CHICAGO — When it comes to his plans for the Chicago Blackhawks, general manager Kyle Davidson is focused on the growth and maturation of the organization’s top prospects. That group includes a total of 11 first-round picks since the 2022 draft.

Such is life these days for the NHL’s rebuilding teams, looking to chart a course back to the playoffs in a league with a rising salary cap. Financial flexibility — when it comes to free agency, or using cap space to facilitate a trade — isn’t what it used to be, putting an even bigger emphasis on player development.

“(Free agency) is something that’s definitely a tool in our toolbox in roster building,” Davidson said. “But I think the main one has to be and will be growing from within and building from within.”

The salary cap for this season is $95.5 million, up from $88 million. It goes up to $104 million for the 2026-27 season and $113.5 million in ’27-28. Making the most of the NHL’s healthy financial outlook, many of the league’s top teams retained their best players this summer.

Mitch Marner went from Toronto to Las Vegas in a sign-and-trade deal before free agency started, and Nikolaj Ehlers waited until July 3 before agreeing to a $51 million, six-year contract with Carolina. But depth pieces made up most of the free agent market.

Kirill Kaprizov agreed to a $136 million, eight-year contract with Minnesota that was announced on Tuesday. The 28-year-old Kaprizov could have hit free agency after this season, but the talented forward stayed with the Wild for a record-setting deal.

“You saw it this summer,” Columbus general manager Don Waddell said. “Summers before you’d always have seven, eight, nine teams that had to move money to get under the cap. You didn’t see that this summer. … I think going forward you’re going to see less free agency. You’re going to see teams locking up their own players if they can.”

A diminished level of free agency puts the NHL’s non-playoff teams in the same boat, facing even more pressure to grow their own stars.

“Ultimately, for teams in our situation, I think you need those young players coming in to build that core,” Detroit general manager Steve Yzerman said.

Developing those young players goes beyond the organization, stretching to its draft picks on college, junior and international club teams. Anton Frondell, an 18-year-old forward who was selected by Chicago with the No. 2 overall pick in this year’s draft, is staying in Sweden this season, and Vaclav Nestrasil, another first-rounder for the Blackhawks, is playing for the University of Massachusetts.

When it comes to their prospects in other programs, NHL teams stay in close contact with their players and the coaching staffs on their teams. It doesn’t sound as if Davidson and the Blackhawks have any plans to alter their approach even with their development focus.

“We let the player, we’re an input into their decision-making process, and then we let them go,” Davidson said. “And then once they’re in an environment, in a program, we try and work with and alongside the coaching staff, because what we don’t want is our player to be put in the crosshairs or at an intersection of our direction and the coaching staff direction with where they’re at, and then the player has just got a million things in their head.”

Technology has become a major part of player development across the NHL. The Blackhawks use an internal app to share video, tips and other information with their current players and the prospects in their system. Davidson described the Blackhawks as “actively investigating” how it can use artificial intelligence within the organization.

“We’re working on that,” Waddell said. “We’ve actually brought it in this year to our prospects and add some AI tests and so forth to find out. But I don’t think it’s any secret. Other teams are doing it, too. But I think with AI coming and with your analytics department … the two could be tied together where it may help in certain areas.”

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AP Hockey Writers John Wawrow and Larry Lage contributed to this report.

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AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl