OverDrive - Davidson on Connor Bedard's contract extension, Bowen Byram's potential, and the possibility of a Patrick Kane reunion

Episode Date: July 21, 2026

Chicago Blackhawks General Manager Kyle Davidson joins the program to discuss the contract negotiations in getting Connor Bedard signed to an extension, the excitement he and the team have for Bowen Byram, if the team has interest in bringing back Patrick Kane, and the process of building a contending team from a rebuild.

Get Bell Pure Fiber Internet with Crave Netflix and Disney Plus from $94 a month. Price guaranteed for two years on Internet with a two-year term and auto pay credit. Visit bell.ca for details and to check availability. Bell, connection is everything. And one of the teams that has been, I'd argue, most active this offseason and most compelling in terms of kind of what they're doing and what their plans are moving forward would be the Chicago Blackhawks. And the guy in charge down there, the guy that's running the whole operation joins us now,

here's the GM of the Blackhawks, Kyle Davidson, back on Overdrive. How are you doing, Kyle? Hey, guys. Doing well. Thanks for having me. Yeah, thank you so much for doing this. Is it a relief, like the Badaar deal, getting that over with? I'm sure you always knew it was going to happen. But now that it's done, you know, the number of the term, how much relief comes with that,

and how much does it allow you to kind of plan for the next five years? Yeah, I know. It's definitely exciting. And, you know, whenever you can, you can, You can lock in a cornerstone piece like Connor. It's certainly a good day for the organization, and so we're excited to make that happen across the finish line the other day and, yeah, kind of get going on planning out the next couple of years, which we're very, very excited about.

Yeah, I know you can't divulge too many details about a contract negotiation, but how's the dynamic between you guys and BADARDD as far as how that deal comes to be? Were you pushing for more years on that deal? Or were you happy with where it's settled at? Yeah, you know, I think you're always, you're always, you know, advocating for your position as, you know, the player advocates for theirs. But it was, it was a really healthy discussion, I would say. I think we both achieved what we wanted out of it. You know, I think we're both very, very happy with where it's settled in. And, you know, in the end, it's about getting the player's sign, making sure that they're receiving the right value, you want to make sure that the value they're

receiving is commensurate with that, that they're, you know, providing. And we feel we've, we reach that. And so that's, you know, a good merger when you can, you can kind of make everyone happy and achieve things for both sides in negotiation. How much, if at all, did the Leo Carlson contract affect negotiations? Yeah, I don't necessarily know if it impacted them, you know, to, to, you know, a great degree, but it certainly the, I would say, without a doubt, the landscape changed under our feet, you know, mid-negotiation. I don't think there's any doubt about that. I don't know if that will persist moving forward within the marketplace, but it was, it was, you know, it was certainly a, of, some way. of a landscape there and something that we certainly had to consider and be mindful of in the

discussions. But I think in the end, you know, we kind of stuck to our path and kind of stayed within our own negotiation and found, you know, a good point of agreement, you know, within our own ecosystem that we had established in negotiations. Well, you're in the exclusive club. There's 32 guys who are GMs of the 32 teams. and historically, you know, there's been a, I guess, a perception from the outside of kind of an old boys club, there's an agreement, you know, don't go after us, we won't go after you. Obviously, you weren't directly involved in Philly and Anaheim and Leo Carlson in the offer sheet, but you're indirectly involved in all of it because, again, there's only 32 teams, 32 GMs. How do you react to a possible new era where maybe offer sheets are on the table and we could be looking at a very different landscape in terms of, free agency in the league.

Well, I think it's absolutely something to be mindful, but I don't, I also don't believe it's, it's, you know, it's not something that, that just came about this summer, right? It's certainly a notable occurrence with, with Leo Carlson, but we've seen it, you know, in the past and in the recent past with, you know, St. Louis and, you know, Philip Broberg and and, and, uh, and the hallway contracts. And so, you know, it's not something that's completely new, but it certainly, you know, puts you on notice and puts everyone on notice in the marketplace to be mindful, you know, not just with, you know,

pending you a phase, but, you know, you're pending our phase. And so it's perhaps it compels teams to, you know, react and get deals done sooner than they may have done in the past. But, again, it's not entirely new, but I certainly believe it was a shot across the boughs to many around the league. It feels like if you're going to go after a team's marquee player, like if someone wanted to offer sheep a dart, you would have been like it's an easy match.

I can't imagine there was a number out there that you wouldn't match that at. But if you look at the way the Edmonton ones transpired, it's like, hey, they kind of spent money on UFAs, and now the RFAs, it feels like, have a lot more power in the NHL. than they've had for quite some time. Do you feel that as a general manager? Do you feel like RFAs are in a different position now

than maybe they were back in that flat cap world we were living in? I don't know if that's necessarily how I look at. I think I just almost take the position on my end. What can I do to make sure that I'm putting our organization in the best position possible? And that comes through diligent cap planning and making sure that we're playing out all the different scenarios. and ensuring that, you know, every scenario is accounted for to the, you know, to the degree we can prepare for it.

