Blackhawks will eventually have to make hard decisions about which prospects to trade
The Blackhawks have more prospects than they could ever possibly fit into one NHL roster.
At forward, they have Connor Bedard, Frank Nazar and Lukas Reichel already in the NHL, plus Oliver Moore, Sacha Boisvert, Marek Vanacker, Roman Kantserov, Nick Lardis, Ryan Greene, Colton Dach, Landon Slaggert, Samuel Savoie, Gavin Hayes, Paul Ludwinski, A.J. Spellacy, Aidan Thompson, Martin Misiak, John Mustard, Jack Pridham, Ilya Safonov and a few others in the pipeline.
On defense, they have Alex Vlasic, Kevin Korchinski, Nolan Allan and Louis Crevier currently in the NHL, Wyatt Kaiser bouncing back and forth from the AHL and Artyom Levshunov, Ethan Del Mastro, Sam Rinzel and a few others in the pipeline.
Those prospect pools are as crowded as Michigan Avenue on Christmas, and they'll only swell larger during the years ahead. The Hawks already own four picks in the first two rounds of both the 2025 and 2026 drafts, and they could obtain more at the trade deadline in March.
The one key box still unchecked is a second elite forward prospect to complement Bedard, but the Hawks will probably address that with another top-five overall pick next summer. It might be wise to draft another notable goalie prospect, too, since Drew Commesso and Adam Gajan have struggled early this season (although they shouldn't be written off in the slightest).
In short, general manager Kyle Davidson has thoroughly succeeded at the first major step of the rebuild: building one of the league's best prospect pools. Some self-proclaimed draft experts quibbled with some Davidson moves in last year's draft, but that's a statement nobody can reasonably disagree with.
Moving forward, however, Davidson's challenge will be developing those prospects and eventually building a cohesive, comprehensive, championship-caliber NHL roster out of them.
And he'll need to make some hard decisions about which prospects to keep and which to trade along the way.
There wouldn't be enough roster spots for all of them even if the Hawks did create a team entirely comprised of homegrown players. There were 20 forwards alone listed above, after all. But it's also not realistic to create a team entirely like that.
The Hawks will need veteran leadership to push the kids forward, experienced role players to plug holes around the lineup and at least a couple big free-agent signings (ideally in the Marian Hossa mold) to support Bedard and company. They will also have to stay above the salary floor, and 23 entry-level contracts wouldn't get them there.
Inevitably, some prospects will bust, and cutting ties with them will be relatively easy — although doing so will inevitably prompt hand-wringing about whom they could've picked instead. Prospects are inherently lottery picks; that's why it's worthwhile for the Hawks to collect so many.
But other prospects should be traded at maximum value before they reach the NHL, preventing logjams on the roster and helping the Hawks acquire the established stars they'll need to get over the hump.
On defense specifically, the Hawks are already approaching that saturation point. Del Mastro, for example, is a solid prospect — he was an AHL All-Star just last season — but his path to a full-time job in Chicago has become murky due to Levshunov's arrival, Allan's breakthrough and Rinzel's imminence. He could be a trade candidate in the not-too-distant future.
That situation will become reality soon enough for the forwards, too. Dach, Slaggert, Savoie, Hayes and Ludwinski, for example, are all in Rockford right now and project to be bottom-six glue guys in the NHL, but not all of them will reach that ceiling. At least a couple will get squeezed out.
It will be exciting and gratifying to watch so many prospects blossom into NHL contributors at the United Center the next few years, but that process will have a harsher side, too. Davidson will need to stay on top of both aspects.