We have a GM problem

[statswatcher]

Why is it his job to provide a thesis when the GM didn't turn in his own homework assignment?

team didn't go from historically bad to drafting 14th overall this year and now we're supposed to just let people assert that doing what stanbo did and desperately holding on to a malformed roster is to be preferred over rebuilding through the draft. you're mad as hell, but you're still watching games, so clearly we haven't made it to "not gonna take it anymore".

 

[Clownish]

An absurd reaction to pointing out the GM hasn't met HIS STATED GOAL.

 

[Hawkaholic]

I love how this is the worst team and the homers still defend it bc they're suckers.

There are more effective ways to build a team than burning things down and indefinitely crossing your fingers.

I repeat, Kyle Davidsons OWN WORDS were that a repeat of last season was NOT acceptable.

Excuse me for holding someone to their own standards.

Defending what? It's a rebuild. This is how rebuilds work. You suck, usually for 3-5years, and then you get better when your prospects you drafted high, get older.

Name another team who did a rebuild differently, and was successful? No one cares what Davidson said, most people realize it's very difficult to improve much from one of the worst teams in the cap era, in one offseason.

 

[Hawkaholic]

An absurd reaction to pointing out the GM hasn't met HIS STATED GOAL.

Any one with a brain would take his words with a grain of salt. There was pretty much no way this team was going to improve in the standings, no matter who he signed this offseason.

 

[GIADF]

Defending what? It's a rebuild. This is how rebuilds work. You suck, usually for 3-5years, and then you get better when your prospects you drafted high, get older.

Name another team who did a rebuild differently, and was successful? No one cares what Davidson said, most people realize it's very difficult to improve much from one of the worst teams in the cap era, in one offseason.

Who would you consider to be successful full tear down and rebuilds?

 

[statswatcher]

An absurd reaction to pointing out the GM hasn't met HIS STATED GOAL.

typing in all caps doesn't get your point across any better. just comes across as a tantrum.

"his stated goal" (sorry, "HIS STATED GOAL") was public relations nothing speak. he didn't want to ice one of the worst teams of the cap era again this season, and so he hasn't. team is better by virtually every metric, fancy or otherwise, other than the standings. turns out it's not very hard to jump over a bar as low as "historically bad". probably why he publicly aimed for "not as bad as last year" seeing as how it would almost have been harder to not improve at all. for the most part improvement has been marginal. some of it has been stark. e.g. we do not talk nearly enough about how this team went from the sixth worst penalty kill last season to the sixth best as it stands now.

is any of this to say that kd has been particularly impressive as a gm, or that i would stick my neck out for him? no. he hasn't done anything worth being given overly much credit for so far. this is all just to say that your greivances in particular, and those of others who agree with you are ridiculous and unfounded. i suspect you are just hollering to holler, because you certainly haven't offered anything worth thinking about so far.

 

[Clownish]

That's a lot of chatter in favor of the GM for someone who isn't going to stick their neck out on his behalf. I may not yet be to the point of "not gonna take it any more" but I'll stick around to point out the silliness of Blackhawks PR wanna bees.

 

[statswatcher]

That's a lot of chatter in favor of the GM for someone who isn't going to stick their neck out on his behalf. I may not yet be to the point of "not gonna take it any more" but I'll stick around to point out the silliness of Blackhawks PR wanna bees.

you aren't "pointing out" anything at all. you are just making things up to be upset about, which is puzzling because there's plenty to be displeased with in hockey and the world at large without fabricating bullshit.

 

[Pez68]

I bet I can guess a bunch of poster's ages here just based on their posting personality.

 

[Taze em]

Hot take: Firing people for not meeting a goal one year is a great way to have a revolving door, no continuity, and no longterm success.

Bonus points if that "goal" was unspecific and longterm inconsequential.

Bonus Bone Points if under your administration you've developed a nothing prospect in to a top 2D, built an envied prospect pool, planned for and won a lottery through a bold strategy, and convinced two top UFA to sign to market-correct medium term contracts when your team is mid-tank.

 

[ColbyChaos]

I'm still really surprisred that the reigns to the rebuild of an original 6 franchise was given to a rookie GM

Were you hoping for Chiarelli or Bergevin

 

[Clownish]

I bet I can guess a bunch of poster's ages here just based on their posting personality.

Likewise!

 

[MHO]

You can also guess their ages by their username. If there's a 2 digit number, I assume it's their birthyear.

