The Blackhawks‘ old guard is long gone. The Hawks’ placeholder veterans of recent years are now mostly gone, too, following the trade deadline.
The kids run this team now.
“It’s their locker room now,” general manager Kyle Davidson said Friday. “It’s time for them to take over and say what needs to be said, when it needs to happen.”
This week, Davidson did something historically unprecedented by trading all three official members of the Hawks’ leadership group: Nick Foligno, Connor Murphy and Jason Dickinson.
And it wasn’t even surprising. All three were pending free agents who saw their exits coming well in advance. This was always the plan.
For the portion of the fan base fed up with the excruciating slowness of this now four-year-long rebuild, this is the moment they ought to start paying attention again.
The young generation the Hawks have spent all this time gathering — which Davidson believes will carry the franchise back to glory — is now assembling in the NHL. That process was already underway, but it feels like a new chapter officially began this week.
“I don’t fear for the lack of leadership,” Davidson said. “I think it’s there. It’s just going to come in a different form now. I’m excited for a lot of those young guys to find that voice.”
That generation will of course be led by Connor Bedard, who will take over as an alternate captain (along with veteran Tyler Bertuzzi) for the rest of this season and will likely be named permanent captain next season.
“Coming into this season, we obviously saw [Bedard’s] play, but his voice and ability to command that room…really took a step forward,” Davidson said. “You feel it when you’re around him. You see it when the group is just hanging out around the rink or on the road. He’s a guy who people gravitate toward, and I believe he’ll continue to grow in that respect and find his own leadership style.”
The other bricks are starting to be put in place around Bedard, as well. Frank Nazar, Oliver Moore and Ryan Greene were already here. Anton Frondell will arrive later this month. Roman Kantserov and Nick Lardis should be full-time NHL players next season.
Davidson said the Blackhawks will test out several young players in the 3C role now that Dickinson is gone.
Moore and Greene obviously will be two of them.
— Ben Pope (@BenPopeCST) March 6, 2026
Some prospects within the group of Sacha Boisvert, AJ Spellacy, Marek Vanacker, Vaclav Nestrasil, John Mustard, Jack Pridham, Mason West and more should also end up hitting, even though not all will.
The Hawks do still have some veteran forwards left — Bertuzzi, Ryan Donato, Teuvo Teravainen, Andre Burakovsky and Ilya Mikheyev (the one notable pending UFA not dealt Friday) — but their days are all numbered to various degrees.
Eventually, the Hawks’ forward group will resemble their current defensive group, which now features just one player older than 24.
On the right side, Murphy’s departure leaves the trio of Louis Crevier, Artyom Levshunov and Sam Rinzel. On the left, Alex Vlasic and Wyatt Kaiser are poised to become the vocal leaders of the back end.
“I definitely don’t want to come across as somebody who’s just stepping up because…Murphy leaves,” Vlasic said this week. “But I’m going to pick my spots and try to figure out how to help lead this team with what I do know.”
Davidson did shift his tone slightly Friday in regards to using his massive stash of picks and prospects to trade for established NHL players.
He clarified that’s exclusively a “down-the-road” idea but rather something they’ve already explored and attempted. Blues star Robert Thomas, who didn’t end up moving Friday, is one option they objectively should consider, for example.
“I would hope and expect, in the future, to add and inject more talent,” Davidson said.
“But we can only deal with what we know, and we know all these players coming up. We believe…wholeheartedly, not just with rose-colored glasses, that they can get us to where we want to go.”