Blackhawks Season Review: Could Not Do The Bare Minimum?

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Jim
April 21, 2023 (11:28)

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This Blackhawks season went better than many people expected. It had its ups and downs like every season (mostly downs), but it was a rollercoaster ride, even for being at the bottom of the league the entire season.

Sadly, the Blackhawks could not do what they planned to do, tank properly in hopes for the #1 pick, Connor Bedard. Instead, the Blackhawks won games in their final week which were quite useless, and only set them back a great ton of odds at landing Bedard.

They could have had a 25% chance at landing the rookie phenom, instead they won one of their last games and fell all the way down to 11% odds...

The 2022-23 season saw the departures of longtime Hawks, Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews, and other departures such as Max Domi, Jake McCabe, Sam Lafferty, and more. Kane and Toews both had points in their final games in a Hawks sweater.

The Blackhawks went 26-49-7, which was better than anyone expected, but it's also not necessarily a good thing. Chicago didn't finish last, but finished 3rd, meaning their chances to get generational talent Connor Bedard at the draft are very slim, due to the Draft Lottery's rules. The win against the Pittsburgh Penguins and going into overtime against the New York Islanders killed those chances.

Luke Richardson is one of the reasons this team outperformed their expectations, as he coached this crew to heights former Blackhawks coach Jeremy Colliton couldn't. Fans should be very excited about Richardson and what he can bring to the table coaching a playoff caliber team.

This was Kyle Davidson's first full season as General Manager of the Blackhawks, and all fans were hoping for a fresh start after firing former GM Stan Bowman. He's made a couple of questionable trades, but all in all has not done a terrible job. I just wish he'd fight for more assets and picks in his trades, because there were some instances where I thought we could've gotten more.

All in all, this season saw some bright spots, and there is a lot to look forward to in the future