Anyway what has not been addressed is that there was a HUGE injection of talent into the NHL from the drafts between 2013 and 2016 and those players would be in their prime today. Most of those impact players are still with the teams that drafted them and the Blackhawks are still suffering because they have nobody of impact on their roster from those years other than Tyler Bertuzzi and Seth Jones. Ryan Donato maybe?

I know Davidson is doing what he can to acquire more of those players but it isn't that easy. I know he went crazy trying to sign Guentzel but he was competing with Tampa, their cup contending roster, and Florida taxes to get him. Unless we can get a couple more impact players in free agency/trades going into next year, which I think we can, next year isn't going to be a lot of fun either.

I still don't hate Davidson's plan and I want to see at least another year or 2 before I say pull the plug. The org today has a much better future than it would if they kept Kane, DeBrincat, Strome, Hagel, etc.

 

[WarriorofTime]

The Bears have poisoned a generation of Chicago sports fans to assume worst case scenario outcome. Nobody is even cheerleading like the few people keep claiming, just like "oh idk, let's wait and see".. These people aren't being realists, just being doomers. Like people are now more or less claiming riding out the 2021-22 Hawks were the way to go. Not sure how that makes any sense. They began the year 1-9-2, lol.

 

[hockeydoug]

I'm still not sure what Davidson's plan is besides "suck for picks", which isn't a plan, it's a simple order passed on from the owner.

I like lots of parts but the whole is still worth alot less than the sum of those.

How does a planned rebuild go from LR to Sorensen at this point? I like Sorensen enough to give him time (the bar was really low) but he doesn't fit anything LR was doing.

Whatever his plan was beyond the 3 syllables above, it has changed or it will have to.

 

[Chelios]

I'm still not sure what Davidson's plan is besides "suck for picks", which isn't a plan, it's a simple order passed on from the owner.

I like lots of parts but the whole is still worth alot less than the sum of those.

How does a planned rebuild go from LR to Sorensen at this point? I like Sorensen enough to give him time (the bar was really low) but he doesn't fit anything LR was doing.

Whatever his plan was beyond the 3 syllables above, it has changed or it will have to.

It boggles my mind how people are using this as a line of attack on KD. It’s pretty obvious they want to do a thorough search for their next head coach and not make a quick decision.

 

[WarriorofTime]

I'm still not sure what Davidson's plan is besides "suck for picks", which isn't a plan

It quite literally is a plan... Perhaps not the most noble, honorable or creative of plans. But "we're gonna go the Dallas Stars method" of rebuild is basically just saying "owner doesn't want to tank and risk revenue loss, so we'll just wing it and try and get lucky"

 

[GIADF]

I'm still not sure what Davidson's plan is besides

Speed and built out from the blue line.

That to me at least seemed clear when he opted for a defenseman at 2 OA who wasn't exactly the indisputable top option. Especially while knowing your franchise piece still doesn't have linemates worth shit.

 

[ColbyChaos]

Who would you consider to be successful full tear down and rebuilds?

Hawks Pens Caps that was easy all 3 teams had pfinalist teams in the 90s and all 3 made the hard choice of saying goodbye to franchise players, Bondra, Jagr x2, Coffey, Chelios, Roenick, Larmer, etc

 

[x Tame Impala]

I'm still not sure what Davidson's plan is besides "suck for picks", which isn't a plan, it's a simple order passed on from the owner.

I like lots of parts but the whole is still worth alot less than the sum of those.

How does a planned rebuild go from LR to Sorensen at this point? I like Sorensen enough to give him time (the bar was really low) but he doesn't fit anything LR was doing.

Whatever his plan was beyond the 3 syllables above, it has changed or it will have to.

What other plan are you expecting? We're still tanking obviously for this season and maybe even the next. Of course the total is less than the sum of its parts, we've got a terrible roster without most of our draft picks on it. We've got a bunch of mid-at best-level vets filling spots in the lineup until the prospects develop and can be regulars at positions of importance. We've got patchwork goaltending. We've got some previously drafted guys who aren't making a major leap either (Reichel and Kurashev).

Be excited about Bedard, Vlassic, Allan, even Kaiser. Be excited about watching Nazar play and knowing we've got Levshunov and Korchinski apparently doing well in the AHL. We've almost certainly got one of Hagens or Schaefer joining the team next year too. I think it's one more bad season after this one and then we're off to the freakin' races.

I really don't get the general negativity about this rebuild by some of you. It's going to take time. Especially on the Hawks board where some of you apparently forget that we didn't start and end our rebuild by drafting Toews and Kane in 06 & 07, then starting winning Cups.

