We Have A Gm Problem

[Toews2Bickell]

nah this isnt the take. I was fine being bad the year before Bedsy, fine being bad to get Bedsy, was fine being bad last yr. I am done being ok chasing last place in yr 5. He will now have had 4 straight yrs of high picks and lots of top 50 shots. Its time to start moving up

NHL rebuilds take forever, maybe a couple players from an entire draft class play in the NHL the year they're drafted, and its still probably a very small % the year after...just the way it is, doesn't mean that its wrong to go through a rebuild, it just takes a long time which is fine as long as you do it right it should be worth it

 

[Toews2Bickell]

anyone complaining about the rebuild didn't watch the last two to four weeks of the season...if the calgary flames aren't your vibe maybe consider the nashville predators

 

[WarriorofTime]

Draft picks are still a few years out from being judge able, but KD has had an enormous amount of draft capital and it’d be hard not to have hit on a lot of them. The real issue with this rebuild is the players he has acquired by trade and ufa signings. Lets take a look at the actual significant NHL players ins and outs;

Ins

Ilya Mikheyev
Jason Dickinson
Tyler Bertuzzi
Teuvo Teravainen
Taylor Hall (2 years)
Max Domi (1 year)
Nick Foligno
Ryan Donato (possible resigning)
Spencer Knight

Outs

Kirby Dach
Dylan Strome
Alex Debrincat
Seth Jones
Jake Mccabe
Brandon Hagel

All the “Outs” players have been great top 6 top 4 players for their respective new teams. All the “ins” players have been more depth pieces, with Ryan Donato and Spencer Knight being the clear top players.

If you look at the "out" list, you can rewind and see what it looked like. Hawks could have tried to run the 2021-22 team to its natural conclusion, but end result is likely back to tank for McKenna with a much weaker prospect pool from the last few years.

Remember, Bowman's Last Hurrah/Rocky's Dying Wish. That had all those players you mentioned. That team started 1-9-2, sinking any sort of viability of them as any sort of future threat. Doesn't mean they were all terrible players hence why they have some value for their new teams, it is after all a limited number of NHL teams and margins are relatively tight. Just was clear as day they weren't good enough. Had they ridden it out, probably multiple 6th-9th worst teams in the League type of seasons, maybe if everything comes together perfectly they can sneak into a postseason and get unceremoniously clobbered out.

Point is can't really look at Hawks having a net negative player flow right now and conclude too much out of it. That was literally the purpose. They were blowing up a mediocre team, not trying to re-tool it. That means making yourself a lot worse the next 3 years, but with the hope to convert that into a great prospect pool which you hope in turn converts to a strong pool of young players and then in turn converts to a future contending team. Nobody knows if the rebuild will ultimately "work", but I can very confidently say riding out the 2021-22 team forever was NOT going to work in any meaningful way.

 

[ColbyChaos]

nah this isnt the take. I was fine being bad the year before Bedsy, fine being bad to get Bedsy, was fine being bad last yr. I am done being ok chasing last place in yr 5. He will now have had 4 straight yrs of high picks and lots of top 50 shots. Its time to start moving up

You weren’t though, and unlike other sports it takes time for drafted players who are only 18 (unlike other sports where you are getting college graduates) to enter the league. Not sure how you don’t understand this after watching bowman rush Kirby Dach and alter his career. The majority of the 2023 draft isn’t even established in the league yet and that is just the first rounders from that class. Only one second round pick that year has even played a game.

 

[Toews2Bickell]

You weren’t though, and unlike other sports it takes time for drafted players who are only 18 (unlike other sports where you are getting college graduates) to enter the league. Not sure how you don’t understand this after watching bowman rush Kirby Dach and alter his career. The majority of the 2023 draft isn’t even established in the league yet and that is just the first rounders from that class. Only one second round pick that year has even played a game.

there is no reasoning with the failed rebuild crowd...its circa 2013 for Theo Epstein when he kept flipping established guys for more prospects like Smarzidja for Russell and people were pissed about it...people will not see it until its there in front of them, it should've been obvious the rebuild is turning at the end of the year when Rinzel was logging 28 a night and Nazar was playing at a 40 goal pace over his last 10-15 but apparently its not enough to sway the rebuild doubters

 

[PatFoleyBarTab88]

After yesterday's trade and press conference, when can we start discussing the possibility we have a GM who is not cut out for this role? It is seemingly more and more likely KD lucked into Bedard, but hasn't really done anything to warrant praise outside of that.

