Kyle Davidson speaks for first time as GM
Photo by Chase Agnello-Dean/NHLI via Getty Images
Tuesday’s media session confirmed Monday’s reports. The Chicago Blackhawks introduced Kyle Davidson as the team’s general manager on Tuesday, confirming reports that surfaced on Monday night.
Davidson met with assembled media for the first time, joining a panel with chairman Rocky Wirtz, CEO Danny Wirtz and president of business operations Jamie Faulkner.
The most interesting comment from Davidson was this one, regarding the direction of the team going forward:
More from Davidson: "We’re going to look at more of a rebuild here. There’s some things that we need to fix that are going to take time."— Carter Baum (@CarterBaum) March 1, 2022
The word “rebuild” is in there, although how Davidson defines a rebuild of this organization is something that will be understood in the coming weeks and months, based on Davidson’s actions. It is noteworthy to hear the team’s new GM use that word in his introductory press conference, though.
For those worried about Davidson being too heavily influenced by prior GM Stan Bowman — since Davidson learned while working under Bowman for the last few years — Danny Wirtz offered this comment:
Danny Wirtz on Davidson: "He's his own person. He has his own philosophies. He's not married to anything in the past... He can hit the ground running, but with a fresh perspective."— Ben Pope (@BenPopeCST) March 1, 2022
Davidson was also asked about input from players on personnel moves, in regards to veterans like Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane:
“Jonathan and Patrick are extremely important pieces to the organizations. They’re definitely going to be brought into the loop. There won’t be any surprises on their end on what we plan on doing with the organization.”-- New @NHLBlackhawks GM Kyle Davidson on Toews/Kane— Greg Wyshynski (@wyshynski) March 1, 2022
Some general themes of the press conference were that this is the beginning of a “new” direction for the team and a “change” from the past.
Kyle Davidson says he's "all in" on changing and improving hockey culture in the wake of all the Blackhawks' off-ice issues, saying he wants to be "leading from the front."— Mark Lazerus (@MarkLazerus) March 1, 2022
Davidson: "What the fans can get excited about is this is going to be new. There's going to be a lot of change coming."— Ben Pope (@BenPopeCST) March 1, 2022
Overall, the Blackhawks introduced a new general manager who said all the right things and answered questions from the media without any massive PR blunders. It ain’t much, but right now it’s all we’ve got.
And now we’ll see what this new direction leads to with the trade deadline just 20 days away and several crucial decisions awaiting on futures of players who may or may not be around in Chicago for much longer.
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