It quite literally is a plan... Perhaps not the most noble, honorable or creative of plans. But "we're gonna go the Dallas Stars method" of rebuild is basically just saying "owner doesn't want to tank and risk revenue loss, so we'll just wing it and try and get lucky"

Not to mention, the Stars are hardly a favorite for the Cup. They're in the mix for a top 3 team in the Division and they're not better than Vegas or Edmonton. Them adding a Thomas Harley-type through the draft every now and then sounds sexy and all but it amounts to nothing when it matters. 34yo Matt Duchene is their leading scorer and he's not even at a PPG pace. Robertson is supposed to be their superstar forward and he's having an off year to say the least. Heiskanen for all the praise he gets, while a very good defenseman, isn't carrying his team to a Cup.

You almost always need franchise level players at mulitple positions if you want to win a championship. I'd rather try and to it our current way than hope to be the Dallas Stars, likely ending up way more like the Calgary Flames in the process.

 

[deytookerjaabs]

He's proven little to nothing so far, but like was said a million times that some folks just can't get: you have to see where the kids pan out and we're not there yet. Our drafting seems to be fairly well rounded as of now, some floor, some ceiling, some going for physical abilities, etc. Not just swinging for the fences or vice versa.

He did sign a coach that he fired already. He also signed some guys who are just done.

IMO he totally freaking botched the draft last year and I'm not talking about playing prospect favorites either. A well-connected GM with mountains of draft/prospect assets could have had that draft play (getting Lev & Demi) figured out before the day of. That made him look like a Rookie more than anything else, not knowing where other teams were at and scrambling. It's clear picks 3 & 4 were a lock and at 5 Montreal was over the moon with no indication Lev was second on their board. An unprotected 1st + + from a team that finished minus 1 billion at the bottom is something teams out of the top 5 would likely strongly consider just for the Hawks to get Lev.

I'm sure a more experienced GM could have pulled off some position swaps and ended up with both players. Lev was highly touted on a some scouts boards, but not on others, you have to get an inside idea where the other top draft teams are at because they really don't care about scouts not on their payroll. Not only that, our pick was known by the league before draft day. Show everyone your cards Kyle, lol.

Someone commented on the prospect board that the Lev thread is something like "the least discussed 2nd overall from an O6 team in forum history." I hope that turns out to be a good thing as Bedard has taken all the media heat.

 

[GIADF]

IMO he totally freaking botched the draft last year and I'm not talking about playing prospect favorites either.

That trade with the Islanders was a such a bizarre trade nearly a month before the draft. Gave up the 61st pick to move from 20 to 18 and 54 to 50, without having a clue who may or may not slide those 2 and 4 spots.

It's such an odd deal I'd love to know what he was thinking to even come up with that proposal for that trade to be executed on May 24th when the draft wasn't until June 28-29.

 

[deytookerjaabs]

That trade with the Islanders was a such a bizarre trade nearly a month before the draft. Gave up the 61st pick to move from 20 to 18 and 54 to 50, without having a clue who may or may not slide those 2 and 4 spots.

It's such an odd deal I'd love to know what he was thinking to even come up with that proposal for that trade to be executed on May 24th when the draft wasn't until June 28-29.

Forgot about that too, lol. Yeah it's such a crapshoot at that point in the draft that those are the moves you usually make the day of. It's almost like he was just trying to establish connections by making moves for moves' sake.

 

[Castle8130]

That trade with the Islanders was a such a bizarre trade nearly a month before the draft. Gave up the 61st pick to move from 20 to 18 and 54 to 50, without having a clue who may or may not slide those 2 and 4 spots.

It's such an odd deal I'd love to know what he was thinking to even come up with that proposal for that trade to be executed on May 24th when the draft wasn't until June 28-29.

We had too many picks. When you have too many picks, it makes it hard to keep contracts in order (there are limited contracts you can send out). Kyle was having a tough time trying to get the right value for his draft picks the year prior, he did so ahead of time in this past draft by trading the 61st oa.

We also traded 35 + 50 to move up because it made sense to do so (Hawks had Vanacker in their top 19 and were willing to part with an extra pick even if they lost theoretical value).

 

[Hawkaholic]

The thing is, every GM has hit or misses in the draft. It's about the overall body of work that will eventually make or break him, not a bad trade here and there or a bad pick here and there. No one will care about those if we are contending again in 5 or so years.