I don't trust KD at all and I think the Blashill hire was not ideal and am concerned with how he projected this years team to be a wildcard team and Sorenson was mostly a disaster but I think 25-26 will be the first year where we can truly judge KD. If there's no progress and there is no improvement in 5-on-5 play, he needs to go.

I think what we can all agree on is that the Blackhawks have a regime twitter problem. The insufferable KD sycophants/worshippers become more and more intolerable every day. The degree of brainrot needed to believe that Nick Lardis will magically put Chicago in the playoffs next year....

 

[StreetHawk]

Point is can't really look at Hawks having a net negative player flow right now and conclude too much out of it. That was literally the purpose. They were blowing up a mediocre team, not trying to re-tool it. That means making yourself a lot worse the next 3 years, but with the hope to convert that into a great prospect pool which you hope in turn converts to a strong pool of young players and then in turn converts to a future contending team. Nobody knows if the rebuild will ultimately "work", but I can very confidently say riding out the 2021-22 team forever was NOT going to work in any meaningful way.

Hawks do need to make other moves like trades/signings to move things along. Can't just sit and wait for the kids to develop. Plus, need better vets to help them along the way.

Davidson has tied his future to Blashill. He has to be the HC to get the hawks into the PO probably targeting by the 2028 PO. If they don't get there by then, both are probably fired.

 

[Hawkaholic]

10-12 kids who will be in the NHL, some of whom may be relied on long term and they're going to put them with a guy who never coached any level before. That's not a Eaton problem, that was a poor planning problem. LR lost the team in winter of 24' should have been bodies in place to smooth a very likely transition, staff was still running lean on the top and Danny has shown no aversion to spending money.

You don't plan to fire a coach mid-season. It's just not realistic in any sport. And 20 games with an inexperienced coach isn't going to hurt anyone, long term.

 

[WarriorofTime]

The Hawks were slop last year after Davidson said they should show a little more compete in a pre season presser. They didn't. They looked worse.

The Hawks improved by 9 points and their goal differential improved by 41. Do you guys just make things up?

 

[PCAisBest]

the best contention window Hoyer and Theo had in Chicago was after they did exactly what Davidson is doing right now

Really?

Where is Davidsons Rizzo trade?
Arietta trade?

How many top three draft picks did Theo have? One? Two top four?

Who is Davidsons Lester signing?
What high end coach has Davidson signed on the level of Maddon?

What trade did Theo make where the player we gave up became a 90 pt top line player?

 

[Hawkaholic]

The Hawks improved by 9 points and their goal differential improved by 41. Do you guys just make things up?

Not sure why anyone keeps responding to him. He's delusional.

 

[ColbyChaos]

I don't trust KD at all and I think the Blashill hire was not ideal and am concerned with how he projected this years team to be a wildcard team and Sorenson was mostly a disaster but I think 25-26 will be the first year where we can truly judge KD. If there's no progress and there is no improvement in 5-on-5 play, he needs to go.

I think what we can all agree on is that the Blackhawks have a regime twitter problem. The insufferable KD sycophants/worshippers become more and more intolerable every day. The degree of brainrot needed to believe that Nick Lardis will magically put Chicago in the playoffs next year....

Nice alternate account lmao

 

[PCAisBest]

The Hawks improved by 9 points and their goal differential improved by 41. Do you guys just make things up?

Yet finished what, second to last for the second straight year?

