KYLE DAVIDSON PRESS CONFERENCE: Chicago Blackhawks GM Breaks Down Trade Deadline Moves

0:00Welcome, everyone. First, I'd kind of like to start by just acknowledging three really special veterans that we had here that we've moved out in the past couple of days in Jason Dickens and Connor Murphy and Nick Flean. I think there are some people that have certainly left a very strong, positive, and impactful mark on our organization, our city, and a lot of our players that will be here for a long time to come. And so I just can't thank them enough for their professionalism, their play, their dedication, and everything that they brought to the organization. Also, I'd like to acknowledge Colton Doc and Eden Thompson, who he moved out in the last couple of days, really hard workers, young players that are kind of starting there. I'm still early in their professional journeys, but I'm really excited to watch them continue their careers elsewhere. And then I'm excited to welcome Andrew Manjupani

1:03and Derek Pooley out to the organization as well, and I'm excited to see their contributions over the coming years. So again, I think we accomplished some pretty strong acquisitions in terms of future assets and players that can serve a purpose here with us over the next little while. You know, it's tough to see really amazing people move on, but I'm really excited for all of them and their new opportunities and what they're going to be able to experience over the next little while here. So with that, I'll open up to questions. Was this trade deadline just as a whole, you know, we've been talking to several GMs? And you know, was it seemed a little more quiet overall? Just, you know, what would you attribute that to? I don't know. I honestly don't know what I'd attribute it to. Perhaps the ability of teams to hold on to players,

2:08maybe players are more locked up in terms of their obligations, their team, beyond this year, less UFA's coming up. I'm not sure to be honest. Perhaps around the league seemed a little bit quieter certainly today. For us, it was seem business as usual. Just, you know, you have your conversations and your exploratory talks in some cases. But so it didn't really change much on my end. And I wouldn't say the volume of calls in and out was any more or less than any other year. And so, but, you know, around the league, it maybe seemed a little more quiet than normal. But I honestly, I don't think I have the answer on why that is. Two players you brought in both of them. What was the bottom line? You know, I think in Andrew's case, certainly there was a cap component there. But he was someone that we dug into both on and off the ice

3:08and did feel like he could be a good fit. I think we're getting a very motivated player. You know, I think he can bring some tenacity and some, you know, some, he's been around this league for a bit. So a little bit of veteran experience. So he certainly sent a lot out recently. And so I think he can provide there. But, you know, I think there's a lot to prove for him coming in. And we're excited to give him that opportunity to show what he's got. I know it didn't go as he had planned this year in Edmonton. So I think, you know, a fresh start for him will be really healthy. And we're excited to give it to him. With Derek, he's going to join up with Rockford right now. And, you know, Derek's been around pro hockey for a number of years now. And I think he can bring a good veteran presence, log some minutes. We've called up a lot of defense from Rockford over the last little while and, you know, haven't provided them

4:09with a ton of help. So I hope that can give them a little bit of a boost. And then he signed for next year as well. And, you know, I think we're going to have again an influx of young talent more so upfront. And so a veteran on the back end, especially one that's adept at moving pucks up to those young forwards. I think it's something that was important to us. It would probably be something we're going to look for in the summer. And so got a little bit of business out of the way. Obviously, you know, it came at a cost in Aiden. But, you know, you have to give something to get something. And it's kind of help, bro. Moving out your entire leadership core is fairly unprecedented. What made you believe that now is the time for the young players to step up and take over those roles? Yeah, you know, there's, we did move out a lot of leadership. But I think we still have a lot in that room. There's a lot of good veterans still in that room. And then, you know, we've got a lot of emerging young leaders. You know, Alex Lask has been around this league a while. You know, and then we've got some guys that know what they need

5:13to do to win and know what they need to do and what the team needs to do to keep progressing. And I think it's an opportunity for a lot of young players to step into the void and continue progressing their own leadership capabilities and developing their voice in the room. And so, you know, I don't necessarily fear for the lack of leadership. I think it's there. It's just going to come in a different form now. And I'm excited for a lot of those young guys to find that voice and find that next bit of contribution that they could, you know, they had some really, really good positive leaders to learn from over the last couple of years. Both that we've, you know, moved out now, but even looking back to the last couple of years, you know, they've got to learn from guys like Paddy Maroon and Al Gmartina's and, you know, the guys that have even come before them. And then, obviously, Murf Dickie and Nick. So, you know, they've seen what it's like they've seen what needs to be said at the right times.

