{"id":372923,"date":"2025-12-28T00:09:38","date_gmt":"2025-12-28T00:09:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/372923\/"},"modified":"2025-12-28T00:09:38","modified_gmt":"2025-12-28T00:09:38","slug":"blackhawks-tracking-toward-another-top-five-draft-pick-due-to-nhl-parity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/372923\/","title":{"rendered":"Blackhawks tracking toward another top-five draft pick due to NHL parity"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Thanksgiving, the NHL\u2019s intense parity this season seemed like it might help the Blackhawks<\/a> by maximizing their chances of playing meaningful games<\/a> into March.<\/p>\n

On Christmas, the parity seems like it might instead help the Hawks by maximizing their odds in the draft lottery.<\/p>\n

The Hawks\u2019 major slump entering the holiday break, losing six consecutive games \u2014 five consecutive since Connor Bedard\u2019s injury \u2014 and 14 of their last 17, was disheartening. So is the realization that in spite of the team\u2019s encouraging start, they sit in last place in the standings yet again.<\/p>\n

But here\u2019s the glass-half-full perspective: this might represent the best of both worlds.<\/p>\n

The Hawks are still on pace to finish the season with 73 points, a substantial improvement upon their 61 last season and 52 the season before that, and with a minus-34 goal differential, an even-more-substantial improvement upon their minus-70 and minus-111 marks the last two seasons.<\/p>\n

Yet the Hawks, if the season ended today, would enter the lottery with higher odds (25.5%) of earning the No. 1 pick than they did either of the last two years.<\/p>\n

Taking a step forward on the ice and still getting to draft another elite prospect with a top-three pick? General manager Kyle Davidson would be thrilled about that outcome.<\/p>\n

Of course, the reason the Hawks sit in last place is that the other clubs who also have been rebuilding in recent years \u2014 particularly the Sharks, Ducks and Canadiens \u2014 have improved tremendously.<\/p>\n

The Sharks\u2019 turnaround has been remarkable, as they\u2019re on pace for 82 points (up from 52 last season), although it\u2019s worth noting their minus-20 goal differential is still worse than the Hawks\u2019. It\u2019s also worth noting the most likely outcome is that the Sharks miss out on both the playoffs and another top-five pick as a result of this overachievement.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s still plenty of time for everything to change, though, with 29 of the league\u2019s 32 teams separated by only 15 points and more than half the season left to play.<\/p>\n

The entire Eastern Conference is separated by only 11 points, and the bottom 10 teams in the West are separated by only seven points. Only the Avalanche, Stars and Wild appear to be truly pulling away from the pack.<\/p>\n

The Hawks will resume play after the holiday break Saturday at the Stars, a tough matchup to start a grueling stretch of six games in nine days \u2014 including two more back-to-back sets, in which they\u2019re winless so far. That\u2019s certainly not ideal without Bedard and Frank Nazar.<\/p>\n

The schedule will remain relatively condensed \u2014 to the tune of 21 games in 40 days \u2014 until the Olympic break begins in early February. At least 10 of the next 13 games are at home.<\/p>\n

While the Hawks\u2019 playing roster grinds through that gauntlet, Davidson and his front office will gradually shift their attention toward the draft, even though they don\u2019t know yet how high they\u2019ll be picking.<\/p>\n

The world junior championships, which began Friday, offer a prime opportunity to not only watch current Hawks prospects Anton Frondell (Sweden), Vaclav Nestrasil (Czechia) and AJ Spellacy (USA) but also evaluate top 2026 draft prospects Ivar Stenberg (Sweden), Gavin McKenna (Canada) and Keaton Verhoeff (Canada).<\/p>\n

McKenna\u2019s stock has been falling<\/a> steadily due to concerns about his work ethic and two-way play, but a dominant performance in this tournament could reverse that trend. Stenberg\u2019s stock has been rising quickly, but that hype will be tested.<\/p>\n

Canadian center Tynan Lawrence is one possible top-five pick who isn\u2019t at world juniors, but the Hawks won\u2019t have a difficult time scouting him now that he\u2019s healthy and playing well for his USHL club in Muskegon, Michigan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On Thanksgiving, the NHL\u2019s intense parity this season seemed like it might help the Blackhawks by maximizing their…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":372924,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-372923","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-nhl","9":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372923","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=372923"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372923\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/372924"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=372923"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=372923"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=372923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}