 

[BHFAN92]

You weren’t though, and unlike other sports it takes time for drafted players who are only 18 (unlike other sports where you are getting college graduates) to enter the league. Not sure how you don’t understand this after watching bowman rush Kirby Dach and alter his career. The majority of the 2023 draft isn’t even established in the league yet and that is just the first rounders from that class. Only one second round pick that year has even played a game.

wait ..how can you say you" werent though"? I was more than fine with tearing it down to studs. Korchinski/Nazar draft yr1, Bedard draft yr2, Levshunov draft yr3, 2025 draft yr4...we are going into yr 5 I want to start getting better

 

[Kurtosis]

Stop responding to the troll.

 

[kmwtrucks]

we also had slightly better goaltending 2 years ago and only had 6 OT losses compared to 11 this year. IE we were 2 better then league AVG last year and 3 worse this year. between goaltending and OT losses we are talking 8-9 pts. if you add that to the differential you start getting a better picture. if we ended up with 19 more pts then last year i think we would call it progress.

 

[WarriorofTime]

Yet finished what, second to last for the second straight year?

How did they look worse when their goal differential improved by 41? All you've shown is the standings got more compact lmao

 

[PCAisBest]

How did they look worse when their goal differential improved by 41? All you've shown is the standings got more compact lmao

What does goal differential matter if youre still losing games?

Losing 2-1 or 5-1 is still losing, yes?

 

[Toews2Bickell]

wait ..how can you say you" werent though"? I was more than fine with tearing it down to studs. Korchinski/Nazar draft yr1, Bedard draft yr2, Levshunov draft yr3, 2025 draft yr4...we are going into yr 5 I want to start getting better

get ready to learn McKenna

 

[WarriorofTime]

What does goal differential matter if youre still losing games?

Losing 2-1 or 5-1 is still losing, yes?

They improved by 9 points too....

Point is they did not look "worse". You just made that up.

 

[statswatcher]

What does goal differential matter if youre still losing games?

Losing 2-1 or 5-1 is still losing, yes?

the claim was they looked worse this year. losing 5-1 looks worse than losing 2-1. therefore, a losing team can look better than another losing team. you know all of these things, and yet you are pretending not to. it's implicit to your inciting contention. conclusion: you're just talking shit.

 

[BHFAN92]

get ready to learn McKenna

I mean ya. I want him very badly and would be amazing..but the flip side is another terrible season of hockey and odds of winning the draft are not high. I hate trying to improve on thoughts and prayers of ping pong luck

 

[ClydeLee]

nah this isnt the take. I was fine being bad the year before Bedsy, fine being bad to get Bedsy, was fine being bad last yr. I am done being ok chasing last place in yr 5. He will now have had 4 straight yrs of high picks and lots of top 50 shots. Its time to start moving up

They weren't trying to be bad the year before they were trying to get Bedard. Why would you have been okay with that!? Thats when they traded for Jones and had no 1st of their own. I guess maybe missremembering, but I don't count that.

I have to always think back and remember there were close to 3/4th voters here who wanted to win the lottery that year..
Guaranteeing Columbus the 2023 pick of an inevitably awful team with Bedard/Michkov/Fantelli all on the table...

The long term planning was clearly not there with the fanbade but I've been so glad had been with Davidson.

 

[PCAisBest]

They improved by 9 points too....

Point is they did not look "worse". You just made that up.

OK let's try this...

Two years in a row with the second worst record in the league.

How is that improvement?

Is nine points and whatever positive goal differential what Kyle Davidson meant after all his free agent signings when he said he expected improvement?

In the NHL? Where grown ass men play and have pride and heart? When the teams "generational talent " was having in game meltdowns on the bench? When a team was so horrid the hand picked first coach of the current gm got fired?

We're gonna look past all that for 9 points? Not even double digits?

The Hawks problem is and always will be the gm. When this new coach fails do you blame the coach, who is only using the players the gm gets him, the players who are there because of the gm, or the gm who has no plan or idea and has been hiding behind the "rebuild" shield?

Richardson had success before he became the Hawks coach.
Seth Jones had success before he became a Hawk and right after he left.

Why is this?

 

[Mrfenn92]

lol.