The Chicago Blackhawks entered free agency with the fifth-most cap space in the league. With an improving young core and coming off having the league’s second-worst record, Chicago was expected to add a quality player or two in free agency to help improve the roster for the upcoming season.
Instead, the Blackhawks have had a quiet summer. The biggest moves at the start of free agency have been a trade with the Buffalo Sabres for veteran depth forward Sam Lafferty and the signing of forward Dominic Toninato, expected to spend the bulk of his time with the Rockford IceHogs.
Those moves have not excited the fan base on social media.
Kyle Davidson didn’t want to “oversign”
During an appearance on 670 The Score’s “Mully & Haugh Show” on Thursday, Blackhawks general manager Kyle Davidson said he was afraid of oversigning in free agency this summer because of the young talent he believes can earn a roster spot in training camp.
“But like we discussed before, is that these young players that we feel are ready to step in and grow at the NHL level, that was another aspect of this too, is that we didn’t want to oversign,” Davidson said. “We didn’t want to over-commit to players that we’re going to block out some of these young prospects that we do feel are ready and we do feel are part of the bigger picture here.
“And so that was all part of the calculus in terms of this free agent period.”
The Chicago Blackhawks want the youth to develop this year
Davidson qualified his statement by saying that he’s in contact with agents and other teams to make moves. Still, he wants to keep spots open for youth development at the NHL level this year.
“I believe we’re in a different spot this year,” Davidson said. “Another year of development and another year of physical growth for some of these players has left them in a spot where we believe they are ready to, in many cases, take an NHL roster spot. That doesn’t mean that they’re all going to get one.
“We’ve got a lot of really exciting young players and not enough spots for all of them. So they’re going to have to compete with each other. They’re going to have to compete with some veterans as well, and they’re going to have to earn those spots… That’s a step that we’re taking in our rebuild that we weren’t prepared to do in the past.”
But like Chicago has seen in the recent past, the offseason planning will lead to many losses in the regular season.
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