FEATURE: Blackhawks Excited to Add 'Meaningful Pieces' at 2024 NHL Draft

The final hours are ticking down ahead of the 2024 NHL Draft, and the Blackhawks hockey operations staff is running through their final few steps before another franchise-altering weekend.

Holding the No. 2 and No. 18 overall picks, as well as a pair of selections in the second and third rounds, and two late-round picks, General Manager Kyle Davidson, director of amateur scouting Mike Doneghey and the amateur scouting team are more confident than ever about their process heading into the weekend — the third draft since Davidson took over as GM.

“We're really, really excited about where we're at,” Davidson told Blackhawks.com this week. “We all collectively feel very excited about where we sit in our preparation. I think, for the most part, the work is done. Maybe some final tweaks and final discussions here in the lead up to Friday and Saturday, but we've really honed the process for the draft the last couple of years. It's kind of come to fruition and completion a little bit sooner than it has in previous years, which is exciting to be prepared and be this ready. We're really excited with what we're going to be able to get.”

A year ago, it was a foregone conclusion that the Blackhawks were taking Connor Bedard at first overall. But while the anticipation heading may not be the same this year, the team is still set to add a future franchise player with the second overall pick on Friday evening — just the fourth time ever the team has selected in the top two spots. Once San Jose makes their expected selection of Macklin Celebrini at No. 1, the draft will really begin as the Blackhawks make the decision of who to take behind him. Chicago will also make selections, baring any trades, three more times before the later part of the second round (Nos. 18, 34 and 50).

“This is obviously a little bit different (than last year), but it's still a really strong draft class. We've got multiple picks in the first three rounds, and we really, really feel that we're gonna get some meaningful pieces here coming out of this draft. The top of the draft is really strong, but I also think there's some depth to the draft too that people are sleeping on a little bit. In the years to come, there's going to be some really good players that come out of [this draft].

“There's some players that we definitely have our eyes on, and hope we can make Blackhawks. I'm really optimistic about what we'll be able to do and what we'll be able to add this weekend.”

While this draft by no means the “end” of the team’s rebuild — the Blackhawks still hold multiple first- and second-round picks next summer, plus a trio of second-round picks in 2026 — it does appear to be a transition marker for the organization, the end of three straight offseasons with multiple selections in each of the first three rounds, selecting top prospect after top prospect.

From the 2022 draft in Montreal through this weekend’s draft order, Chicago is set to tie Arizona/Utah for the most picks in the first three rounds of any NHL team in that span (21). The Blackhawks will also have made the most first-round selections (7) with another seven picks each of the second (T-2nd) and third rounds (2nd). In just over two years’ time, Davidson has made more trips to the draft stage than any other GM while the organization has completely revamped their prospect pool, appearing poised to start an upward climb of success — and, in turn, less frequent trips to the draft stage. Names like Bedard, Kevin Korchinski, Frank Nazar, Sam Rinzell and Oliver Moore, as well as others yet to be called this weekend, appear set to lead that ascent in the years to come.

“If you think back to before that draft in Montreal, we definitely set course on a new direction,” Davidson said this week from Las Vegas. “But what that looked like, no one really had a great idea of who the players would be, how it would look when we ran through the process of the building through the draft. And now that we're a couple years clear from that, it feels really exciting about where we are and where we're headed, especially having seen some of the development from our prospects that we've drafted last few years.

“It just feels like we've made some really big strides from where the prospect pool was, and where we were prior to that Montreal draft. And now sitting here in Vegas, a couple of drafts down the road, it's just really, really exciting to see where this thing's headed.”

The 2024 NHL Draft begins Friday at 6 p.m. CT (ESPN, Sportsnet) and continues with rounds 2-7 on Saturday at 10:30 a.m. CT (NHL Network, Sportsnet).