Kyle Davidson Defends Controversial Taylor Hall Trade: Why the Blackhawks Took the Deal

"It was pretty minimal on our side, obviously a pretty big deal. I think there's a little bit confusion on what our role was in it. For us we were happy to get the asset that we got back. In moving Taylor, I think it was something that was probably going to happen at some point. We were not going to use our two retained salary transactions on being involved in this one and then maybe another one with Taylor later on. And so, it was one or the other. We either going to be involved in this or we weren't. And from my estimation, the market was probably around that if we stayed out of this all together and just took the player to market later on and got a pick for him later on. But in waiting you run the risk of things like injury, the role was diminishing almost by the game, and it just wasn't heading towards a way that was going to maximize or enhance value, and so in moving then, we moved at full price and held on the other player involved. It just didn't make sense to wait and not really get a better return later on. It was basically what we thought or hoped we would get and so just move forward with it instead of risking all the things that just go along with just holding a player and fingers crossed maybe the value increases marginally a little bit down the stretch."

"We needed to build through the draft and rebuild our core and that takes time...We aren't getting more wins at the NHL level, but that growth is happening under the surface...nothing has gone on in our prospects development that is causing me concern."