Blackhawks general manager Kyle Davidson reveals personal battles fought during 2024-25 season

«It was a challenging season for myself,» he said during end-of-season interviews Thursday at Fifth Third Arena.

«I would say that's mostly away from the rink. New child, a heart surgery and going through that whole situation where feeling the way I was feeling, finding out the news, going through the process of second, third opinions and doing that all while in between work. That's not easy.

I didn't have heart surgery on my bingo card this year.»

«I was born with Tetralogy of Fallot, a congenital heart defect, and so I've been followed by a cardiologist my whole life,» the 36-year-old Sudbury, Ontario, native said. «I had two open hearts really early on in life (as an infant), another open-heart (surgery) in November 2019, and so I'm very in tune with what is normal for me and what's not.»

«Yeah, it's a lot,» Davidson's wife, Angelica, told the Tribune. «When he initially told me about it (while dating), it was just something he kind of just brushed off: 'By the way, I've got this heart condition, not a big deal. Doesn't affect anything in life.'

«Like, 'OK, that's good. You should probably see a cardiologist, though.' And he is like, 'Yeah, you're right. And fast forward a couple weeks later, he's like, 'Yeah, I need open-heart surgery. We weren't even dating a year, and I was obviously not married, no kids, and I was still scared out of my mind.»

«It's a combination of palpitations, fatigue, inability to really do workouts that I would be able to do previously; shortness of breath, especially laying on my back,» Davidson said. «All kinds of things that are little signs along the way that something isn't working especially well.»

«a really aggressive beating of the heart,» Davidson said. «It kind of threw up some flags. So during that time more tests showed that, you know what there is, there is a failure of the pulmonary valve, and it needs to be replaced,» he said.

«That was a tough bit of news,» he said. «It was at a time where the team wasn't doing as well. My wife is basically at her due date with our second daughter. Our daughter, Charlotte, was born on the 26th. So, like, literally a week later.»

«For myself, there are leaflets in a valve that allow blood flow in and out,» Davidson said. «(As) it was explained to me, one of the leaflets was just basically nonexistent. It just wasn't working anymore causing the heart to work much harder than it needs to, and thus enlarging the heart.»