6:13And so, it's time for them to start, start either vocalizing or through their actions, taking charge of the room. And it's going to be opportunity to do that over the next, certainly over the next bit of this season to finish off. And then, you know, we'll see you how the summer goes. But it's their locker room now. And it's time for them to take over and say what needs to be said when it needs to happen. So, I'm excited for them. And I think it's a good bit of opportunity for them to grow into that. Kind of piggyback off of that. Conor Bedard has the aid for the rest of this season. Sure, there's a captain C in his future. Just how have you seen him kind of develop that leadership capabilities? I mean, you know, he's already the face of the franchise and kind of developing those leadership abilities and what he was learning from those guys over these last couple years. Yeah, I think, you know, with, again, whether it's Connor or any young player, it takes time to get comfortable in this league. And there's a lot of feeling out process and understanding

7:16where your place within that leadership structure is. And I believe this year coming into this season, Conor, you know, we obviously saw his play. But it just his voice and his ability to command that room and, you know, be a presence within the room. I think really took a step forward. And you just, you feel it when you're around him. You see it, you know, when the group's kind of hanging out around the rank or on the road. And, you know, he's a guy that people gravitate towards. And so, you know, I believe you'll continue to grow in that respect and find his own leadership style. You know, everyone's different. You know, we've had a great example of, you know, the leadership at the top of that pyramid with Nick over the last number of years. And, you know, whoever steps into that spot or takes on a little bit more of that lead role is not going to be Nick.

8:17It's going to be, I'm sure, a different style. But equally as effective, I'd assume and expect. And so, you know, there's going to be further growth because, you know, still young player and he's going to figure that out. But you can just see the comfort in that role of growing over the last years. So, but, you know, we're fortunate to have a number of young players that have either played leadership roles in the past with their teams, but who have also matured into players that I think, you know, others can gravitate towards and look to for guidance and times of need. So, I think we're in a really good spot there moving forward. A lot of fans have seen the vision with your reboot so far and with that comes some fans I have so concerned about the future. Well, what would you say to those fans that kind of don't see eye to your vision as of right now? Well, I can't really address every quibble

9:17that someone might have with the vision, but, you know, what, like, I think that's natural in any, you know, I think there's probably teams around the league that the fan base is asking to get younger. And when you're younger, they're asking to get a little bit older. And so, you know, like, that's, that's fandom. You know, that's what happens. But, you know, I think that whether, again, whether people want to hear it or not, we're committed to a vision here. And we've picked a path, we're committed to that, and we're going to execute within that vision. And so, we're continuing to do that. We're continuing to, you know, I believe in these young players. I believe in this group of young prospects that we have coming both here and not in the NHL. And as they continue mature, as they continue to get comfortable and develop into the players that we see them becoming and we expect them to become in this league, that's going to drive our team's success. And that doesn't mean that, again, it's only going to come from these players. Like, there's opportunities along the way. I would hope and expect, you know, in the future to add

10:20and inject some more talent, you know. Again, but, as I said before, like, we can only deal with what we know. And we know all these players coming in. We know these players coming up. And we believe in them wholeheartedly, not just with the rose color glasses that they can get us to where we want to go. And so, that's the vision. That's what we're committed to. We believe in that. And, again, we've got a ton of young players in the way. We've got a ton of draft capital that, you know, is there for us to use moving forward. And so, we're positioned very well. It's something that doesn't happen overnight. We're such a young team here. We're such a, you know, for the most part, quite an inexperienced team in the landscape of the NHL. And so, that takes time. And that's not easy to come in and just be great right away. Especially when you have it at every position for, you know, in our team, especially on the back end. You know, it's a tough position for young players, but we're seeing steps. We're seeing improvement. We're seeing what we need to see to believe that we're on the right path.

