It's Just More Wishcasting
The Hawks make a good trade with Jason Dickinson, but why should anyone care?
On paper, the positive reaction to the Jason Dickinson trade is warranted. Here's a player the Hawks basically saved the Canucks from having to pay, gaining a second round pick for the favor, and turned him into another 1st round pick. That's a net positive. The Hawks have three first-rounders in 2027, if the Panthers pick from this year acquired for Seth Jones has to slide due to being top-ten protected. On the surface, that sounds exciting.
But we've been down this road already. So let's just review all the first and second round picks Kyle Davidson has already made, and then you can decide whether the promise of more picks is actually promising a brighter day, or the point is just promising instead of delivering.
2022 - Kevin Korchinski (7th overall)
Organization clearly hates him, can't get in the lineup over Ethan Del Mastro, is almost certainly on his way out. Might actually deserve to be.
2022 - Frank Nazar (13th overall)
Has scored one goal in over 30 games, gets easily overpowered in his own zone when he bothers to even try there, can seemingly only score on breakaways.
2022 - Sam Rinzel (25th overall)
Has looked solid enough since recall, without being spectacular. Haven't seen nearly the offensive starch we did at the end of last season, which as we know, is hardly a barometer. Long way to go with this one.
2022 - Paul Ludwinksi (39th overall)
Who?
2022 - Ryan Greene (57th overall)
Intriguing. Looks like he could be a pretty valuable third line piece, making a decent fist of it with Bedard because there's literally no one else.
2023 - Connor Bedard (1st overall)
Duh.
2023 - Oliver Moore (19th overall)
Promised to be fast. Is that. Might not be anything else.
2023 - Adam Gajan (35th overall)
Whatever.
2023 - Roman Kantserov (44th overall)
Lighting up a watered down KHL. Is tiny. Could be anything, if he ever shows up. But maybe some spice.
2023 - Martin Misiak (55th overall)
I think his parents might know who he is.
2024 - Artyom Levshunov (2nd overall)
Certainly skates around a lot. Not ever quite sure he or anyone else knows where or why.
2024 - Sacha Boisvert (18th overall)
Hasn't really done much on an underwhelming BU team, apparently likes to punch people, which would be great...in 1987.
2024 - Marek Vanacker (27th overall)
Lighting up the OHL as a 19-year-old, which every 19-year-old does. Next.
2025 - Anton Frondell (3rd overall)
Ran roughshod over the WJC on the WJC's best team, which is encouraging. Holding his own in an adults league. Will get a look this spring.
2025 - Vaclav Nestrasil (25th overall)
Having a big freshman year, looked ok at the WJC without wowing. At least worth keeping an eye on.
2025 - Mason West (29th overall)
All the headlines were about his football career. Isn't even at college yet. Check back in two years.
Kyle Davidson has already taken 16 swings at the top end of the draft, where any GM is supposed to find his difference-makers. What has it gotten the NHL team? A generational talent no one could fuck up, no matter how hard the Hawks tried. Still not clear that he can stick at center long-term, though. Possibly a third line center and a third line winger (Greene and Moore). One d-man who might wash out of the organization soon and another they can't seem to get to do anything they want after two years in the organization. A 2C who is having the most disappointing season possible. Everything else is a question mark.
Look, it's not like any GM is supposed to hit on every pick, or even most of them. But in reality, thanks to Nazar's extension, there are only four spots in the top six open for anyone. We can already mark one of those out for Frondell, so there's three. How many more candidates do they need to fill those? Even if the real answers are coming in 2026 or 2027's draft, don't some of these guys need to start being moved out for real pieces? The defense is already set, or it should be. At most there's one spot open going forward. At this point, it's just Three Stooges Syndrome in the prospect pool.
Let's look at Utah, the most shining example in the Hawks division of a full rebuild come good. Their homegrown pieces are Keller, Cooley, Guenther, Durzi (and not even really), Vejmelka (Nashville's pick), and we'll throw Crouse and Hayton on there to be nice. Everyone else making the Mammoth one of the more exciting teams in the league have been acquired outside the organization. Marino, Schmaltz, Sergachev, Peterka. If that's a team the Hawks want to emulate, then Bedard, Nazar, Levshunov, Rinzel, Kaiser, Vlasic, Greene...they're already in place! That's even more than Utah had!
Moreover, it isn't about the number of picks. What is the proof of development? The front office is just the remnants of Stan Bowman's front office, one that was able to draft and develop...Brandon Saad and Andrew Shaw. Two middle-sixers. Wow. They had other players, of course. Teravainen and Danault, whom they couldn't wait to trade away the moment they got them, and did. Ryan Hartman and Nick Schmaltz are now major parts of other playoff teams. There's your list of 11 years of Bowman drafts. Davidson even re-hired Norm Maciver for fuck's sake! The idea that the Hawks are or can be some bastion of development is based on nothing more than myth and one of sport's happiest accidents 20 years ago.
Maybe whatever incompetence that is infesting 1901 W. Madison can be overcome by sheer numbers. Maybe they can Homer Simpson Sperm their way into a functioning NHL roster. There's just no proof of concept at any level. They just promise a future day because a future day is always on the horizon. Who has gotten better under Blashill's guiding hand? Louis Crevier? Great, I'll run out to get season tickets right fucking now!
The future is always bright when you never actually get there.