Brown: Hate it or Love It, Kyle Davidson Has a Sensible Plan for the Blackhawks

Ask a random Blackhawks fan about Kyle Davidson, and you’ll get a variety of answers. There are those who cannot stand what he’s doing, and others who agree with his vision.

This is hardly unlike any other fanbase of the other 31 teams. Even Detroit has its detractors of Steve Yzerman, who is a franchise icon.

But like Yzerman, Davidson is playing the long game with what he has in the present. The plans he laid out for 2023-24 blew up from what was intended–with Taylor Hall playing just 10 games before being shut down, Corey Perry having his contract terminated, and a slew of other injuries decimating the roster.

Even Connor Bedard missed time, which all but neutered the Blackhawks offense. Add in an eight-game and seven-game losing streak along with a 22-game road skid and it makes for an unbearable season.

Davidson admits it, too.

“I think with where we’re at in our trajectory, we are in that development stage, right?” Davidson said.  “We’re looking for growth and giving experience to players and yeah, there have been some rough stretches and you don’t use injuries as an excuse.”

He continued: “Having said that, this has been a pretty unprecedented run that we’ve experienced in the middle of the season with injuries where we’re not the deepest team, given where we’re at in the rebuild and kind of building things back up. When you lose as many players as we did, it’s really hard to overcome that. but through those stretches, even though the wins weren’t there, a lot of nights we played really close games with some really good teams.”

They did–and if they can do that, it’s good news for next season.

Davidson Knows Patience Only Lasts So Long

Kyle Davidson realizes he can’t go through a season like this again. But he also can’t do quick-fix moves to try and hurry something along that does need to have some patience in the process. Chicago’s cap space might be significant but Davidson admitted that it can be spent rather quickly when going on a shopping spree.

But what about bringing in a bonafide scorer to flank Bedard? Well, that’s not as easy as it sounds.

“If you’re looking long-term at some pretty good players, normally their teams do everything they can to lock them up and there’s still a considerable amount of time to do that,” Davidson said. “I don’t know if we’ll be in the long-term game. We’ll kind of evaluate that when we get there and see where we’re at in a couple of months. But we’ll again, as we did last year and maybe more so this year, we’ll look to probably explore free agency and see. It’s all about what’s there, too, right?”

Translation: The days of a Marian Hossa caliber player being available are long gone. And Davidson’s right. The hardest challenge presenting itself to the Blackhawks is that they chose to strip it all the way down. Winning the lottery sped Davidson’s plan up significantly because a player like Bedard is labeled generational for a reason. Bedard, Kevin Korchinski, and Alex Vlasic–who has been a bonus piece–give the Blackhawks a significant head start.

But it doesn’t guarantee anything, either.

“It’s kind of a situation that’s lacking some information right now so we’ll see who’s available in free agency and go from there,” Davidson continued.  “But it’s something we’re willing to explore and kind of dip into if it’s advantageous to us. But we also have to be mindful of where we are in this process as well and not do anything to harm the long-term.”

It’s the final point that’s the most important.

Cap Frugality Will Give Kyle Davidson An Advantage Down the Road

It’s understandable that some fans are impatient with the process. After all, the Chicago sports scene has been a wasteland for years now. So the idea that the Blackhawks have a generational player and this is the season they get can cloud the optimism of even the most loyal fan.

But there are the cautionary tales around the league of teams who leapt before they looked, and painted themselves into a corner financially. Some still won. Most lost. So Davidson prioritizing financial responsibility should be the one thing fans appreciate most. Bedard and Korchinski will be up for a new deal two years from now. Vlasic’s expires after this season.

Knowing that more young talent will be coming through, and Davidson will need to go outside the organization to find the veterans that can produce at a high clip, it won’t come cheap.

So while this season has been painful on a number of levels, the frugality he’s showing now should reap bountiful dividends later on in the way of sustained success–and hopefully multiple Cups.

But in order for that to happen, there needs to be a calm and measured approach that surveys things rationally.

“You don’t want to make a jump too soon and then limit your ceiling on what you can be or sign something too early and then want to try and move it later on,” Davidson said.  “We just want to be careful of how we spend our money because it’s a really hard thing to get that flexibility in this league once you don’t have it anymore. So we’ll be reluctant to give that up until it really makes sense.”

That answer, of course, is subjective. Should the Blackhawks win the lottery again, and get Mack Celebrini, well, Danny Wirtz will likely tell Davidson to do what he needs to. Even then, it’s unlikely that the Hawks GM would go on a spending spree that would cause Gordon Gekko to pause.

The plan Davidson had–and has stuck to from the beginning of his tenure–continues to work. For sure, it’s been painful and has been bumpy at times.

But the short term pain holds promise to be long term gain. Hate it or love it, Kyle Davidson has earned the benefit of the doubt with the trades he’s made and the promising prospect pool he’s cobbled together.

Now we’ll see how he handles the rest.

Follow Chicago Hockey Now on Facebook and Twitter

Follow Nate on Twitter