NHL Draft 2023 NHL Draft repechage nhl 2023 2023 NHL Draft draft nhl 2023 nhl mock draft nhl draft live nhl draft results nhl 2023 draft 2023 NHL mock draft

 NHL Draft 2023 NHL Draft repechage nhl 2023 2023 NHL Draft draft nhl 2023 nhl mock draft nhl draft live nhl draft results nhl 2023 draft 2023 NHL mock draft

NHL Draft 2023: Winners and losers from Round 1, including Coyotes’ inexplicable picks

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The Chicago Blackhawks won the NHL Draft. There. Done. It doesn’t matter what happens from here, because the Hawks got a generational talent in Connor Bedard who should be able to change their on-ice culture quickly and turn Chicago back into a winning team on his own.  Yes, he’s that damn good — and if the front office can put more help around him we’ll see something very special.  The issue is that the pick still feels so ... icky. There’s no better way to say it. We have a scenario here the best player in years is headed to one of hockey’s largest markets, to play for an Original Six team, with a fanbase that deserves a change in fortune — and yet, it’s still ridiculous this was allowed to happen.  We cannot just celebrate Bedard heading to Chicago without continuing to mention, over, and over again, that the Blackhawks organization orchestrated the largest sexual abuse coverup in professional sports history and walked away with a $2 million fine. We cannot allow the hype of Bedard lighting it up in the NHL distract us from the fact that lives are in tatters, families damaged, and careers ruined because the former Chicago brain trust decided sexual assault wasn’t worth dealing with if the team was winning.  There’s nuance here, and it’s really difficult to weigh it all out. Blackhawks fans deserve a great player. The city deserves Bedard. However, it all feels perfunctory when Rocky Wirtz was able to maintain ownership of the club, despite his disgusting response to questions about the sexual assault of Kyle Beach at a town hall meeting in 2022 designed to allow people to question senior leadership of the organization.  “If somebody in the company asks that question, we’ll answer it, and I think you should get on to the next subject. We’re not going to talk about Kyle Beach. We’re not going to talk about anything that happened. Now we’re moving on. What more do I have to say?”  Wirtz later apologized with a carefully-crafted message from his PR team, but the damage was done. The men directly responsible for the cover-up were gone, but the man at the top had no empathy for what took place. That’s why it felt vile to see Chicago rewarded with the No. 1 pick in the lottery when by any semblance of basic humanity, they should have received unprecedented punishment for allowing a player in their system to be repeatedly abused by a former coach.