LAS VEGAS — The Chicago Blackhawks made some big moves during the NHL draft. Just don’t expect them to move the needle this season.
While last year’s No. 1 pick, Connor Bedard, made enough of an impact to win the Calder Trophy, this year’s No. 2 selection, Artyom Levshunov, isn’t even a sure bet to play this season.
A return to Michigan State is one of the defenseman’s options, but the Hawks and Levshunov’s agent, Dan Milstein, will sit down and hatch a development plan that meets his liking.
Several other Hawks picks will be going to back to their junior clubs or heading to college, or both, for at least the next year or two.
So what can we gather from the eight players the Hawks added to their pipeline in two days at Las Vegas’ Sphere?
- Hawks drafters aimed for speed — and they’re not denying it.
- They added some size, though they downplayed it, as usual.
- And once again they loaded up on premium picks, which is becoming a theme for them. That comes from starting out with a wealth of draft picks and having no fear about attacking the board when they feel a target is within reach.
“It was always something that was talked about,” Hawks general manager Kyle Davidson said. “Even for quite some time there were a number of teams that were looking to move back and you saw there were a couple trades where teams were moving back, moving back, and we were in on all of those, and I think we got one of the last trades in that had occurred.
“So there were some tense moments there where we didn’t know if Marek (Vanacker) would make it to us just with all the team trading up and us not being able to get a trade over the finish line. … I’m just glad we were able to get one over the line with Carolina and pick Marek.”
Here are eight takeaways from the draft.
1. First things first
The Hawks entered the draft with two first-rounders and made the first of two trades with the Carolina Hurricanes to net a third.
What else is new? The Hawks have had multiple picks in each of the last three drafts:
- 2024: Artyom Levshunov (No. 2), Sacha Boisvert (18) and Marek Vanacker (27)
- 2023: Connor Bedard (1) and Oliver Moore (19)
- 2022: Kevin Korchinski (7), Frank Nazar (13) and Sam Rinzel (25)
According to NHL Stats, the Hawks’ eight first-round picks in a three-year span are the most since the Montreal Canadiens’ 10 first-rounders from 1974-76.
“It never ceases to amaze me,” said Mike Doneghey, Hawks director of amateur scouting. “We start the day with none in Montreal (2022) and two last year and only two this year, and he (Davidson) finds a way to get myself and our staff the players that we like, the players we want.
“He has that ability to package things and go get what we want.”
Davidson was asked whether he entertained the notion, back when he was a first-time GM, of having eight first-rounders in a three-year span.
“Certainly not, no,” he said, “especially given the first draft we didn’t have any (first-round picks) day-of (the draft).
“It’s very cliche to say we targeted all these guys that we wanted, but it’s very much true. After Year 1, I thought, OK, we can’t get all the guys we wanted. And then last year we got all the guys we wanted. And then this year I thought there’s no way it’s going to work out again, and it just did.
“I’m not saying we’ve got this all figured out but just to set a plan in motion and then to be able to execute on that plan when so much of it is out of your control is really exciting.”
2. The race for pace?
It’s a tentpole of the rebuild strategy: Load up on speedsters and you can wear down the teams that have to chase you.
“Skating we won’t look the other way on,” Doneghey said.
The Hawks struck again on that front in the third round with forwards John Mustard, AJ Spellacy and John Pridham.
Doneghey said Mustard “leads with speed.”
“I got a few texts saying we’re trying to build the fastest team in the league,” Doneghey said. “Those three guys can really skate — that’s probably their main attribute. We added some size with it. Two of the three are right shots who can play the wing. Competitive but fast.”
Spellacy was quick to buy in.
“I think speed kills, so if you have speed as a team, it’s going to be a lot easier to win games and beat the other team,” he said. “There’s more than just the speed, but when you have a lot of speed, it’s easy to win games if you have a great team.”
3. Big deal about size?
You could say the Hawks were “rolling sixes,” so to speak, in this draft: Every pick, from the 6-foot-2 Levshunov to 6-2 sixth-round defenseman Ty Henry, was at least 6 feet tall.
The Hawks already boast a lot of big blue liners, such as Alex Vlasic, but they injected some size among the forwards, too, with 6-2 Sacha Boisvert and the 6-3 Spellacy.
Doneghey said of Boisvert: “He’s a big body down the middle that gets around the ice really well that has a good scoring touch.”
They might one day help balance out sub-sixers such as Bedard, Nazar and Moore.
Yet for the second draft in a row, the Hawks chief scout scoffed at the size question.
“Size is a premium with the people on this side of the microphone,” said Doneghey, gesturing toward reporters. “Kyle says it, and I’m a believer in it: You can get size in free agency and trades.
