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VANCOUVER, British Columbia \u2014 The Blackhawks wanted, intended and were built to be better this season.<\/p>\n
And they are indeed more competitive. Excluding empty-net goals, they\u2019ve been blown out only once through their first 17 games, and eight of their 11 losses have been by one goal.<\/p>\n
But are the 6-10-1 Hawks actually better, especially when compared to the rest of the league? The jury is still out on that.<\/p>\n
As of Friday, they sit one point out of a tie for last place in the NHL and six points out of a playoff spot. The league-wide floor seems higher this season than most \u2014 the Canadiens\u2019 not-that-awful 5-10-2 record is the league\u2019s worst \u2014 so the bottom tier isn\u2019t as clearly defined.<\/p>\n
The past few weeks in particular, the Hawks have looked alarmingly similar to the outmatched teams of recent years past. In six games since the start of November, their 36.7% expected-goals ratio during five-on-five play ranks 31st in the NHL, ahead of only the Sharks.<\/p>\n
They\u2019ll enter their Saturday matchup against the Canucks, the one team that has already blown them out, having scored just one regulation goal in four consecutive games. The outlook isn\u2019t rosy.<\/p>\n
If the Hawks fail to escape the NHL\u2019s basement this season, though, there will be one silver lining: That would put them in position for another top-five draft pick.<\/p>\n
General manager Kyle Davidson owed it to fans to try to give them a more watchable product this season, so the Hawks couldn\u2019t reasonably tank intentionally again. Privately, however, he might not be terribly heartbroken \u2014 at least from a long-term planning perspective \u2014 if the outcome winds up being comparable to the last two tank seasons.<\/p>\n
That would certainly give Davidson a golden opportunity to address the one remaining hole in the Hawks\u2019 prospect pool: a second elite forward to complement Connor Bedard down the road.<\/p>\n
Davidson has claimed he\u2019s \u201ccomfortable\u201d with the state of the pool as it stands, with the caveat that he\u2019s \u201cnot saying we\u2019ve got this all figured out.\u201d Nonetheless, by trying to trade for the Blue Jackets\u2019 fourth overall pick on the draft floor last June with the idea of selecting Ivan Demidov, Davidson signaled he knows that\u2019s something the Hawks need \u2014 or at least would benefit significantly from having.<\/p>\n
That trade falling through meant the Hawks kept their first-round pick in next summer\u2019s draft, and Davidson will likely target a forward with that pick no matter what.<\/p>\n
It landing in the top five, though, would give him a chance to draft not just any forward but one of the semi-consensus top four forwards: James Hagens, Porter Martone, Michael Misa and Roger McQueen.<\/p>\n
Entering the season, a small but tuned-in portion of the Hawks\u2019 fan base was actually rooting for that to happen \u2014 worrying that Davidson was pulling the Hawks out of the tanking stage prematurely in order to satisfy the masses \u2014 and more fans are gradually joining them as the season progresses.<\/p>\n
Before the Canadiens the last three years, the most recent franchise to draft in the top five in three consecutive years was the Oilers from 2014 to 2016 \u2014 a stretch that yielded two superstars (Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl) and one bust (Jesse Puljujarvi).<\/p>\n
The Hawks will hope that neither Bedard, Artyom Levshunov nor their top 2025 pick turns out to be a bust. On the other hand, it\u2019s precisely a Draisaitl-type player that they would love to have next to Bedard.<\/p>\n
Failing to escape the NHL\u2019s basement this season wouldn\u2019t be exclusively a good thing, though.<\/p>\n
Tyler Bertuzzi and Teuvo Teravainen\u2019s lack of major impact during the first month of their respective four- and three-year contracts is concerning, as is coach Luke Richardson\u2019s indecisiveness with the depth chart and inability so far to find a set of four lines that click.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Another high pick would give the Hawks an opportunity to address the one remaining hole in their prospect pool: a second elite forward to complement Connor Bedard down the road.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3022,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3021","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chicago-blackhawks"],"yoast_head":"\n