The Chicago Blackhawks are mired in a rebuild and have not been to the playoffs in eight seasons. Despite that, fans remain fairly confident. GM Kyle Davidson has worked hard to stockpile assets and young players to build with in the future. It hasn’t paid off yet, but fans seem to think it will based on The Athletic’s fan survey.
Fan survey indicates confidence by Chicago Blackhawks fans
Mark Lazerus of The Athletic put out a fan survey to judge where fans were. Do they like where the Chicago Blackhawks are heading? Do they support the recent moves? They answered all that and more, including whether or not they are still confident in this stage of the rebuild.
“Like Davidson, fans are still mostly confident in the rebuild, but their support is fading. Last year, fans gave their confidence level for the rebuild a 4 in 53.3 percent of their ballots,” Lazerus said. “That fell 20.9 percent this year. Fans probably need something more to cling to this season for that number not to continue decreasing.”
So while the fans are still on board after adding Anton Frondell in the NHL draft this year, they’re beginning to lose a little bit of steam. The vast majority are still confident, as only 27.9% of fans gave the rebuild a two or one level of confidence. Three and up, which indicates pretty solid belief on the part of the fan base, had the remaining 72.1%.
The fans also largely supported Davidson’s choice to sit on a pile of money in free agency. 44.1% of fans gave that a four or five, although the overall results were fairly even. “The majority went with 4, meaning fans were mostly satisfied with Davidson not doing much in free agency,” Lazerus noted. “Considering the players who actually hit the market and an even smaller number who would have probably been interested in the Blackhawks, fans seemed to understand Davidson’s quiet offseason.”
That choice was purposeful to give young players a chance in 2025-26. How well they do will determine how well that choice ages and how confident fans will be next year when they’re surveyed about this again.
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