Lazerus: Bill Zito’s Panthers, Kyle Davidson’s Blackhawks and the road not taken

It is completely possible that the name Connor Bedard is drilled on the Stanley Cup.

He won the Conn Smythe Cup this spring, of course, after a really ridiculous separate match surrounded by Michael Missa and Frank Nazar, with Artyom Levshunov for 30 minutes at the end at the end. Kevin Corckski had got points as his partner in the upper pair, with Sam Renezel lighting, too. Alex Flasic’s work as a closing defender will be myth legends. This second line of Nick Lardis, Sacha Poesver and Oliver Moore will make those who move from Blackhawks, forcing the coaches opposed to the choice of their poison.

And the man, who will be able to forget the way Samuel Savoy, Andon Slagirt, and Marik Vannker, managed to have a newly baptized fire line, which led to the extraction of energy and fans from their seats?

It can definitely happen.

Kyle Davidson depends on this, pays his reputation on that, and tests the patience of Chicago on him. Davidson Danny Wirez sold his plan to roam the concession and rebuild it through the NHL draft, and this is exactly what Davidson did.

Eight choices of the first round in the last three seasons. Two others this year. Two others per year after that. It will always be an entertaining footnote in the history of Blackhawks in which the Davidson tank has failed, but the Ping-Pong balls fell on its way anyway, as the Bedard axis fell to it. The rest has been cruel and lack of emotional presence. Davidson had a clear vision like any general manager in the game, and he held it on every step on the road.

This is how professional sports teams work these days, especially in the salary league. When things go badly, you explode and start again. This is just how it works.

The thing is, it did not succeed. Not in NHL. Not in the era of the cover. not yet. The Buffalo SABERS team detonated it, and tried to wear for Conor McDavid, and will miss the qualifiers for the fourteenth season in a row. The red wings in Detroit, which were built through the draft, and some smart choices that succeeded well, were blown up, and they scratched and laboratory to be the eighth seed in the east after eight long seasons without a decisive appearance. Edmonton Oilers chose the first place four times in five seasons and fell the most talented player in the game at all, and they did not reach the real competition until last spring – after a decade of McDavid and 14 years of formulation after taking Taylor Hall.

Blackhawks, which was removed from eight years of her last appearance in the real qualifiers, is still years of the next players.

Saturday, Davidson traded one of his three best players, Defenseman Seth Jones, to Florida PanthersBecause Jones could not lose anymore. Davidson has achieved well in the deal – as he got goalkeeper Spencer Knight and kept only $ 2.5 million annually from Jones’s huge contract – but he was still another trade that made Blackhawks clearly worse. Always one step forward, two steps back.

Now let’s take a look at the team that gained Jones. When Bill Zito took over the position of General Motors in Florida, the leopards were still something laughing in the league. They did not win a series of a quarter -century match. The list was loaded with medium players in their twenties. They were stuck.

But Zito did not tear it. He did not rebuild the leopards. he renovated they. He used every tool at his disposal – deals, free agency, and a waiver wire – to rebuild the plane while it was still in the air. Within four years, the Panthers team was the Stanley Cup champion, a model for the model, envy of the league.

See how this tournament team is built. Zito made one of the most fork deals in the modern NHL history of Matthew Tkachuk. He has seen players who have not yet reached their capabilities and got them, and they traded with Sam Renharret, Sam Bennett, Brandon Montor and Eto Lostarin. He made a smart signature in a free agency, Wining Carter Verhai, Ivan Rodriguez and Oliver Ekman Larson. Gold was found on the waiver, and Gustav Forsing – by Vancouver Canox, Black Hokes and Hurricane Carolina – and watching it becomes one of the best defenders in the league. He dealt with his choice in the first round in 2022. In 2023, in 2024. In 2025, in 2026, the only main players who came through the draft were already present when he arrived: Alexander Parkov (No. 2 in 2013), Aaron Exclanti (No. 1 in 2014) and Anton Lundell (No. 12 in 2020).

Certainly it was not easy, and there was definitely some luck. Certainly, Zito did not see that Forsing became the player he is. No one saw 57 goals from Rinhart after six unexpected seasons in Boufalo. He did all of this with the Sergey Boubrovsky hat, which amounted to $ 10 million, which led to its weight, which is eventually a flight. What an oil did is very difficult.

But what Davidson does may be more difficult.

Davidson had his chance to do this more quickly, to spare fans all this misery. Blackhawks 2021-22 Alex Diprenkat, 23, had a 23-year-old Brandon Hagel. They had 26 -year -old Jones and Dylan Strum, who is 24 years old. They had Patrick Kane’s deployment of 92 points.

now? Debrincat with Detroit Red Wings, about the fourth season of 30 goals. Hagel with Tampa Bay Lightning, a growing star enjoying his second season 30 goals and the first point campaign for each game. Stom with Washington Capital, where a rifle rides to the history of the Alex Overchkin Center, with 59 points in 60 games. Kane, although only 100 games play, has more points over the last two seasons more than each BDARD unlike Bedard.

This is more than Florida when Zito took over. But Debrincat and Hagel were greater than that (although they were smaller than Barkov and Ecbrdu when Zito took over). Beddard was very important. The draft was the only path forward. The tear was the only way.

It is easy, and perhaps foolish, to direct all this after it is too late, of course. There is a few GMS reason ready to be bold like Zito. It usually ends in the shooting. If Davidson tried to re -equip around his young rising stars and Kane on the plane at the time, Black Hawk is likely to be stuck in the middle of the past few years as in the Stanley Cup final.

But any of these scenarios seem very good compared to what Blackhawks has been the past four years, and they may likely be in the next few years, and what Gones out of the city was very excited to come to him in the first place.

What is done, but it is not necessary to stay in this way. It is time for a long time until Davidson becomes aggressive, to start trying to win a real right. Yes, he ran in Jake Guinsel last summer, but he came short. It somehow has to convince Miko Rantanin or Mitch Marner this summer to register for seven years of playing with Beddard. Or go to Wyatt Johnston, Noah Dobson or Evan Bouchar with a display paper. Or fill in some options of countless choices, prospects and players who were collected to land a ready -made rising star.

Or all of the above. This is what Zito will do. This is what Zito did. This is what succeeds.

It’s time to get bold. It’s time to get creativity. It’s time to start winning again. Because the current track is not just painful. It is unlikely to work. History showed us that. It is better to aspire to be the cheetahs in Florida from the risk of becoming Boufalo Sprins.

(The highest image of Seth Jones: Bill Smith / NHLI via Getty Images)