2026-27 Season Is Incredibly Important for the Blackhawks & Kyle Davidson

This upcoming season for the Chicago Blackhawks is the most important one they have had in a long time. The season starts on Sept. 29 when they go to Vegas to play the Golden Knights, a team that just recently made it to the Stanley Cup Final; it will be no easy feat, especially without Connor Bedard.

The 2026-27 campaign is so important because this should technically mark the end of the five-year rebuild. At least, that’s what general manager Kyle Davidson said five years ago after Stan Bowman was forced to step down.

Five Years Ago to Now 

In interviews, Davidson sold the Wirtz’s on a five-year plan to build the Blackhawks back up to a winning team. It would come with a lot of heartache, losing, and some long seasons, but eventually, the Original Six franchise would become a contender once again.

Before Davidson was signed, though, Bowman made one last massive sign-and-trade, and that was trading for Seth Jones and giving him a massive eight-year, $76 million contract. Nor did Bowman know that trade would plague the Blackhawks for a long time. After Jones went public in his efforts to get out of the Windy City at the 2025 Trade Deadline, he was traded to the Florida Panthers, and Chicago got their future goaltender in Spencer Knight from that trade. However, the Blackhawks retained $2.5 million per year on Jones’ cap hit to make it work for both sides, and will do so through the 2029-30 season. 

Davidson started off by trading away as many assets as he possibly could in 2022, such as Brandon Hagel and Patrick Kane. On the day of the 2022 NHL Draft, Alex DeBrincat was dealt to the Ottawa Senators for the seventh overall pick, which turned into Kevin Korchinski. Then, at the end of that season, he announced that the Blackhawks’ future didn’t involve Jonathan Toews (or Kane) anymore, either.  

That aggressive teardown, along with more trades the following season in 2023, landed the Blackhawks their franchise player in Bedard. Bedard would be everything the Blackhawks thought he would be, and they gave him a $75 million contract, making him the highest-paid player in Blackhawks history, and named him captain, signifying that this is his team. 

Chicago struggled again in 2024, landing them the second overall pick, with which they selected Artyom Levshunov. In 2025, they took Anton Frondell with the third overall pick, who is one of the best prospects in the league and will be an important core piece on the Blackhawks for the next decade. 

Davidson made his first aggressive move to get better this June, when he traded the fourth overall pick to the Buffalo Sabres to acquire Bowen Byram. Then, on July 1, Byram was given a six-year, $12.5 million average annual value (AAV) extension, making him the highest-paid defenseman at the time and the first big contract Davidson has handed out. 

There were more drafted pieces added along the way, such as Frank Nazar and Oliver Moore, who signed a five-year extension kicking off next year. That’s how we got to where we are today.

It’s Time For Davidson to Evaluate What He Has 

Davidson, hired before the 2022-23 season, said that this rebuild will take five years to complete. The Blackhawks, in this upcoming 2026-27 campaign, will officially be at the five-year mark since the plan was announced. 

It’s time for Davidson to evaluate what he really has. Most of his top-notch draft selections will be playing a full season in the NHL, and it’ll be the perfect moment to decide who’s going to be a part of the future and who isn’t. 

Now, this doesn’t mean that the Blackhawks need to make the playoffs this season. They haven’t made it in six years, and to think that the jump will be made through the Central Division and the Western Conference as a whole after finishing third-to-last in the league last season would be unfair, as much as the players are talking about how sick they are of losing (and rightfully so — they’re competitors — they should be).

However, a jump in points and player production should be expected; Chicago should at the very least be playing meaningful hockey in March or April and shouldn’t be in the basement of the NHL when the trade deadline rolls around. If they aren’t passing the eye test by any means, questions need to be asked about the direction the team is going in, and changes need to be made. 

Davidson was just extended as the GM of the Blackhawks, but this is his time to really impress his bosses and show them what he’s been building. This isn’t being tough on the organization and its players. They’ve said over and over again they’re sick of losing over the offseason. After all, this is what Davidson promised when he was hired: five years.