Another offseason has largely passed, and the Blackhawks still haven’t acquired an established first-line winger to support Connor Bedard.
A sizable portion of the Hawks’ fan base is furious. A sizable portion of the hockey world is perplexed and skeptical. Bedard, for his part, has neither publicly nor privately expressed frustration, but he would have every right to be frustrated.
Instead, general manager Kyle Davidson’s one major 2026 offseason addition is another defenseman, Bowen Byram. His six-year extension Wednesday coincided with burgeoning star winger Ivan Demidov, whom the Hawks could’ve drafted two years ago, signing a team-friendly eight-year extension with the Canadiens — a reminder of what could have been.
Bedard and Byram are friends, Bedard is excited about Byram’s arrival and Davidson believes Byram’s puck-moving skills and power-play experience will help Bedard. All of that is true.
But it’s also true that a gaping hole remains on the Hawks’ top line next to Bedard. And if incoming Russian rookie Roman Kantserov doesn’t immediately live up to sky-high expectations, there could be two gaping holes.
Davidson, asked Wednesday who he foresaw filling that hole, rattled off a list of candidates. Most notable was the order in which he listed them: first Nick Lardis, then Frank Nazar and Anton Frondell (who he previously said would be centers next season) and then Oliver Moore and Ryan Greene (who spent the most time with Bedard last season). Tyler Bertuzzi is another candidate.
“A lot of those things are trial and error,” Davidson added. “Sometimes you work in pairs rather than in threes, so you get a pair and mix and match and see what works.
“We don’t [even] know if Roman’s going to work there. We believe it will, based on the traits and…how [Kantserov and Bedard] see the game, but that’s what training camp and games are for. It’s their job to get together and find that little bit of magic. We believe it could be there, and then we’ve got a lot of other players that can be complementary.”
Davidson later reiterated his build-from-within philosophy.
“Sometimes internal growth and players just organically coming through the system isn’t the most exciting and riveting thing for people,” he said. “But when you have the players that we believe we have…it leaves a lot of exciting upside.”
To be fair, of the three star forwards who emerged in March as the most prominent possible Hawks trade targets — Jason Robertson (Stars), Matthew Knies (Maple Leafs) and Robert Thomas (Blues) — none have been traded.
Robertson’s situation remains murky, but the Stars can afford to re-sign him after trading Mavrik Bourque. The Hawks pushed for Knies, but the Leafs’ asking price proved astronomical. The Blues decided to keep Thomas and instead deal Jordan Kyrou.
There were still opportunities to upgrade the top six that Davidson passed on, though. Bourque and Kyrou, right off the bat, should’ve been intriguing. JJ Peterka and Pavel Dorofeyev should’ve been, too, although both would’ve required multiple first-round picks to acquire.
On the scarce free-agent market, Mason Marchment turned out to not be absurdly expensive ($6.75 million salary-cap hit) for the Sharks to sign.
Davidson said he’s still “looking into what’s available,” but pickings are slim. One possibility could be Anthony Mantha, a power forward coming off a career-best 64-point season with the Penguins, but he’s infamously inconsistent.
More than likely, the Hawks will enter training camp in September touting a forward group that looks remarkably similar to last season, when they ranked third-to-last in goals scored.
Can that group really improve enough to fulfill the team’s objective of pushing into playoff contention?
No analytical model will support this, but Davidson evidently believes it can. Time will tell if he’s right. There’s a lot — both for him and for the franchise — riding on the answer.