Getty The Chicago Blackhawks will stick to the original plan and not move the needle so much.
If you’re into conspiracy theories, this Chicago Blackhawks story is not for you.
The Blackhawks and the New York Islanders completed a unique trade on Friday, May 24, more than a month before the NHL draft, in which they swapped (among other sweeteners) their upcoming first-round picks.
The rare nature of the trade, which came too soon made most fans and insiders think something else must be coming after that transaction, surprised everybody. Welp, how wrong they were.
Friday moves ↔
Blackhawks GM Kyle Davidson, speaking from the NHL combine event at Buffalo on June 3, via Phil Thompson of the Chicago Tribune, revealed that swapping the No. 20 pick for the No. 18 doesn’t mean the team is crafting a grand plan beyond that in the shadows. That was never the case.
“It’s actually been kind of funny to watch all the discourse around that trade,” Davidson said. “It’s been hilarious, actually.
“To us, it was just our internal information that indicated that it was an improvement in value, and so we did it. You’re correct, a second(-rounder), no matter how late a pick, is not nothing. Having said that, we do have a lot of picks. We just felt that the picks we’re receiving have a better asset value package than the ones we were sending out.
“Honestly, it was that simple. It’s not a precursor or anything. It’s not a first domino to fall. It was interesting reading all the theories on what the next move was going to be.”
Blackhawks Rebuilding Throughout the NHL Draft
Davidson took over Chicago’s GM position ahead of the 2022 offseason in May of that year. He has accumulated a treasure trove of draft picks since then, and he’s already reaped some rewards.
Most prominently, the Blackhawks won the lottery in 2023 allowing them to draft generational talent Connor Bedard with the No. 1 pick in that draft. Oliver Moore followed Bedard as the Hawks drafted him with the No. 19 in that same event. A year earlier, in 2022, they drafted Kevin Korchinski, Frank Nazar, and Sam Rinzel with their three first-round picks.
After the May 24 trade, the Blackhawks have four selections in the top 50 of the 2024 draft: two first-round picks (No. 2 and No. 18) and two second-round picks (No. 34 and No. 50).
No Consensus Best-Available Player for Blackhawks at No. 2
The trade between Chicago and New York in late May wasn’t completed with a particular player in mind, mostly because of the volatile nature of the draft past the first few picks of the first round, according to Davidson.
“It wasn’t really done with players in mind. It was just strictly, in our opinion, we were more likely to improve our chances of finding legit NHL players at 18 and 50 than (at) 20, 54, and 61,” Davidson said at the NHL combine. “You never know how the drafts are going to go.”
With the San Jose Sharks locked into drafting the consensus-best prospect Macklin Celebrini with the No. 1 pick, the “real draft” will start when the Blackhawks make their selection with the No. 2 pick.
According to Corey Pronman of The Athletic, in his most recent mock draft (published on June 5), the Blackhawks will select Belarusian defender Artyom Levshunov.
“This may be the biggest decision point in the draft,” Pronman wrote. “If it’s down to Levshunov versus one of the players in Russia in Ivan Demidov or Anton Silayev, I think a lot of NHL teams will lean toward the big defenseman they’ve seen live a bunch and who has played at a high level for two years, unless they think the Russian is clearly superior.”
Fellow draft expert Scott Wheeler, also of The Athletic, thinks the Blackhawks should pick Russian forward Ivan Demidov.
“I love Levshunov, and he’d be a great pick,” Wheeler wrote. “I still think it should probably be Demidov, though. It is so, so hard to find first-line forwards with point-per-game potential. Finding two in the same birth year with Connor Bedard and Demidov could change everything for the ceiling of that team.”
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