But, you know, it's certainly something that, you know, teams will have to reckon with moving forward. I don't think there's any doubting that. And so it puts a little extra emphasis on, you know, mindful, you know, budgeting of your cap resources moving forward, especially when you have a lot of young players coming up for contracts. With Kyle Davidson, GM of the Blackhawks, you know, Connor Bedard, obviously, we knew about him when he was a young guy. He was brilliant junior, unbelievable at the world juniors. And he was so good to start last year, and then that shoulder injury popped up.

And he's re-agravated that. He's had surgery. What makes you believe the surgery is going to solve the issue, and he's going to be at 100% when he returns, and, you know, the rest will be history for Connor Bedard. Well, slight, I guess, clarification is it wasn't a re-aggravation. It was his other shoulder. Okay.

And so, you know, the one that was injured last year was rehabbed and to the point where he and we feel comfortable that it's in a very good spot. You know, this injury necessitated surgery, and we anticipate. nothing but a full recovery. And like you said, he was off as such a great start. It was such a, you know, a disappointing occurrence for not only him. And, you know, he was playing very well and certainly, you know, making a push for to make that Olympic team, you know, when he, the date of his injury, he was actually tied for third in NHL points.

Him and Celebrini were tied behind McDavid and McKinney. So it's pretty elite company. and so he was off to quite the start before his injury in December last year. So, again, it's not something that we're at all concerned with moving forward. These things happen, and we're excited for him to get back to full strength and kind of pick up where he left off after a great third season in the NHL. How important was it for you to go out and make a trade and bring in Bowen Byram, and what are the expectations for him coming into your team?

Yeah, Bo as a player, we've loved for a long time here with the Blackhawks. And being able to bring someone of his capabilities and skill set in, I think it's going to elevate our entire group. It's going to be, you know, he's just, you meet him, and he's got this personality that you feel can elevate your room and elevate your whole team. And I know the players are really excited about it from a management and coaching standpoint. We're very excited about it.

And we feel that he's got, he's going to have the runway and he's got the skill set to establish himself as, you know, a legitimate top pairing defenseman in our league, which can only serve to help and to push us forward next year. Well, and you trade a top five pick to do it. It's something that doesn't happen often in the NHL. You know, we were singing your praises. Like, it's a courageous move. Obviously, you love the player. You paid the player. He comes in and he's going to perform for you.

but how difficult was it to kind of wrestle with that idea that you were giving up a top five pick to get them? We certainly have to, you have to give something to get something, and we believe that both, you know, provides a package that's of significant, you know, not only interest, but value to us. And so, you know, that's what comes with the territory when you acquire, you know, great talent in this league, is you have to give up significant assets.

And we were comfortable doing that, knowing that we were going to get a player that not only had something to prove, but we feel is going to give himself and ourselves every opportunity to prove that he is the player that we and he believe he is. And so we were, you know, it was something that we were willing to do

and something that, you know, the opportunity to acquire a player like Boe doesn't come around very often, especially, you know, in the age bracket that fits perfectly with our timeline. And, you know, that's what we have to do to acquire a player of that status. If you look at your lineup today, you see a lot of youth sprinkled in there and some really high-end youth, I think, as someone like Anton Frundel or Frank Nazar and those guys are getting worked in.

Who's that next wave of young players that you think can really help the Chicago Blackhawks in the near future that aren't named, you know, Azar or Frondel. Oh, gosh. Yeah, I think I'd probably go to the back end off the top of my head. You know, we've got a lot of really young, exciting players. You know, defensemen take a little longer than some of those forwards. And you look at the players in the back end, we've, you know, outside of Byron, who's, you know, he's still fairly young himself.

We've got Alex Vlasik, Artem Levsinov, Sam Renzel, and then, you know, even, you know, guys that are, you know, trying to still, you know, establish themselves in the NHL, but we've got all the confidence in the world in, like, Kevin Korninski and Ethan Del Mastro. And, you know, that's, we got a Wyatt Kaiser back there is another exciting young defense. And so we've got a lot of young players that are coming and pushing for spots.

And we've got waves coming, too, within our prospect pool. And so we feel we're very well prepared and set up for the years to come, as, you know, these guys mature into pro hockey and then into the NHL. And so, you know, we're really excited about a number of guys coming up through the system. So, you know, we're pretty well into the off season now. We're three weeks removed from, you know, July 1st and free agency officially opening up. But there are still a number of players who are available, including Patrick Kane. I'm sure you're aware of this.

The Connor was asked about it yesterday. I believe it was. You know, how would you feel about Kane returning? Do you want to address that? The idea of Patrick Kane, the Blackhawks, is that something you're entertaining at all? Yeah, again, Patrick's someone that our organization and myself have had a relationship with for a long time.

