The 2024 NHL Draft Lottery was last night. And we found out the Chicago Blackhawks’ first pick will land at No. 2 overall. After not moving up — or down — in the lottery, Blackhawks general manager Kyle Davidson spoke with the media. He talked about the Russian factor(s), being NHL ready vs. highest ceiling, and how the organization feels about sticking with the second pick (hint: fantastic). I dug into some of his comments earlier this morning.
The Godfather, Bob McKenzie, posted his Top 15 draft rankings before the lottery on Tuesday. I always consider his comments to be among the strongest among the talent evaluators out there, so this tease of the first half (roughly) of the first round was a must read. And it’s worth noting that he, too, has Russian ring Ivan Demidov at No. 2 overall in this update. Interestingly, he has Anton Silayev at No. 3, Artyom Levshunov at No. 4 and Cayden Lindstrom at No. 5. Silayev had been sliding in some recent rankings; Corey Pronman had him at 5 and Scott Wheeler (both at The Athletic) had him at No. 10 in their most recent rankings.
There are lots of immediate reaction mock drafts starting to fly around the interwebs. I’ll have my updated one for y’all later today and am also collecting what other people are saying about the Blackhawks’ options in the first round for a discussion on that as well. Stay tuned!
One looming decision that might impact the first round of the 2024 NHL Draft is the Ottawa Senators, who have until later this evening to decide of t
Speaking of Demidov and Levshunov, Scott Powers asked Blackhawks GM Kyle Davidson a few questions about the Russian forward last night (Scott loves him some Russian prospects). He wrote a nice first take on the discussion surrounding which one the Blackhawks could/should take at No. 2 overall in June.
The presumed No. 1 pick in the draft and consensus top prospect, Macklin Celebrini, was in the studio last night for the lottery. Which begged the question: why wasn’t he with Hockey Canada on the ice for a World Championship warm-up game (with Connor Bedard) instead? Well, as I noted previously, players who get knocked out of the playoffs can join their country’s team. And Canada added three players, including former Blackhawk Brandon Hagel, on Tuesday. So both Celebrini and Adam Fantilli were told they weren’t needed any longer. Both players opted to return home and not stay with the team in Europe.
The Blackhawks announced a two-year extension with forward Lukas Reichel a few hours before the lottery on Tuesday. Here’s what Davidson said about that deal getting done now:
“I think it’s a good opportunity for us to potentially gain some value, but also for him to have a little bit of security there and show that we do believe in him,” Davidson said. “But you know what, there’s also a prove-it aspect to this. He knows this wasn’t the year he wanted, and so I’m sure he’s going to be putting the work in the offseason to make sure he’s having a good start to the year in training camp and hopefully solidify himself into an everyday forward and really take off next year.”
We hadn’t heard from Davidson since locker clean-out day at the end of the regular season, so this was our first chance to ask about the six-year extension with Alex Vlasic as well. Here’s what Davidson had to say about that deal:
“Really excited to get that one done,” he said. “He just had a great year. His trajectory and his improvement over the last number of seasons has been pretty incredible. And so there’s no reason to believe he’s not going to continue that progress and continue forward steps in his development. We’ve identified Alex as a core piece here, so we were happy to get a six-year deal done”
It’s great to hear/read/see Davidson say “we’ve identified Alex as a core piece” because that means the six-year deal is perhaps just the next deal with him in Chicago, and there could be another deal after that. Vlasic did have a tremendous season, and his deal is great for everyone involved.
So the next market in line for NHL expansion — yes, it’s coming at some point… be warned — has been rumored to be Atlanta. But Houston has always been lurking in the background as a big (BIG) market that would obviously benefit the NHL. Before the draft lottery on Tuesday, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman confirmed multiple groups have expressed interest in buying into the league. So there’s that.
Finally, Michael Busch hit a walk-off home run last night. Those are incredible moments, so let’s watch it a couple dozen more times this morning!
NEWSLETTER
