Blackhawks' new rebuild stage factored into quiet offseason for GM Kyle Davidson

CHICAGO The Blackhawks may never have had a quieter first day of free agency.

Blackhawks general manager Kyle Davidson acquired Sam Lafferty again early in the day as a depth NHL forward piece and ended the day by signing Dominic Toninato, likely a key forward piece for the Rockford IceHogs.

That was it.

Advertisement You add in Ryan Donatos four-year extension and the acquisition of Andre Burakovsky, and its been a pretty uneventful offseason for the Blackhawks.

It certainly didnt come near to matching what we once thought it could .

But to be fair, not many players who were possibilities to hit the market actually did, and the Blackhawks were also reassured of their youth rebuild process by the signings they made late season and the play they saw over the final month.

By the end of the 2024-25 season, the Blackhawks seemed to be heading in this minimal action direction .

Davidsons lack of moves was a sign that hes ready to go further with his youth movement at the NHL level.

You just project the defense, and its 32-year-old Connor Murphy with some combination of 19-year-old Artyom Levshunov, 21-year-olds Sam Rinzel and Kevin Korchinski, 22-year-olds Wyatt Kaiser, Ethan Del Mastro and Nolan Allan and 24-year-olds Alex Vlasic and Louis Crevier.

With the forwards, you could argue Davidson still hasnt gone far enough with his youth by adding Lafferty and Burakovsky to go along with other veteran forwards Donato, Nick Foligno, Jason Dickinson, Tyler Bertuzzi, Ilya Mikheyev and Teuvo Teravainen.

Thats eight forwards aged 29 or older.

But that is likely Davidson ensuring his young forwards are ready for the NHL.

Connor Bedard and Frank Nazar are the locks in that young group.

Landon Slaggert is probably there, too.

The others are less certain.

Colton Dach, Ryan Greene and Oliver Moore have a chance to be in the NHL.

Nick Lardis may surprise people, but the Blackhawks think he may need time in Rockford.

Samuel Savoie cant be that far from his NHL recall either.

Its unclear where Lukas Reichel sits with the organization.

Maybe hes with the team come training camp, maybe hes traded.

Advertisement Regardless of how the Blackhawks break camp, theyll probably get much younger as the season goes on, too.

By the trade deadline, Murphy could be gone, and the defense could be entirely made of players under 25.

Among the forwards, Foligno, Dickinson, Mikheyev and Lafferty are on expiring contracts.

Just as Davidson moved players out last year to make room for younger players, hell likely do the same this season.

Sacha Boisvert is probably on the path to sign out of college and make his NHL debut by the end of the 2025-26 season.

Davidson didnt get that far into the details of his roster plan this season, but he explained why hes gone about constructing his roster as he has and where exactly he believes the Blackhawks are in his rebuild plan.

Were heading into a new stage where were starting to see and were leaving open spots in the NHL for some of these young players that we have drafted and have developed to enter the NHL and start making up a larger or large, depending on the point of the year, portion of the roster, Davidson said on Tuesday.

So I think were seeing them graduate.

Weve seen some of them graduate to pro now well see some of them graduate into the NHL and into the NHL full time.

Thats a meaningful step from not having any of them here or just a very small subset of our draft and prospects here over the last couple of years to where were starting to see them almost take over this team a little bit and take over that locker room to some extent.

We still have a veteran-laden roster, but theres going to be a much larger contingent of young players that could be here for a very long time, breaking camp with us this year.

Thats really exciting.

I think thats a display of progress on where weve been in the past.

Its a different look for this team and I think its an eye to where were headed.

Its just an exciting step weve taken that we havent necessarily been able to reasonably expect prior to this season.

Davidson provided some clarity about his goalie pool for the coming season.

He has Spencer Knight and Drew Commesso signed, plans to re-sign Arvid Soderblom, would like to add another goalie for the AHL and was unsure where exactly Laurent Brossoits health stood for next season.

Davidson is expecting Knight and Soderblom to be the Blackhawks NHL goalies.

