Chicago Blackhawks GM is “excited” with landing the 3rd overall pick

After last night’s draft lottery, the Chicago Blackhawks will officially be selecting third overall in the 2025 NHL Draft which will take place on June 27 in Los Angeles. The franchise will have made a top three selection in each of the last three drafts, with the highlight being Connor Bedard going number one overall in the 2023 draft. The team’s rebuild took a turn for the better at the end of this past season, with the youth movement in the organization making an impact down the stretch.

Chicago entered last night’s lottery with the second-best odds to win the top selection at 13.5%. Despite moving down a spot in the order with the New York Islanders making a surprise leap to win the lottery, people around the organization feel great about the spot they are in. This includes general manager Kyle Davidson, who has crushed the last few drafts since he took over in the role to steer the ship in this rebuild.

Chicago Blackhawks GM Kyle Davidson “excited” about the 3rd pick

Davidson spoke to the media after it was announced that Chicago would be drafting third overall this season, and he was in a very positive mood while doing so. A couple of things in this lottery were different than those of the last few years, including the surprise jump from the Islanders and the fact that the drawing was done live for the first time ever.

“I thought it was kind of exciting,” Davidson said. “The last couple years haven’t been necessarily like chalk, but teams close to the top of the odds have moved up or stayed the same, so it was kind of exciting from that standpoint. Third overall, we’re going to get a great player. I’m excited to head into meetings next week with our amateur group and start the process of nailing down where we want to line up the board and what it looks like. We stayed in good range where I think we’re going to be really excited with what we end up with.”

As Davidson mentioned, the Blackhawks are getting a fantastic player with this selection. Their prospect pool is only going to get better after this pick, which is the biggest positive to take away at the end of the day. Six of the eight first round picks that Davidson has made in the last three years were with the team at some point this past season, and that number will only grow more this year.

This pick for Kyle Davidson is another huge piece in the rebuild

After getting much needed help on the blue line in last year’s draft with the selection of Artyom Levshunov number two overall, it is likely that Chicago will take a forward with the third overall pick in June. They will have plenty of options, but any choice will be great in helping guys like Bedard and Frank Nazar down the road.

Even though this pick shouldn’t start the season with the team, their progress will be monitored closely to potentially sign their entry level deal at the end of the campaign. This will be different from the previous two top picks, as Bedard made his NHL debut right away in 2023, and Levshunov began his career in Rockford this past season before getting called up with 18 games left to play in the year.