On Wednesday morning, the fine folks at The Athletic published the results of their fan survey grading NHL front offices.
It did not go well for the Blackhawks.
As I noted when they first shared the questionnaire, the Blackhawks ranked 12th in the NHL in their survey last year. One year ago, 61 percent of the fan base was more confident in the direction of the franchise than the previous year; 47 percent of the NHL fan base at-large was more confident than the previous year as well.
After moving up from 15th to 12th in the league the previous two years, the Blackhawks drop all the way to 25th in the league this year. Here are the grades:
Source: The AthleticMy immediate reaction was “How’d they get my college report card to publish?” The old saying “Cs get degrees” has us hoping for a diploma — at least from the Blackhawks’ fan base.
This paragraph in the write-up from Dom Luszczyszyn sums things up fairly well:
For Chicago specifically, last year’s big free-agency misses (and overspending in general) weren’t viewed favorably. While there’s excitement this year towards seeing how some of the prospects perform in the majors, there’s also trepidation given the environment they’re being thrown into. Skepticism regarding who they’ve picked (or haven’t, in the case of Ivan Demidov) is also present throughout the fan base.
What this entire exercise says to me is vibes are low with the Blackhawks’ fan base. Which, unfortunately, is the reality you get to deal with after another season in which the lottery balls are the only thing on the schedule in April or May.
I expected the grade in “free agency” to go down, and it did by a full letter grade. One of the comments from a fan that was shared in the article says “The failure to add real talent is disheartening and detrimental to the progress of all of the draft picks that had been hoarded the past few years.” I’m not going to re-write my “which impact player did they miss out on in free agency?” rhetorical Q&A here again, but I am painfully aware that not adding a top-tier player (even if that isn’t possible) is still a negative in the grade book.
When I shared the survey link in our bullets, I said the areas that interested me most were “draft and develop” and “vision.” Both went down this year.
Frank Nazar and Sam Rinzel came up to the NHL last year and looked like they could be legit impact players, and yet the grade went down in the “draft and develop” category.
Even as Dom points out the Blackhawks did well trading Seth Jones to Florida for Spencer Knight and a first-round pick. And last summer the Blackhawks also stole Ilya Mikheyev from the Canucks one year ago and he had a terrific season. Yet the grade in “trades” went down.
The bottom line(s) of the graphic are the most telling part: 34 percent of the Blackhawks’ fan base is less confident than they were one year ago while only 22 percent is more confident.
Why? It’s fairly simple: fans are tired of the Blackhawks drafting in the top five.
The 2025-26 season is both exciting and likely a source of anxiety for the Blackhawks front office because, for the first time, we’re going to see the early stages of proof of concept for Kyle Davidson’s rebuild plan on the ice in the NHL. Connor Bedard will no longer be the only player drafted by GMKD’s front office in the lineup every night.
If the kids can play, and they turn their learning curve moments into wins more often than not, next year’s survey will undoubtedly be significantly different than this year’s edition.
For now, Blackhawks fans hear and read about the positive things that are happening the response is a clear, resounding “Show me!”
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