Blackhawks Should Embrace the Uncertainty of Picking Third Overall – The Hockey Writers – Chicago Blackhawks

The Chicago Blackhawks will pick third overall in the 2025 NHL Draft on June 27. With that comes a lot of debate. The first two picks seem pretty set in stone with Matthew Schaefer and Michael Misa. But three always has a chance to go haywire. Look no further than last year when Beckett Sennecke went third overall to the Anaheim Ducks, after being projected to go outside the 10 to 15 range.

General manager Kyle Davidson spoke with the media on June 5, but because the Hawks are not publicly stating any concrete direction, much is up for debate.

Here is what is being said.

Blackhawks Draft Projections

First off, let’s look at projections. NHL.com’s mock draft had James Hagens (Center, Boston College) or Jake O’Brien (Center, Brantford Bulldogs) as Chicago’s pick.

Corey Pronman of The Athletic has center Anton Frondell (Djurgårdens IF- Sweden) as the pick in his mock draft. (from ‘NHL Mock Draft 2025: Schaefer at No. 1 and Misa at No. 2 in Corey Pronman’s first round projection – The Athletic – 06/03/2025)

Scott Wheeler of The Athletic also has Frondell at three in his latest mock draft. (From ‘2025 NHL Mock Draft 2.0: Scott Wheeler predicts the first 32 picks – The Athletic – 06/09/2025)

Our Andrew Forbes has Caleb Desnoyers (Center, Moncton Wildcats) listed in his draft rankings at three.

Lastly, our Mark Scheig mentioned in his draft combine notebook that he could see Porter Martone (RW, Brampton Steelheads) making sense.

So, there isn’t a unanimous pick at three, making you wonder which direction Davidson will go.

Davidson Speaks

Speaking of Davidson, Ben Pope of the Chicago Sun-Times reported what he had to say about what he is looking for at three.

“It’s a very big decision, so I want to make sure I’ve got a full view of where I want to go with it, with the different scenarios played out.”

“We do have a lot of players that are similar in their strengths. In some respects, I think that’s how you build identity. In others, you can bring in players — if you’ve got enough [already] — that it’s not going to take away from the core strength of your team. So you can bring players in that have a different skill set, that are more of a complementary piece. That’s definitely something we’re considering.’’

Pope also reported that Davidson mentioned “a…