11:21I know, in the past, you've used the additional future draft assets to kind of move into the back half of the first round to go out and get more of a player that's kind of in a tier. But to a mess, draft pace in 27, 28, are you hoping that one day maybe you can use those to kind of go out and get an impactful type of player that can help surround some of these players in the long, that fits the long-term vision too? Of course, yeah, and that's not something where we're, you know, necessarily married to only happening down the road. Like, those are things that we explore. We have explored. We have, you know, attempted. And, you know, there's the reality of it is that the really good players, especially really good young players, are so hard to shake loose. It's just, it is what it is. And it's natural. It's understandable. But it's something you were always trying to do. And so we've got the ammo to continue to explore those avenues and try and acquire talent. And so, you know, with the future in mind,

12:23with the growth and understanding where our gaps may be and where we may need to add in the future both in the short end, you know, long-term, based on when we have drafts. We got them for the next number of drafts. We're well positioned for that. And so, you know, and so it's something that you have to plan for and be prepared to execute on if the opportunity arises. And what we can control is being prepared. And we are prepared from that standpoint. And so we've got the capital. We've got the assets. It's just waiting for the right window to open to act on that. But again, we can't act if we're not prepared. And so we are prepared. You want the last season by adding an absolute I guess from college, do you envision that possibility to see such a well-bearing coming over or if not the last season ends early enough for the league play in any joint season? Yeah, they could, again, these are conversations that we're going to have once their seasons are down. We don't want to wish an early end to any of their seasons.

13:24We hope they have a ton of success wherever they are. We want, with our prospects, always telling them, like, just be where your feet are and have as much success as you can in those spots. But it's certainly conversations will have when they do finish up. And then we'll see what direction they want to go. We don't normally set those things up in advance unless it's very time-sensitive, you know, especially for example, like Orion Green last year. We had two games left, I think, when his season ended. So you had to act very quickly. So it had to be a bit of prep work in advance. But you know, we try and just leave the player to play. And then when the season's done, we have those conversations with them at that time. And so a little too early to say, but I think you'd be disingenuous to say we won't have those conversations with those players when the time comes. You got the two deals with Edmonton Dunn earlier than Wes and Edmonton? Were you intentionally trying to get in front of things

14:25and be a little bit early? Or was it just the right timing for both sides? Yeah, a little bit of the right timing. I'm also someone that, in my preparation, in the lead up for something like this, I like to know what I want. I like to know what my thresholds are and where my line is on when I will do a deal, when I won't do a deal, when I'll wait and when I'll act. And so both certainly, you know, we got what we wanted. You know, I guess you always try and re-evaluate. Like, could we have held off longer and got a little bit more? Maybe, maybe not. Maybe that all goes away. I don't know. But we go into every conversation, understanding what we want, knowing we want to get out of it. And if that is met, then we'll do it. And if it's earlier, great, if we have to wait on that and we get it later, then that works too.

15:26But I'm of the belief that if there's something to act on, you act on it. And especially, you know, the other thing, too, is there's a personal component here where with Murphy and Dickie, I wanted to give them an opportunity. And the last thing I would want is to, you know, hold out for a little something more, like just a little bit more. And it dry up and they don't get to experience something like that, not that they asked to go out or anything. But, you know, in exploring the market, this was a great opportunity for both of them. And so it was something I didn't want to wait around and have dry up. You know, it did necessitated action. And so we took it. But I'm not big on, you know, waiting to wait. If that sets the market, that sets the market for better or worse.

