It Can't Be Both

Kyle Davidson is going to have tough questions to answer at the end of this season, no matter how it goes.

It's not that the journey, the real one, starts tonight, as the Hawks kick off the preseason schedule at PizzaPizzArena! It's the prep work, the resource gathering, the cardio, the staging for what will come over the next six months. It seems that the Hawks are at something of a crossroads, though they don't seem to know it.

For the second straight season, Kyle Davidson has come out and proclaimed that the Hawks have to take a step forward this season. That went great last season, when the Hawks unquestionably took a step back by not really taking a step at all. Davidson was careful to be pretty vague this time on what he would be looking for this season that would be tangible, unlike a year ago, but there are still words like "forward," "progress," "development."

On the other side of the coin, most everywhere you look, the Hawks are picked to be the worst team in the league. Again. There seems to be more juice and vibes around the Sharks now, especially if Sam Dickinson actually sticks on the blue line and gives them a light at the back to match the ones of Celebrini, Smith, and Misa up front.

It feels like the perfect scenario for Kyle From Chicago is that Bedard, Nazar, Levshunov, Rinzel, and maybe throw one more kid of your choice on the pile, all make progress this season, while the Hawks finish at or near the bottom again so that Davidson can add yet another top three pick to the haul whose purpose seems to be solely to be added to.

Perhaps the bottom of the league just won't be as bad as it was last season, though with Gavin McKenna the prize for the lottery winner, combined with the playoff salary cap making the deadline even trickier, teams that aren't going to make the playoffs may pull the rip cord earlier than we're used to and end up with some truly awe-inspiring records of total incompetence in the second half. It's hard to pinpoint who those teams are right now, but more will unearth themselves in the season's opening couple months. Kyle Dubas in Pittsburgh is probably dreaming about it, knowing he can't actually be one, unless absolutely everything goes wrong in The Confluence.

Davidson gave himself something of a pass, because whatever Rinzel and Levshunov do this season, he can claim as progress. Rinzel especially, as the meaningless eight games he played last season can be categorized as whatever Davidson needs to claim the 82 that are coming are building upon that. Levshunov has a slightly bigger sample size, but only slightly more in meaning, and the same narrative can be pushed around him. For them, Davidson can make up whatever he wants.

But Davidson can't get it both ways. Let's just stick with the defense first. If Levshunov, Rinzel, let's say Korchinksi out of hope, really do have something about them this season, then the Hawks really shouldn't be worst-in-the-league bad. Sure, there will be some rough nights as kids figure out the league, but there should be some really good nights, too. Especially as the Hawks are supposed to have three perfect Splinters for their three Ninja Turtles in Vlasic, Murphy, and Kaiser. Even if Murphy is moved along at some point, that's supposed to be a defense that can be representative. At worst. That's if Jeff Blashill knows what he's doing. If he doesn't, that's just more questions for Davidson.

If it doesn't work, I suppose the cover will be that Levshunov and Rinzel were rookies, and no rookie defenseman ever looks good, even though we all watched Lane Hutson last season, and Levshunov and Rinzel are supposed to have better pedigrees than he did before he tore up the NHL.

If the Hawks suck even partly because Rinzel and Levshunov are overmatched, then questions would have to be asked if they're actually pieces to build around. Especially considering the propaganda campaign that's been attached to Rinzel's eight-game out of town preview last season. It's not 2006 anymore with Duncan Keith thrashing around in every direction but the right one. Young d-men come into the league more ready to play, at least the ones who will be worth a shit.

It's the same story up front. If Bedard can actually overcome the linemates he'll, at least initially, be saddled with and become a 35-goal, 90-point guy (which should really only be the buy-in for his numbers going forward), and Frank Nazar improves even a little from what we saw in his last 20 games, it would be really hard for the Hawks to be a disaster, worst-in-the-league bad. If healthy, Mikheyev-Dickinson-Slaggert is actually an NHL-quality third-line that should provide shelter for the two kids above them.

What if Nazar and Bedard don't make any progress? What if there's more Bedard-face? Davidson can't go running for the stronghold of claiming that Bedard's struggles are even partly due to his support, because he put that support in place. If Bedard doesn't look like a future, consistent Hart candidate, that only leads to more ugly questions that Davidson won't have answers for.

The only way Davidson can thread this needle is all the kids look good, the Hawks improve to 70-75 points, but the bottom of the league also rapidly improves with them to keep them propping up the rest of the NHL. But any of Nashville, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Buffalo, San Jose, Seattle may decide to cash out early for McKenna, and keep the bottom rung right where it's been.

Or the Hawks end up outside the top five in the draft, the kids show a lot of promise, and Davidson is suddenly facing some urgency to make some real moves he's never proven capable of. The alternative is that his grand project looks a failure already this season, as every kid he's banking on stalls out in some way. Then there's still urgency, it's just urgency to remove Davidson from his job.

Whether he likes it or not, Davidson is headed for some sort of stern examination come April.