The surplus of prospects and top draft picks will only take them so far when they aren’t developing them or the second tier of prospects.
Scott Wheeler released his NHL farm systems ranking and the Chicago Blackhawks were number one on the list. It’s not a surprise. The Blackhawks are one at the top of many rankings and have been for years.
The surprise is that the deep and talented prospect pool hasn’t amounted to much. Even with young players like Connor Bedard, Anton Frondell, and Frank Nazar, the Blackhawks sit at the bottom of the Western Conference. Rebuilds take time but the Blackhawks have watched the Anaheim Ducks, Columbus Blue Jackets, Montreal Canadiens, Philadelphia Flyers, San Jose Sharks, Utah Mammoth, and a handful of other teams that hit the reset button around the same time that they did pass them by.
It’s not a coincidence. It makes sense considering how the Blackhawks ended up with the top farm system in the first place. It makes more sense considering how they have struggled to develop prospects, especially at the American Hockey League level.
Rockford Stagnates Development
The Blackhawks have a great system because they’ve been at the top of the draft for multiple seasons. They’ve landed elite prospects by default with Bedard and Frondell falling into their lap. The thing about team building in hockey is that it takes more than drafting to get to the top. Stanley Cup winning teams draft, develop, sign the right players in free agency, make the right trades, and put together a staff that leads the way to victory.
Any team can draft well when they have a top five pick, especially year after year. It’s where a team can land a generational talent who turns around a franchise. The key for teams that draft well and then develop is how they do outside of the top five. The Blackhawks have struggled, notably with the Kevin Korchinski pick in the 2022 draft.
Korchinski is a talented defenseman and should be great in the NHL someday. The problem is that the Blackhawks never developed him correctly. They moved him around from the NHL to AHL and have changed his role multiple times in the process. On top of that, the Rockford IceHogs never leaned into his development and lack a culture that helps him take steps forward.
It’s not just Korchinski either. Think about how many draft selections outside of the first round are regulars on the Blackhawks roster. The answer is minimal. Those late-round finds are something every rebuilding team has (think Lane Hutson with the Montreal Canadiens) and they come mostly from development.
The IceHogs aren’t a team that’s built a winning environment. The AHL team cuts corners, especially on the ice and doesn’t bring in the veteran leadership to help their young players. A contrast is their neighboring Chicago Wolves, the Carolina Hurricanes affiliate who has always focused on winning regardless of their NHL team (or if they have a parent team to begin with). The IceHogs meanwhile have a culture where the prospects take steps back and not steps forward.
It explains how Korchinski, a 2022 pick, has struggled to find a role in the NHL while others drafted after him have. Artom Levshunov, the second pick in the 2024 draft, has struggled in the NHL as he still learns the defense position. On top of that, the Blackhawks lack depth and instead have tried to compensate for it by signing aging over the hill veterans, which has backfired.
Not all but many successful NHL teams have great AHL teams as well. The Tampa Bay Lightning and the Syracuse Crunch or the Washington Capitals and the Hershey Bears. These teams are great in the long run because they have a team providing them with depth and players who were developed in a winning environment. Things won’t change in Chicago if they don’t change in Rockford.
The Blackhawks Have Tried So They Can Turn it Around
When the Blackhawks started their affiliation with the IceHogs in 2021, their coach at the time was Derek King. They were in the middle of a rebuild and he was the right coach to develop the prospects (his track record since reflects that). The problem is that in 2021, a scandal rocked the team and they were never the same after that.
Because of the 2021 scandal involving the Blackhawks, the NHL team fired their general manager (GM), head coach, and multiple big names in the organization. King was made the interim of the NHL team and they changed their philosophy on the rebuild. “With Chicago we had such a young group that it felt like an American League team. There were a lot of players there that were pushed into a situation,” King mentioned regarding the Blackhawks situation when he was hired by the Hershey Bears.
After the 2021-22 season, King was an assistant behind the NHL bench while the AHL team rotated through coaches. They’ve struggled to find the right coach to get the most out of the team since, although in fairness, some of the issues at the AHL level started with the NHL team, which made a coaching change last season and shuffled around both coach staffs.
The IceHogs have Jared Nightingale behind the bench and he’s wrapping up his first season with the team. It’s a rough season as the 27-36-3-2 and sit in last place in the Central Division. However, over time, he might be the right coach to turn the team around. And maybe, the Blackhawks will finally have the system in place to develop prospects.