LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – APRIL 21: Jonathan Toews #19 of the
Chicago Blackhawks and Collin Delia #60 of the Chicago Blackhawks watch play during a 4-1 Los Angeles Kings win at Crypto.com Arena on April 21, 2022 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images)
Outside of a few really good young players on the Rockford Ice Hogs (they have a lot of veteran AHL players), the future of the Chicago Blackhawks is not very bright. Things have not gone well for them as they attempt to become a winning team again.
Led by Stan Bowman before this season, the Hawks have been put in a terrible place. Any good young player that they have had recently has either been rushed to the NHL too quick, traded away too soon, or some combination of both. It is honestly disgusting.
Lukas Reichel, Ian Mitchell, and Alex Vlasic are a few promising young players that the Blackhawks hope can help them in the long term. None of them, however, are superstar-level prospects. They all might turn out to be very good but a young Jonathan Toews or Patrick Kane is not there right now.
A lot of people believed that Kirby Dach could be that good. The Hawks took him third overall in the 2019 NHL Draft when they ran into some lottery luck. Unfortunately, he was the wrong pick for them to make and they rushed him into the NHL too soon. Hopefully, they can help him turn it around.
The Chicago Blackhawks do not have a very bright future right at this moment.
Alex DeBrincat is a younger guy to be excited about. There is one major problem with him though. He has one year left on his current team-friendly deal before he is due for a huge pay raise. There is a good chance that his contract is 8 million or more based on his recent production.
DeBrincat is a player that can drive his own line but he makes most of his money by scoring his own goals. Yes, it is nice to play with a playmaker like Kane but he can also do things on his own. The only problem is that nobody knows what his own playmaking ability can fully become which makes him hard to evaluate in terms of his next contract.
Kyle Davidson has been pretty transparent in saying that he believes this team is in need of a rebuild. The problem is that it means nothing unless he acts on those words. There are a lot of moves that need to be made in order for this team to rebuild properly.
We don’t know what the future of Toews and Kane is but they only have next year on their deal. Losing them certainly won’t make the team better on the ice. However, if they can get assets for them, they need to consider it. Davidson needs to treat this like a business.
The Blackhawks did not win the 2022 NHL Draft Lottery or come in second. That means that their first-round pick goes to the Columbus Blue Jackets per the conditions of the Seth Jones trade that they made last summer.
It also means that they won’t have a first-round selection unless the Minnesota Wild make it all the way to the Western Conference Finals with Marc-Andre Fleury getting half of the wins. That is not a good spot for a team as bad as the Blackhawks.
The future is not very bright right now but it doesn’t have to stay that way. They could make some good moves this summer that turn the tides. They are also going to be very bad in 2022-23 which could lead to some more lottery luck. You never know what happens from there.
