5 things we learned from Chicago Blackhawks GM Kyle Davidson before the season opener — including the roster changes

Day 1 of a fresh season usually teems with optimism, especially through the rose-colored view from the front office.

In the Chicago Blackhawks case, the preseason might have served as a red alert.

They lost five of their six exhibition games, including twice being destroyed by the Minnesota Wild.

It couldve gone better, but preseason you have to take with a grain of salt to some extent, said general manager Kyle Davidson, who spoke to reporters at Delta Center in Salt Lake City on Tuesday before the season opener against the Utah Hockey Club (9 p.m.

CT on ESPN).

You dont want to overreact.

If you had a great record, you dont want to sit on that and feel too overly optimistic.

Its about getting into the season and seeing what were dealing with.

Thatll give a more true sense of where the teams at.

The counterpoint is that the Hawks made sweeping changes to the roster , so expect to see some signs of improvement from last seasons second-to-last-place finish.

Davidson appeared more focused on enhanced execution than immediate results.

We talk a lot about how we want the team to compete, but thats a baseline, right? he said.

That needs to happen.

And then youd like to see further execution and hopefully just more wins and more productivity with the puck.

Davidson noted the Hawks start with 10 of 15 games on the road: Thats not easy.

Well get a pretty good indication of how we handle adversity, not having the last change and going into these arenas like the one were in tonight where the fans are fired up for a new season, he said.

Im optimistic how itll go and well make adjustments as we need as the season gets going.

Here are five other things we learned from Davidson on Tuesday.

Chicago Blackhawks forward Lukas Reichel holds the puck during the first day of training camp at Fifth Third Arena on Thursday, Sept.

19, 2024.

(Eileen T.

Meslar/Chicago Tribune) The forward started the season as a healthy scratch, and its fair to wonder the limits of the Hawks patience.

Last year, after a stint in Rockford, the former first-round pick looked more confident and showed some glimmer of the offensive promise he had when the Hawks drafted him at No.

17 in 2020.

But he looked stagnant during training camp despite working on his game, diet and practice habits during the offseason.

For Lukas, if hes in the lineup, its his job, and hes been around long enough to know hes got to play well enough to keep that spot, Davidson said.

If hes not in the lineup, hes got to work and get to the point where if an opportunity opens up, hes going to jump in and take advantage of it.

Blackhawks defenseman Kevin Korchinski lunges after Kings left wing Trevor Moore in the second period at the United Center on March 15, 2024.

(John J.

Kim/Chicago Tribune) The defenseman played in Chicago the entirety of his rookie season, but the Hawks have admitted it was out of necessity, not performance.

After the lessons of Kirby Dach, Adam Boqvist and others, they opted this year to send Korchinski to Rockford to let him develop properly, at his own pace, and earn his way back eventually.

Asked whether it would hurt his confidence, Davidson said, Not at all.

Thats where communication is super important, he said.

Its really key to make sure he knows what the plan is for him, how were going to work with him and what our intentions are.

When the Hawks acquired veterans such as Alec Martinez and T.J.

Brodie, the writing was on the wall for Korchinski.

Korchinski possesses natural offensive talent but often scrambles on defense.

Davidson wants him to work on all aspects of his game.

When youre a 19-year-old, one of the youngest defensemen in the NHL, its a tough league, he said.

He got some really good experience last year, but its about being able to play not the same game he played in junior but with the confidence that he played with in junior up at the pro level.

That means offensively getting up the ice, making plays.

Defensively honing in on his skills and habits to make sure that he can come up and defend, Davidson said.

With Kevin and all our defensemen, we dont want them to be specialists.

We want to play them whether were up a goal with a minute left or down a goal with a minute left and we need offense.

Chicago Blackhawks Connor Bedard, left, checks Minnesota Wilds Jonas Brodin from behind on Friday, Oct.

4, 2024, at the United Center.

(AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast) We already know coach Luke Richardson was skittish about Connor Bedard getting into a scuffle during the preseason finale, but how did Davidson feel about his young franchise player tussling with opponents especially ones bigger than him? No, no, he said with a smile.

Hopefully we can leave that up to some of the other guys.

We dont need that out of him.

Hes a fiery player, he plays with passion, and its good for people to know that hes not going to back down, Davidson said of Bedard.

Its good for his teammates to see hes not going to back down.

However, defenseman Kevin Korchinski also jumped into that fray, and like Bedard, hes not exactly a heavyweight.

We dont want any of those guys, Korchinski or (Lukas) Reichel or (Philipp) Kurashev to be dropping the gloves or mixing it up, Davidson said.

But its good for the group to see that theyre willing to jump in and kind of show that in defense of a teammate.

On Monday, Bedard thought better of his actions, too.

I definitely would lose in a fight to most guys, so Im not trying to do that, he said.

But I think just physicality is part of the game, and that goes to everyone.

Detroit Red Wings goaltender Ville Husso denies Chicago Blackhawks center Craig Smith from scoring in the first period of a preseason game at the United Center on Sept.

25, 2024.

(Chris Sweda/Chicago Tribune) Net-front presence has been an ongoing issue for the Hawks.

To boil it down, being a threat in the crease not only creates another source of goals but frees up space for mid- and long-range shooters.

Last season, the Hawks took about 2% fewer high-danger shots on goal (559) and scored about 2% worse on those chances (17.4%) than the league average, according to NHL statistics.

Their overall shooting percentage of 8.3% was also about 2% worse than the league average.

The Hawks addressed that area with the 2023 trade for Taylor Hall and Nick Foligno, and added players like Tyler Bertuzzi and Craig Smith this offseason.

But its not just about goals.

There are things in our game that we wanted to improve upon from last year, one of them being the ability to recover pucks and go into those 50-50 battles and come out with them, Davidson said.

I dont think it was specifically because they score around the net.

But having said that, versatility is good, and I dont think that was an area we were excellent at last year, outside of maybe Nick.

Chicago Blackhawks defenseman Isaak Phillips advances the puck in the second period of a preseason game against the Minnesota Wild at the United Center on Oct.

4, 2024.

(John J.

Kim/Chicago Tribune) Nolan Allan made the final cut and was set to make his NHL debut Tuesday.

His defensive partner, Phillips, was placed on waivers.

That means the Hawks risked losing a big, young blue-liner with a year left before arbitration-eligible free agency, but Phillips cleared waivers.

Wyatt Kaiser is ahead of several defensive prospects in the pecking order, and the Hawks are just waiting for him to return from an illness and see how he fares in the lineup.

Davidson said, Once Wyatts back, he can go down, Nolan can go down and Isaak can go down.

We just wanted the optionality, especially with the fact that we thought Nolan did play so well in camp that he earned a spot.

(It) just to give us more options on clearing a spot once we become fully healthy..

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