Commesso will be the No.

1 in Rockford.

If Brossoit is healthy, that would mean five signed goalies, but Davidson didnt think that would be an issue.

Advertisement I think its again, if we have numbers, and hopefully LBs (Brossoit) healthy and ready to go in training camp, we have a competition there and see where that goes, Davidson said.

But I think well still look to solidify things down in Rockford.

A couple different ways you can go with it, whether you go more of a prospect type, or veteran with Drew, well kind of figure that out.

But I think Drews done enough and has enough body of work that we can trust him to carry the mail down there and really take the net and run with it and take on a really good workload to further his development.

So I feel very confident and happy with our goaltending situation right now.

Obviously Spencer coming in and continuing to understand our system, and under a new coaching staff, some new defensive systems that hell be playing within.

So I think thatll be great for him to continue to get comfortable here.

Arvid, I think he can build on his season last year.

And then I think Drew is trending in a really good direction.

And then well see how LB is.

And then what else we do in Rockford over the next little while.

Davidson confirmed he has had talks with Bedard about a contract extension.

Bedard is set to become a restricted free agent after the 2025-26 season and became eligible to sign an extension as of Tuesday.

Probably dont want to get too far into it, but we are talking, Davidson said.

So I think thats an indicator of an openness to discuss.

He made his thoughts very clear at the end of the season and subsequently in other interviews, hes committed to Chicago and wants to be here long term and we obviously want him here long term, so theres mutual agreement there.

So, well see.

But if were able to get something done, that would be fantastic.

But if we dont, I think its probably more so out of the uncertainty around how the league and the system is going to be growing or impacted moving forward than anything player-team related.

Will the Blackhawks be better next season? Maybe.

If they are, its all relative.

The Blackhawks 61 points last season were better than their 52 points the season before, but they finished in 31st place both times.

Even if the Blackhawks make a similar 10-point jump next season, theyre likely still in the 30th-32nd range.

Based on what teams have done so far and potential lineups, youd have to think the Blackhawks and San Jose Sharks are projected to be at the bottom of the standings.

Which brings us to the name youll be hearing way too often for the next 11-plus months Gavin McKenna.

McKenna is the projected No.

1 pick in the 2026 NHL Draft and will likely create Bedard-like hype from now until he plays in his first NHL game.

In his 17-year-old season, he produced 41 goals and 88 assists in 56 regular-season games and another nine goals and 29 assists in 16 playoff games.

He also had a points streak that ran 54 games.

Advertisement Talking to The Athletics Corey Pronman about next years draft crop, he doesnt think McKenna is as good as Bedard was in his draft year just yet, but that conversation could change over the next year.

Whether or not he gets there, McKenna will probably be deemed another game-changing prospect for whichever team drafts him.

For the record, The Athletics Scott Wheeler believes McKenna is the real deal.

Outside of McKenna, Pronman thought the draft could stack up similarly to this year, where there werent many sure things.

Some of the players who could be in the discussion after McKenna are forwards Ivar Stenberg and Ryan Roobroeck and defensemen Keaton Verhoeff and Ryan Lin.

The Blackhawks would probably target another top-six forward.

Sternberg plays in the SHL, just as Anton Frondell does; that could be an area to watch next season.

McKenna or Stenberg on top of the Blackhawks current forward pool would probably be ideal for their rebuild.

The Blackhawks 2025-26 roster will be young, but its the 2026-27 roster that could feel like Davidson goes all in with his young players Their 2026-27 roster could look something like this (youd add in McKenna if he were drafted): Forwards Frondell Bedard Donato Lardis Nazar Bertuzzi Moore Kantserov Teravainen Slaggert Greene Savoie Burakovsky, Dach Defensemen Vlasic Rinzel Kaiser Levshunov Korchinski Del Mastro Allan, Crevier Goalies Knight Soderblom (Photo of Kyle Davidson: Chase Agnello-Dean / NHLI via Getty Images).

This article has been shared from the original article on theathleticuk, here is the link to the original article.