NEWSLETTER
The Chicago Blackhawks did not move up to the No. 1 overall pick in last night’s NHL Draft Lottery.
But they also didn’t move down from the second overall selection, and that’s a win for the organization.
“It’s massive,” Blackhawks general manager Kyle Davidson said when meeting with the media last night. “It’s huge to pick that high in the draft. There’s pain that goes into ending up at that point, but as we sit here now at No. 2 overall, there’s going to be a huge reward. We’re really excited about the player that we’re going to get. It’s going to be a foundational piece.”
“I’ll go to dinner tonight and it’ll be a celebratory dinner, because we’re really excited about it,” Davidson said with a smile And, though I didn’t run out and have a victory cigar like I did last year, I’m with him: this is really good news for the Hawks.
San Jose stayed at No. 1 and their GM, Mike Grier, did not follow the traditional “not going to say who I’m taking until the draft” approach. They’re taking Macklin Celebrini for all of the reasons: best player, dad works for the Golden State Warriors, Celebrini and Grier are both Boston University guys, etc. It’s a layup, as much as it was last year.
That being as obvious as it is already makes the discussion around the Blackhawks’ second pick a lot of fun for the weeks between now and the draft.
Right out of the gate last night, Davidson was asked about Russian players, specifically sniper Ivan Demidov, and whether or not he had reservations taking a player he personally can’t watch in-person at No. 2. Davidson, ever the poker player, deflected from a direct answer and said the Blackhawks trust their scout in Russia — they did evaluating Roman Kantserov last year — but they were now going to start building their draft board.
I wasn’t specifically direct regarding Demidov with a question to the Blackhawks’ GM last night because there are a number of players who could go No. 2 when the draft happens in Vegas in late June. I was more interested in knowing whether or not, given the progress of so many of the Blackhawks’ prospects and the organization’s stated desire to improve sooner than later, if Davidson’s front office was going to put any additional weight on a player’s timeline to the professional/NHL ranks vs. the highest ceiling in this year’s draft.
His response was interesting:
“That’s a good question,” Davidson said Tuesday. “Probably not. I think, in the end, if we’re here in two years and a player we take at two, we take the guy that’s more ready to play in the NHL — and he tops out at a certain spot — then three or four years from now, there’s another player that we could have picked that we thought had a higher ceiling but wasn’t as quick to the NHL [who] is that much better, I think you go for the player that is that much better, that has the high ceiling. There’s also weight of risk and predictability, ceiling versus floor and those discussions. But I think for the most part, especially at number two, you’re probably looking at similar across the board in terms of time to the NHL, ceiling, and so we’ll kinda debate those things. I don’t necessarily think the speed into the NHL comes into play.”
So being able to help the Blackhawks within the next 12-24 months is not a concern whatsoever.
Davidson was also asked if the Blackhawks would maybe lean a little towards a position of need given the stockpile of assets they’ve collected over the past couple years. The question included the thought that the Hawks are loaded on the blue line already and could use scoring. Davidson countered that he feels the Blackhawks have done a great job of adding forwards over the past two drafts (he’s right) and they don’t see positional need as anything more significant than a potential tie-breaker when ranking their board.
“There’s a lot of work to be done now that we know where we’re picking,” Davidson said. “As we rank the players and rank our board, we’ll be digging into those options a little more specifically and find where we’re comfortable, where we’re not, and build the board accordingly.”
The Blackhawks are remaining on the Best Player Available train. And, after Celebrini’s name is called, the Blackhawks get the right to draft the best player available on their entire board at No. 2. Which is great.