16:29But I'd rather get a deal done with a return that I'm satisfied with ahead of time than sweat it out and not either go sideways and you lose something or you just wait for the sake of waiting. I don't necessarily believe in that either. So with that, with a guy like Billy McKay and him also being a unrestricted free agent this summer, was it a matter of that package that you wanted to get back? Wasn't it a matter? Was there some, maybe, a lot of things to completely strip all the free agents out? Yeah, probably a little bit of both. You know, I look, I think Mickey is someone that, I want to keep Mickey around. I want to keep him around. I really like what he brings to the team. We really appreciate him organizationally. I think he plays a big role for us, not that anyone else didn't. But I think he's a player we really like to have in our own.

17:32And we like having as a black hawk. And so if someone was going to approach us, they had to make it worth our while and compel us to act. And that certainly didn't happen. And frankly, I'm glad I didn't have to make a tough decision there. Because I like having Mickey as a black hawk. He's a good guy, a good family, and we value him a lot. And so we're happy to have him around through the end of the season. And then we'll see if there's anything there beyond that. But I think our intention is to get with his representation and try and see if there's something there. But that's where the business takes over. And we'll see where that goes. But that would be our intent is to play out the year. And then we'll see where the future goes.

18:34There's nothing new on that front. It's just someone that we would like to bring back because we do appreciate him. But that's the business side that we'll have to hold tackle in the future. So after the kind of work future, I think there was a lot of assumption that it was going to create an opportunity for Kevin or Chansky yesterday to set down under two games. Where does he stand with the organization right now? What does he say about giving his future to the committee? Yeah, no, well, look, Kevin's a 21-year-old defenseman that I think is, if you ask me, if he's going to benefit more from popping into the line up here or playing big minutes in Rockford, it would be playing big minutes in Rockford. And so that's where we see his development best served right now. And so that's why we did it. I think we also want to get a look at Ethan here. He's certainly got a lot less NHL experience than Kevin has. But I think it's just we need to get Kevin minutes

19:38and keep getting him minutes because we have seen some really nice strides, and we want to keep that positive momentum going into the off season. But we're big fans of Kevin. He's got a ton of upside, a ton of ability. He's still raw. He's still getting into the pro game and learning through that process and that development process. But he's someone that we really like. We have a lot of time for. And again, going to Rockford is not a punishment. And it's an opportunity to keep growing your game and be ready when the opportunity arises. And that's what we expect of him. That's what we expect of all the young players in Rockford is that they're staying ready. They're committing themselves to their development and making the most of their time with the ice hogs because it's time well spent. And we've got eyes on them every single day, watch every single one of their games. So it's not like they go down there into a black hole. They're never seen like we're there. We've got hands on and eyes on them all the time

20:39watching and making sure that they're taking the red steps. And we believe he has this year. And we wanted to keep taking that positive step. But we also don't want just bodies hanging around here too. So if there's development left to be served, then you go to Rockford and keep working on the development. That's what you seem to do. Awesome. No, with the left snog, he certainly had some ups and downs and the big blast talk to you. How would you evaluate his season overall? And more recently, how would you evaluate how he's responded to that, like, room over in the lineup for him if they're before the break? Yeah, I think when you do something like we did with Artie, where we took him out for a number of games, almost had like a pseudo training camp with him. And that can go one of two ways. They can embrace that. They can dig in, or they can pull back. And maybe they feel bad for themselves or feel frustrated and Artie dug in.

21:40He went full throttle into the development opportunity that was presented. Did everything we asked him? He went back to Florida. And I know he did a lot of grinding over the break in Florida and came back. And I thought the game in Utah was one of his stronger games that we've seen. And so again, there's a level of volatility with young players, especially young players in the NHL, where sometimes you lose that confidence or you lose that module a little bit. And it's hard to get that back. And so it's our job to figure out what's best to get that back. Sometimes that's rock-ford. Sometimes that's just sitting out in the NHL and with a little breather. And with Artie, I think we determine that in his case, it was best served here in the NHL with our coaches, with the development staff up here. And I believe he's responded very well. Now, is the ebbs and flows you get with the young defense and in particular with young players in general.