“We have traits that we look for, and we’re not going to go against those traits to reach for a guy just because he’s a few inches taller than another guy. And as I said (before), try telling Oliver Moore that 5-11½, 195 (pounds) is small.
“That’s not going to be a good conversation.”
4. Steels of the draft?
Several players with local ties were selected, and the USHL’s Chicago Steel played a big role on draft day.
Macklin Celebrini, the No. 1 pick by the San Jose Sharks, is an alumus. His 46 goals and 40 assists in 2022-23 helped elevate him into the national spotlight.
Center Michael Hage, who some had pegged as Hawks candidate at No. 18, went to the Canadiens at No. 21. The Colorado Avalanche grabbed goaltender Louka Cloutier in the fifth round at No. 132.
Fifty-nine Steel players have been drafted since the team’s inception in 2000, including 31 in the last five drafts, according to the Steel.
Meanwhile, the Washington Capitals selected U.S. National Training Development Program defenseman Cole Hutson (North Barrington) in the second round at No. 43 to lead a group of locals.
Among the others:
- U.S. NTDP center Kamil Bednarik (Elmhurst) was drafted at No. 61 (second round) by the New York Islanders
- U.S. NTDP goalie Nicolas Kempf (Morton Grove) was drafted at No. 114 (fourth) by the Capitals
- USHL Dubuque winger Noah Powell (Northbrook) was drafted at No. 148 (fifth) by the Philadelphia Flyers
- USHL Dubuque winger James Reeder (Glenview) was drafted at No. 198 (seventh) by the Los Angeles Kings
5. Scene in Las Vegas was quite the atmoSphere.
The cutting-edge concert hall (or bubble?) had a sellout crowd of 14,220 for its first live broadcast.
Sphere is the world’s largest spherical structure, and its largest LED screen at 580,000 square feet enveloped watchers with crystal-clear graphics from the inside and broadcasts psychedelic animation to outsiders.
“The globe?” Levshunov clarified. “It’s amazing.”
Added Davidson: “It was incredible. It was the atmosphere, the spectacle of it. Standing on the stage and making picks and looking up and seeing just that wall of people was pretty unique.
“After our third pick, we’re waiting for Marek to get down there and I took a picture because I just wanted to make sure that I documented that view just because it was so incredible.”
6. It’s a Connor Bedard-Tanner Howe reunion — for a day, at least.
A day before the draft, Bedard saw he planned to hang out with his old Regina Pats linemate, Howe, and help support him during his big draft night.
“We’re really close,” Bedard told reporters after accepting the Calder Trophy as the NHL’s top rookie. “We were talking a lot. … But I’m super pumped to see him go through it.”
Bedard said that whoever picked him, “they’re getting a great player but a great person as well.”
The Hawks traded away both of their second-rounders (Nos. 34 and 50), the range in which Howe was projected to be taken. The Pittsburgh Penguins snapped up the winger with the No. 46 pick.
7. Bringing more USHL youth into the fold.
The Hawks drafted USHL products Boisvert (Muskegon) and Mustard (Waterloo), and Levshunov played a season with the Green Bay Gamblers before joining Michigan State.
“It just happened this year that we’ve got three guys out of the USHL,” Doneghey said. “I mentioned last night, the Kyle Connors, Brock Boesers, those goals have been able to translate to the NHL. Speed’s been able to translate to the NHL. And it’s a really good league.”
Added Mustard: “It’s good for late-bloomers.”
Last year the Hawks selected Martin Misiak (Youngstown) in the second round, and in 2022 they took Ryan Green (Green Bay) and Aidan Thompson (Lincoln) in the second and third, respectively.
Competition in the USHL is part of what sold Davidson on Boisvert.
“He put up some good numbers in the USHL, which is traditionally not the easiest league to put offense up in,” Davidson said.
Grant McCagg, the founder of recrutes.ca and a former NHL scout, said one particular moment was helpful to Boisvert’s draft stock.
“A lot of them (scouts) were at a game where it was Waterloo against Muskegon,” he said. “Mustard and Boisvert ended up getting in a scrap, and Boisvert handled himself quite well. And that — maybe it shouldn’t, but it did — really impressed a lot of the scouts, that he’s got that element to his game too.”
8. Wait a minute (or two).
The Hawks are preaching patience with this bunch. Not every prospect can jump out of the gate like Bedard.
“They’re all different,” Doneghey said. “We’re not naive enough to think everyone is going to play. … And they’re not all going to play at once. They’ll determine who plays and who doesn’t play.”
