The Brief<\/p>\n
The NHL Draft Lottery has the Blackhawks selecting fourth overall in the 2026 NHL Draft.<\/p>\n
It’s the fourth year in a row the ‘Hawks will have a top-five pick.<\/p>\n
The Blackhawks will have options, and GM Kyle Davidson was asked about both.<\/p>\n
For the fourth-straight NHL Draft, the Chicago Blackhawks will be using a top-four selection.<\/p>\n
The NHL Draft Lottery gave the \u2018Hawks the fourth-overall pick in the 2026 NHL Draft. This comes after picking third in 2025, second in 2024 and first in 2023.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not a shock to Blackhawks\u2019 general manager Kyle Davidson. He said the odds made it likely his team would be picking either third or fourth in the draft.<\/p>\n
“We\u2019re going to get a player that we absolutely love,” Davidson said after the lottery ended.<\/p>\n
There are options, however.<\/p>\n
Davidson is confident he\u2019ll take the right player. He could also acquire the right player, too.<\/p>\n
What they’re saying<\/p>\n
The Blackhawks’ earning the fourth selection was a bit of a worst-case scenario. Chicago finished second-to-last in the league, right in front of the Vancouver Canucks.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s a top-five pick. That\u2019s also two selection spots lower than the \u2018Hawks wanted.<\/p>\n
At third overall, the Blackhawks might have had a chance to take one of the two wingers: Swedish skater Ivar Stenberg or Penn State product Gavin McKenna. Now, it\u2019s likely that neither one of those players will be available.<\/p>\n
This stings because both Stenberg and McKenna would be perfect additions to pair next to Connor Bedard. Stenberg would be a player who’s been scouted as a player who can create offense anywhere on the ice, even away from the puck. Missing one of those players stings. Missing both is a tough pill to swallow.<\/p>\n
However, Davidson expected this with the numbers saying Chicago had a 40 percent chance to earn the fourth pick. His strategy remains the same. It\u2019s been the same for each of the few drafts that he\u2019s overseen.<\/p>\n
“We\u2019re going to take the best player available,” he said. “And then, figure out the reserve list after that. It\u2019s all about accumulating talent.”<\/p>\n
This is true for Chicago. The Blackhawks already have one of the youngest cores of defensemen in the NHL, highlighted by 20-year-old and 2024 second-overall pick Artyom Levshunov. Seven of the Blackhawks\u2019 defensemen are 24-years-old or younger.<\/p>\n
Even then, Davidson didn\u2019t rule out taking a defenseman. If the Blackhawks see a defenseman as the best player available, they\u2019ll take that player.<\/p>\n
It would make sense for the Blackhawks to add to their offense, though. The team finished 30th of 32 NHL teams in goals scored.\u00a0<\/p>\n
With that in mind, the Blackhawks could have their eye on forwards Caleb Malhotra, defenseman Alberts Smits or defenseman Keaton Verhoeff at No. 4 overall.<\/p>\n
But, taking the best player available means the Blackhawks will create competition. That competition leads to finding the best players on the roster, and that\u2019s what the end game is.<\/p>\n
“We want to be the best team we can be,” Davidson said.<\/p>\n
The other side<\/p>\n
There is a way to acquire a player who will help the Blackhawks right away. The team could trade the fourth-overall pick to a team that wants to kickstart a rebuild or is eyeing a player they want.<\/p>\n
Swinging that pick for a player who will immediately boost the offense would make sense. Davidson did bluntly say that he\u2019s open to discussions to trade that pick.<\/p>\n
However, that\u2019s not realistic in Davidson\u2019s mind.<\/p>\n
“I\u2019m open to talking to anyone about anything,” Davidson said. “It\u2019s pretty rare those kinds of picks are traded.”<\/p>\n
He\u2019s right. Most first-round picks that have been traded in the last handful of seasons have included conditions and protections. Most picks in the 2026 NHL Draft that were traded had top-10 protections. Teams place a high value on top-10 selections.<\/p>\n
Chicago knows this. One of the most notable times a player was traded for a top-10 selection was when the Blackhawks traded Alex DeBrincat to Ottawa for the seventh-overall selection in the 2023 NHL Draft.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s to say the team is expecting to sit at No. 4 and make a selection. Not that it won\u2019t change later on, but the Blackhawks would need the right offer and it remains to be seen if any team in the NHL is considering moving a player who is productive enough to be worth the fourth selection of the draft.<\/p>\n
The team will listen, though.<\/p>\n
“I\u2019m always open to whatever,” Davidson said. “You have to be open to anything and consider it.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Brief The NHL Draft Lottery has the Blackhawks selecting fourth overall in the 2026 NHL Draft. It’s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":568583,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5115],"tags":[7167,7704,521,37,96,5263,5,859,4,591,1404],"class_list":["post-568582","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-chicago-blackhawks","tag-2023-nhl-draft","tag-2026-nhl-draft","tag-blackhawks","tag-chicago","tag-chicago-blackhawks","tag-chicagoblackhawks","tag-hockey","tag-kyle-davidson","tag-nhl","tag-nhl-draft-lottery","tag-pick"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116529817508689296","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568582","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=568582"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568582\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/568583"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=568582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=568582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=568582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}