22:42It's not always a linear upward trajectory. Sometimes there's little dips. But you hope that in the aggregate, it's there are gains that are being made. And I feel there certainly have been both from a defensive physicality standpoint, it's puck movement, just comfort level on the ice. I think coming out of the break just looks a lot more settled. Some of that has experienced. Some of that is a little time out, frankly, from a long grinding season. And I'm really excited about the way Artie's trended and certainly when you look where he was a couple of years ago, to where he was a year back from now. To this point, I think it's constant improvement, constant upward trajectory. It's maybe not constant upward trajectory. But in general, it's the arrows definitely pointed up. And so we're really excited about that. And we think this guy's willing for this kid, so.

23:44With Badar, has there been any recent contract boxer and you expect that to be end of the season conversation at this point? Yeah, we'll handle that after the end of the season. The end of last season has changed the feeling of the whole year where we're just so proud of the young players. It's like, well, what were these last 21 games? Is there anything you'd like to see or anything that I guess you could give it somewhere in the summer vibe for where you would have a complaint? Yeah, I think, again, it's funny, right? It's nice that we ended that period with some positivity. And that's certainly great. And I think that when the offseason at a really opportune time for everyone, but that's the ebb and flow. It'd be nice if we hit a high point towards the end, right? And I'm just excited to see some of these young players take on a little more opportunity, a little more ownership of the season, right? Now that Murphs moved on to Edmonton on the right side,

24:47we'll see Louie already in Sam, all the same time, right? Third line center, we'll get the test a couple guys out there. Now that Dickies with the Oilers, and so there's some really good opportunities for guys to jump in, grab hold of, and then as you asked earlier, there's perhaps the influx of more young players coming down the stretch here. And so there's a lot of exciting learning that we're going to do, organizationally, on some of these players. Some exciting opportunities for those players to jump into and grab hold of and show that they can perform in those certain roles and take hold of those for spots moving forward. And so I think there's a lot to watch, a lot to pay attention to, and a lot to be excited about from a youth and opportunity standpoint. And so hopefully that translates into some nice results down the stretch and some good success for some young players to build on XZ in the season and going into the next season.

25:50Conor's talked about the motions of going through trade deadlines and be a team that is selling at the stage of the season. Do you worry about that, wearing on him going through that? Knowing that it's more of a long-term process to get to a point where you're adding end deadlines rather than selling? Honestly, I'd probably worry more if it wasn't bothering guys, to be honest, because I think that would reflect some sort of disengagement from the group. I don't think anyone's pleased about being sellers. I don't want them to be. I think that's something that they've got to feel and they've got to take not only into the game, but into the off season and do everything they can to individually and then combine that into a collective effort to make sure that we're just not in these spots moving forward. And you don't know what the future's going to bring. But I think it's a healthy thing to be that invested

26:55in your teammates and in your group. And love the group that you're working with every day to the point where unfortunately when the business side of the industry takes hold and guys do move on that, you do feel that. Because we want that close-knit group, we want that investment from everyone and each other. And I think we've seen that over the last couple days. And obviously, these are great people that we're moving out. And it's understandable why the players and the staff and the organization and the fans would be disappointed to see them move on. But again, that's the nature of the industry where that stuff's going to happen. So again, I don't want this to be something we do every single year moving forward. And I know the players certainly don't want that either. But I wouldn't say it's something that necessarily worries me because I just think it's absolutely naturally going to locker rooms around the NHL

27:57where this has happened. And that's the reaction you're going to get. Or that's the reaction I hope you would get. And so I think it's totally normal, totally natural. But also not something we want to live annually. I don't want to. I don't want to. I don't want to. I don't want to. I don't want to. I don't want to. I don't want to. I don't want to. I don't want to. I don't want to. I don't want to. I don't want to.