When the tank began everybody that understood the process said it’ll be 2027 at least until they are good.
They are marginally better than last year. They’ve competed most of this year while last year they were a cake walk.
In hockey you need two legit scoring lines and 2 more solid ones just for a chance to compete. Very good teams have 3rd line guys that are better than Chicago’s top line. The Blackhawks have less than one full line. It’s basically a roster of middle to bottom six guys playing up one or two slots, with the exception of Bedard. They need guys who can hang with Bedard. Those guys are coming but not yet in NHL(or at least not NHL regulars).
When you start from scratch it takes forever to get the ~9 impact forwards and 4 very good D to win consistently. very few forwards and practically zero defensemen make immediate impacts after getting drafted. They will probably be better next year (IF THEY ACTUALLY ACQUIRE A SECOND BANANA) but a 20 point jump right now, which would be a big step, still puts them outside the wild card.