Former NHLer Mike Foligno, father of Blackhawks forward Nick Foligno, gave Davidson his first taste of hockey front office work with Sudbury of the OHL.

The NHL's Sudbury Syndicate is alive, well and extends into Chicago.

Blackhawks general manager Kyle Davidson, a native of the Northern Ontario nickel capital, says he got his start in hockey front office operations by helping the Sudbury Wolves during the OHL draft years ago. The coach and GM of the junior club was Mike Foligno, a forward in the NHL for 15 seasons, who was continuing his hockey career in his hometown.

Mike Foligno is the father of Blackhawks forward and de facto captain Nick Foligno, Minnesota Wild winger Marcus Foligno and daughters Lisa and Cara. Nick Foligno helped keep the injury-plagued Blackhawks together last season and played up and down the lineup, averaging 17:46 of ice time at age 36.

Davidson had acquired Nick Foligno, along with winger Taylor Hall, from Boston days before selecting Connor Bedard with the No. 1 pick in the 2023 NHL Draft. Nick Foligno signed a two-year contract extension in January, shortly after breaking his finger in a fight with New Jersey's Brendan Smith after the Devils defenseman fractured Bedard's jaw with an open-ice hit.

Things just go full circle.

Davidson, a 2010 graduate of the sports administration program at Laurentian University, https://laurentian.ca/news/sports-administration-graduate-named-chicago-blackhawks-gm, did whatever Mike Foligno and his staff needed during the online OHL draft in the years prior to joining the Blackhawks as a hockey operations intern in Summer 2010. Now the NHL's youngest GM at age 36, Davidson was a kid peering inside the door, looking to get his feet wet.

"He let me help out in the draft room on draft day," Davidson recalled. "Whatever, running, getting information, anything the might need for the scouts to make a pick or miscellaneous stuff. I was just kind of hanging around and he gave me that access. That was, I won't call it job, but first ability to have little insight into the hockey operations of a junior team."  See following video.

Mike Foligno was coach and GM of the Wolves for seven seasons, a span when both Nick and Marcus played for the team. Davidson said he planned to reconnect with Mike Foligno, now 65 and retired, in Sudbury this summer.

Mike Foligno was born in Northern Ontario and played for the Wolves himself, although he spent the early years of his childhood in Italy where his first sport was soccer. He didn't skate until returning to Canada at age 10, but progressed swiftly as a speedy sniper, scoring 65 goals and 150 points in his final junior season. 

Foligno was drafted third overall by Detroit in 1979 and put up 36 goals and 35 assists as a rookie in 1979-80.

He was traded to Buffalo with Dale McCourt in a blockbuster deal in December 1981.  Under coach Scotty Bowman with the Sabres, Foligno learned to play a more responsible overall game and prospered over 10 seasons, peaking with 41 goals and 80 points in 1985-86.

Bowman's son, Stan, was the Blackhawks GM when the team hired Davidson. Go figure.

After retiring as a player, Mike Foligno moved into coaching, first in the AHL, next as an NHL assistant, then as head coach of the AHL Hershey Bears before returning to Sudbury in 2003.  He left the Wolves in 2010 for NHL assistant coaching spots with Anaheim and New Jersey.