Breaking Down the Blackhawks’ Options After Drawing 4th Pick in 2026 Draft Lottery

The Chicago Blackhawks’ worst-case scenario took place on May 5 when they moved down from picking second to picking fourth in the Draft Lottery. However, things got even worse when the San Jose Sharks moved up a whopping seven spots and lucked out by drawing the second overall pick, behind the Toronto Maple Leafs, who miraculously drew the first overall pick. 

The Blackhawks and Sharks are going to be neck and neck for the top of the Western Conference in a few years. At least that’s what management and fanbases hope for on each side. They say comparison is the thief of joy, but you can’t ignore the giant step the Sharks took this past season. They almost made it into the playoffs (granted, in a generally weak Pacific Division and West as a whole) with Macklin Celebrini having a 105-point season. Chicago, on the other hand, stayed put where they were the last three years: at the bottom of the league. 

Blackhawks Going Best Player Available

General manager (GM) Kyle Davidson said that while this was the last result they wanted, it was also the most likely one, and he’s right. The Blackhawks had a 13.5% chance of picking first overall and a 41.7% chance of landing the fourth overall pick. Davidson said that over the next week, he’ll meet with the scouts and discuss their plan heading into the draft. Whether they’re planning on taking a defenseman or a forward, he didn’t say. Instead, they’re going to go with the best player available, and at fourth overall, that’s really all you can do. 

The Maple Leafs got the right to select first and are going to select Gavin McKenna. The Sharks need a defenseman to complement their strong young forward pool; Chase Reid should be looked at heavily in San Jose. The Vancouver Canucks is where it gets interesting, as they had the best odds for the lottery balls to fall in their favor and get first overall; instead, they also dropped the max of two places and are picking third. 

There will be two options for the Canucks, unless they decide to shock everyone and take a different route: Ivar Stenberg, a winger, and Caleb Malhotra, a center. The Canucks have a history of having Swedish legends with the Sedin brothers and Elias Pettersson on the team right now. Stenberg looked like one of, if not the best player, coming out of the whole World Junior Championship. But, with the Pettersson trade rumors floating, they may be in dire need of a center soon, and that’s where Malhotra comes in, as he’s the best pure center in the draft. Plus, his dad, Manny, played in the NHL for 16 years (including the Canucks) and is the head coach of their American Hockey League (AHL) team, the Abbotsford Canucks. There’s a family connection there. Whomever they don’t take, that’ll be the best player available.

Questions the Blackhawks Need to Answer 

The Blackhawks better hope that Stenberg falls to fourth overall. The last thing they need right now is another center with Connor Bedard and Frank Nazar crammed up the middle of the ice. Also, at the end of the season, Anton Frondell got a look at the center position and performed well. For someone who was touted to be Bedard’s future linemate, could he be thrown into the mix to be the next 2C? How confident are the Blackhawks in that? Also to mention, Oliver Moore’s rookie campaign was also cut short due to an injury — he’s also a center. 

Stenberg falling to fourth would give Bedard a legitimate young winger to put right beside him. Throughout the WJC, Stenberg played a massive part in Sweden winning gold and looked the most NHL-ready of all the players in the tournament. There’s a chance that after he’s drafted, he sees the ice at the United Center in October. How much can Chicago afford to bank on that happening, though?

One more avenue the Blackhawks could go down is trading the pick. Normally, you don’t ever see a top-five pick be moved around; however, if there’s a time to do it, it’s now. Davidson has a wide variety of options with this one; he can trade up (which is unlikely), trade down, or trade out of the draft completely and have that be the main catalyst in a deal for a superstar forward that is desperately needed. That player, whether Brady Tkachuk, Matthew Knies or Jason Robertson to put on Bedard’s wing, will make an immediate impact. A lot of teams are looking to add; are the Blackhawks willing to overpay with the surplus of assets at their disposal? They should be. 

This is Davidson’s next big test. He’s done a great job of trading away and gaining future assets, but what can he do when his back is up against the wall, and he needs to add assets that can help next season?