I don't necessarily think it's right for me to comment on what he's, the process he's going to be running this offseason. You know, a guy like Caner has done pretty much everything, there is to do in our game. He's a, you know, inspired probably every young player playing hockey out there today with what he's accomplished. And he's earned the right to take his time and make a decision. You know, we see him very often. He trains at our practice facility in the offseason. And so we'll, we'll await his decision, but he knows that our door is, you know, it's always open. And, you know, he's a black hawk at heart.

life even if he's not wearing a jersey but um you know we've we've got a great deal of of reverence respect and and um and love for patrick can and so we'll we'll leave into that uh that decision and uh we'll see where he ends up when when that day comes you know Chicago and you know under under your guidance was a team that really kind of stripped it down to try and rebuild it and there was a you know there's a lot of people that look at their own franchises and organizations and say well why don't we do that? Why don't we take our time and do this thing the right way? And you guys have clearly, you know, you're on route to doing that. You know, how much urgency at this point in your rebuild do you feel to really leapfrog and take that next step in the standings?

No, we're certainly, we're certainly intent on pushing and taking a meaningful step. I think we were on our way to taking a very meaningful step last year before, you know, injuries and that sort of happens, but, you know, certainly in a, you know, a rebuilding scenario like ourselves, you're a little bit behind the eight ball from a depth perspective. And so we, we suffered a little bit on that end last year and weren't able to sustain our, you know, early season momentum throughout the year. But, you know, with a, you know, once Connor gets back in a fully healthy lineup, we feel like we're in a position with some of the additions we've made to date to take another meaning. step in and push for the playoffs and playing those meaningful games late in the season.

I think that's why you saw us go out and acquire a player like Byram, where we're intent on pushing this thing forward. And, you know, I think it has to make sense. It has to fit the timeline. And if we're going to expend significant assets, then they've got to be players that we see as part of the solution for the long term. but, you know, I think we've identified and shown that if there are pieces out there to do just that, then we're willing to strike.

And so we're excited to get going. I know there's still a little bit of time left in the offseason, but there's an excitement in the building. There's an excitement even with players leaving at the end of the last year that they're ready to put in the work and come back hungry to take another step in the fall. You know, when you kind of tear it down and try and build it back up, did you think, Or is it more difficult than maybe you thought to acquire the right veteran pieces to surround your young guys with? I don't know if it's more difficult. I do feel like we were perhaps lucky to find some of those guys, you know, some of which, you know, were recently departed.

Nick Folino and Connor Murphy, and Connor was already here before we spoke. started the official, you know, rebuild when I took over. But Jason Dickinson came in. You know, these are just, you know, in terms of leadership, these guys are elite. And, you know, as this thing takes off and proceeds over the coming years and we, you know, hopefully grow into the standings and progress into a playoff team in time, their fingerprints are going to be here long after that, you know, they've departed just because they were such great leaders. They were such great mentors and

showed what it means to be a pro and and what it means to compete day in and day out. And so we were very fortunate to have some of those leaders in the past and we've got some great ones remaining within our locker room. And so we're really,

we've been really fortunate from that, from that end to, you know, have those guys internally and, you know, help push this along and mentor some of the young players. With Kyle David, Davidson, GM of the Blackhawks, we'll get you out of here on a projection for the rest of the offseason and hopefully you can represent the whole league for that standpoint because generally it kind of

shuts down. You know, there's still free agents out there, but kind of everyone kind of relaxes a little bit until we get to September. Is that what you're anticipating or do you think there's still some activity going on around the NHL? Yeah, well, I think there's always activity, you know, like the 31-100 other managers are, you know, they're competitive guys. We're all competitive. We want to continue to improve our rosters.

And that process, it honestly just never ends. And so, you know, I would expect teams to keep pushing. And, you know, whether anything comes to fruition is a different story. But I don't think that pursuit ever halts, to be honest. It's a year-round endeavor. And, you know, we're going to keep pushing. And I'm sure other teams will, too. So, you know, maybe it's quiet until the fall.

but, you know, we'll see. Guys are going to keep trying, and we're certainly part of that group. Kyle, always nice to catch up with a guy who spent some time up at Laurentian in Sudbury, Ontario. There you go. Hey, Frankie, I was actually, I wanted to mention this. I was lucky to enough to be in the draft room. Mike Felino let me help out around the wolves when, in the 2009 O HL draft, when the wolves were excited to see.

select an exciting young defense and from the Von King. So I was in the room when that happened. And yeah, it was a kind of nice, cool, full circle moment for myself, seeing you do so well. And I know I've got a bunch of buddies back home, and the group chat was blowing up a little bit when they saw my name flash across the screen and see that I was going to be on the show today. I love it. It's kind of funny, hey, like you could be named general manager of the Blackhawks, and you'd be like, hey, congrats, buddy.

You're going to be on overdrive today? We're huge in Sudbury. They love us up there. Oh, you guys are big at Sudbury. Believe me. That's awesome. We love hearing of that. Great stuff.

Great catching up with you. Thank you for doing this, Kyle. Thanks, guys. Appreciate it. You got it. Kyle Davidson joining us on the Maple Toyota Hotline. IHart Radio is throwing it back. To the days of huge hits and unforgettable.

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