Hawks’ Kane: ‘You can win and still be in a rebuild’ originally appeared on NBC Sports Chicago
The Blackhawks are down to their final few days of the 2021-22 season, which means all the attention is starting to shift to the summer and the bigger picture for this franchise moving forward.
On March 1, Kyle Davidson was named the permanent general manager of the Blackhawks and he didn’t dance around what needs to be done to fix the roster. The Blackhawks are in a rebuild, and this could be a longer-term one, although Davidson said from the start he isn’t going to put a timeline on it.
In his de-facto exit interview on Tuesday, Patrick Kane said he’s had multiple conversations with Davidson about day-to-day stuff, but not certain things about the future yet. That will come when the season officially comes to a close.
“We’ll have our end of the year meetings and I’m sure we’ll talk about certain things that both of us are thinking, just kind of go from there,” Kane said. “I’m sure there’ll be more than one discussion. For me it’s more about just having a good summer and getting myself back to the level I know I can be at and help this team out even more next year than I believe I did this year.”
A 15-year NHL veteran and three-time Stanley Cup champion, Kane is a competitor at heart. He wants to win, and it’s no doubt eating at him that the Blackhawks haven’t won a playoff round since the 2015 Stanley Cup Final.
Asked whether working with some of the younger players could be enough to satisfy him during some potential dark times in the coming years, Kane acknowledged that his leadership role could play a big part in speeding up the timeline of the rebuild.
“As a player, you’re always trying to personally improve yourself and try to get better every day,” he said. “And I think that’s something that I feel I can be even better at, is trying to help these guys develop a little bit quicker, point some things out on the ice that are just little details that might…