019s progress and is optimistic a contract extension will get done this summer. He and the rest of the players are fully on board for the next steps in Davidson\u2019s rebuilding plan.<\/p>\n Whether that\u2019s youth talking or genuine determination is up in the air. One thing that\u2019s certain is losing takes a toll \u2014 Quinn Hughes would tell you that<\/a> \u2014 and the Hawks have \u201csucceeded\u201d in that department. In Davidson\u2019s four full seasons as the full-time GM, the Hawks have gone 103-187-38, and they haven\u2019t won 30 or more games since the 2019-20 season.<\/p>\n Will the players continue to share the patience that Davidson, coach Jeff Blashill and the rest of the Hawks higher-ups have? They believe so.<\/p>\n \u201cI expect the players to want to win every night,\u201d Hawks Chairman and CEO Danny Wirtz said. \u201cThey want to win the Stanley Cup (in) Game 1 of the season, (and) that\u2019s what we love about them.<\/p>\n \u201cSo much of this is going to be predicated on these players finding those ways to win, in their own game and in the team game. They will take the positives and continue to build over summer. The players are the least of my concerns.\u201d<\/p>\n In exit interviews, most players expressed determination to flip the script and make the playoffs in 2027. That would snap a six-year drought and bring playoff hockey back to the United Center for the first time since 2017 (the 2020 playoffs were played in \u201cbubbles\u201d in Toronto and Edmonton because of COVID-19).<\/p>\n Blashill and Davidson didn\u2019t exactly jump at the idea. Blashill said, \u201cWe\u2019ll see\u201d<\/a>, while Davidson said it would be a \u201cmajor step\u201d<\/a>. Doesn\u2019t sound like the players and management are exactly on the same page.<\/p>\n The Hawks don\u2019t need to make the postseason to label 2026-27 as progress. They\u2019ll likely have long odds against qualifying for the playoffs, so no one is expecting a massive jump to Stanley Cup contention. What fans need to see is a light down the tunnel \u2014 and how far away it is.<\/p>\n The Hawks\u2019 loss to the Edmonton Oilers on April 2 eliminated them from playoff contention with six games to go. They left Rogers Place with a five-game losing streak that suggested they were further from postseason hockey than even their record said. At minimum, playing meaningful games in April \u2014 like the San Jose Sharks and New York Islanders did this year \u2014 would be something to look forward to.<\/p>\n Goaltender Spencer Knight was one player who vaguely echoed his coach\u2019s and GM\u2019s view. He wants to win again \u2014 he won a Stanley Cup with the Florida Panthers in 2024 \u2014 but thinks the Hawks need to learn how to win first.<\/p>\n \u201cIt can be frustrating at times when we\u2019re just losing games \u2014 everyone feels that \u2014 but I think it\u2019s a good thing to feel that because it means we\u2019re not complacent,\u201d Knight said. \u201cIt\u2019s a privilege to be in close games. You want to win every game, but you\u2019ve just got 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 the most important thing, and wins are probably a byproduct of that.\u201d<\/p>\n The Hawks youngsters will look to take that next step in their games in an attempt to put wins together. It\u2019s OK to call this past season one of adaptation for Davidson, Blashill and the team, but now it\u2019s time to see the players begin to apply those lessons on the ice.<\/p>\n Maybe the Hawks need a few more seasons to do that, but the NHL won\u2019t be waiting around for them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The date was June 15, 2015, when the Chicago Blackhawks put an exclamation point on their modern dynasty.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":561630,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5115],"tags":[683,495,521,37,96,5263,508,5,3140,1562,859,4,465,60,857,104],"class_list":{"0":"post-561629","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago-blackhawks","8":"tag-anton-frondell","9":"tag-artyom-levshunov","10":"tag-blackhawks","11":"tag-chicago","12":"tag-chicago-blackhawks","13":"tag-chicagoblackhawks","14":"tag-connor-bedard","15":"tag-hockey","16":"tag-jeff-blashill","17":"tag-kevin-korchinski","18":"tag-kyle-davidson","19":"tag-nhl","20":"tag-nhl-draft","21":"tag-nhl-playoffs","22":"tag-oliver-moore","23":"tag-stanley-cup-playoffs"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116482180230201049","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561629","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=561629"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561629\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/561630"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=561629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=561629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=561629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Blackhawks](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/CTC-L-BLACKHAWKS_24dc09-e1777316844596.jpg\")
Blackhawks general manager Kyle Davidson arrives for a game against the Islanders on March 24, 2026, in Elmont, N.Y. (Bruce Bennett\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n![\"Blackhawks](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/CTC-L-blackhawks-sharks007_2dfe33.jpg\")
Blackhawks center Connor Bedard battles Sharks defenseman Luca Cagnoni along the boards April 15, 2026, at the United Center. (Chris Sweda\/Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n