Kyle Davidson on Blackhawks’ rebuild: ‘It’s time to take a step forward’

Kyle Davidson has preached patience throughout his tenure as Blackhawks general manager, and he spent about 10 minutes reemphasizing that Saturday after the Hawks’ end-of-season interviews.

For the first time, however, Davidson stated he’s ready to help the Hawks begin slowly ascending.

“It’s time to take a step forward,” Davidson said. “[In 2022-23], we finished third-last. This year, we finished second-last. That can’t happen again. We need to start moving up and onward.”

If things go according to plan, this pitiful season — during which the Hawks set franchise records with 53 regulation losses and 59 total losses — should represent rock bottom, record-wise.

Saturday’s talking points didn’t reflect any sort of departure from Davidson’s long-established plan, but the GM made it clear he believes the tearing-down stage of the rebuild is complete. Now, the gradual building-up stage can begin.

Next season will mark the first of the Davidson era with any sort of pre-established expectations for the team to meet. Those expectations won’t include contending for a playoff spot; Davidson admitted that’s not realistic yet. But a reasonable guess is that those expectations will include winning at least 30 games or so, although Davidson didn’t offer anything quite that specific.

“It’s probably really hard to put a pinpoint on, but there needs to be a progression,” he said. “I don’t know how many points or standing slots that is, but we can’t finish second-last in the league

“The standard has to be raised. The expectation has to be raised. Through that, accountability will be raised. That’s the nature of the path we’re on. Eventually, we have to start making positive steps, and I think we’ve reached that point.”

Coach Luke Richardson said Davidson and the rest of the front office assured him they plan to be active in free agency this coming offseason, supporting the Hawks’ incoming generation of prospects — who will gradually graduate from the league’s deepest prospect pool into the league itself — with proven talent.

They don’t know yet exactly which pending free agents will hit the open market, and they don’t know which will be willing to sign with a rebuilding team. They’ll also be shy about making long-term contract commitments; Davidson’s love for salary-cap flexibility hasn’t changed. A signing from the Jake Guentzel-Sam Reinhart tier is unlikely. But they will be active.

One particular item on Richardson’s wish list is another top-six forward to potentially play alongside Connor Bedard, even though Taylor Hall’s return should also help with that.

“Adding to that role on that top line, that would be great for our organization,” Richardson said. “I’m sure that’s on the list for July.”

The Hawks could look for another top-four defenseman to join Seth Jones, Alex Vlasic, Connor Murphy and Kevin Korchinski, as well. Granted, that’s four guys right there, but another Davidson talking point Saturday was increased competition for roles next season.

“No one’s going to walk in here, next fall, anointed a spot,” Davidson said. “They’ve got to come earn it. They got to come take it. And that’s part of the resetting of this.”

Another part of the resetting involves letting many of the placeholders who populated this season’s subpar roster walk away as free agents, freeing up the spots for which the influx of summer additions and prospects can compete.

Davidson said there weren’t any especially difficult conversations Saturday because the Hawks haven’t fully made up their minds on who won’t return. Nonetheless, it wouldn’t be surprising if Tyler Johnson, Colin Blackwell, Taylor Raddysh, MacKenzie Entwistle, Reese Johnson, Nikita Zaitsev, Jarred Tinordi and Jaycob Megna have all played their final games as Hawks.

Johnson, for one, made his departure quite obvious Saturday. The veteran forward, who tallied 17 goals and 14 assists this past season, described his three-year Chicago tenure as “not exactly what I had envisioned or wanted.”