SALT LAKE CITY — Blackhawks general manager Kyle Davidson, typically patient and affable, appeared to be struggling to contain his anger Tuesday when the subject of forward Lukas Reichel came up.

“He has to show and play a certain way,” Davidson said. “(He has to) have the habit that he shows in practice that he deserves to be in the lineup and when he is in the lineup he plays in a certain way that we expect he holds one.” spot. It’s in his hands.”

Davidson has certainly been frustrated for some time with Reichel, a 2020 first-round pick who has struggled to reach his high ceiling. Davidson gave him a two-year contract despite his disappointing play last season and hoped he could get his career back on track with a summer of mental regeneration and physical training. But Reichel has already gotten off to a difficult start again. He struggled in the preseason and didn’t make the starting lineup, leaving him as a substitute against Utah on Tuesday.

“He’s got to put in the work and get to the point where if an opportunity presents itself, he’s going to jump in and take advantage of it,” Davidson said.

The Hawks’ insistence that Reichel won’t get a spot on the roster unless he shows he deserves one is a different approach than last year, when he was immediately given the role of second-line center fielder and then fired because of his Poor performance gradually slipped down the depth chart. The divergence is due in part to the Hawks no longer wanting to use the NHL as a development tool as much as in the past, preferring to focus their efforts almost exclusively on Rockford, where this season’s roster will be filled with notable talent, including defenseman Kevin Korchinski, center Frank Nazar and finally defenseman Artyom Levshunov.

But that’s partly because the Hawks will demand not just hard work and competitiveness from this year’s NHL team – their main focus has been the last two years, when they had one of the worst lineups in the league – but also a certain ability to execute .

“It’s not just about trying,” coach Luke Richardson said. “Hopefully everyone will try. It’s the best league in the world so you have to execute otherwise someone else will. . . have the chance to do it.”

Davidson said: “We talk a lot about how the team should be competitive, but that’s a baseline, right? This has to happen. Then I want more execution and hopefully just more wins and more productivity with the puck.”

When it comes to talent, the Hawks are still behind most NHL teams. There’s a reason sportsbooks are projecting them to have the fourth-lowest points total, ahead of only the Sharks, Ducks and Blue Jackets.

And there’s a reason Davidson didn’t provide an answer Tuesday when asked if he expected the Hawks to be in the playoff race.

“Hopefully we are a team that performs above average. . . (What) was the public discourse about,” he said.

However, the Hawks actually have plenty of experience — at least for now, during a strange transition season between the tanking years and the upcoming youth takeover years. They have plenty of veterans who should know well how to follow and execute a game plan, even if they don’t have the speed or skill to keep up with other teams’ stars.

This explains the new focus on execution. And younger players like Reichel, Kor-chinski and Nazar will have to prove they can compete before they usurp any veterans. That shouldn’t be an obstacle – Davidson plans for the younger players to eventually displace the veterans. But the bar has been raised.