The millennium has largely been a disappointing time for the Hawks thus far. Eric Daze, Alexei Zhamnov, and Tony Amonte emerged as some of the team's leading stars by this time. However, Chicago missed the playoffs for four straight years until they took a quick first-round exit in 2002. Amonte left for the Phoenix Coyotes in the summer of 2002, and the Blackhawks missed the playoffs again in 2003 and 2004.

 

A somber note was struck in February of 2004, when ESPN named the Blackhawks the worst franchise in professional sports. Indeed, the Blackhawks are now viewed with much indifference by Chicagoans, who feel that management is deliberately trying to alienate the fan base. Late owner Bill Wirtz raised ticket prices to an average of $50, and did not allow home games to be televised locally in the Chicago area. Many hockey fans in Chicago prefer the American Hockey League's Chicago Wolves to the Hawks, who have advertised themselves by saying "We Play Hockey the Old-Fashioned Way: We Actually Win." The club under Wirtz was then subject of a highly critical book, Career Misconduct, sold outside games until Wirtz had its author and publisher arrested.

 

Following the lockout of the 2004-05 season, new GM Dale Tallon set about restructuring the team in the hopes of making a playoff run. Tallon made several moves in the summer of 2005, most notably the signing of Tampa Bay Lightning Stanley Cup-winning goalie Nikolai Khabibulin and All-Star defenceman Adrian Aucoin. However, injuries plagued Khabibulin and Aucoin (among others), and the Blackhawks again finished with one of the worst records in the league (26-43-13) — next-to-last in the Western Conference and twenty seventh in the league.

The Blackhawks reached another low point on May 16, 2006, when they announced that longtime TV/radio play-by-play announcer Pat Foley, the voice of the 'Hawks for 25 years, was not going to be brought back, a move unpopular amongst most Blackhawks fans. Foley then became the television/radio voice of the Wolves, seen as emblematic of Chicago hockey fans' embracing of a minor-league team over the 'Hawks, all because of the man known as "Dollar Bill" Wirtz.

 

With the third overall pick in the 2006 NHL Entry Draft, the team selected Jonathan Toews, who led the University of North Dakota Fighting Sioux hockey team to the 2006 NCAA Frozen Four.  The Blackhawks were eager to make a splash in the free-agent market, and offered big money to many of the top free agents. They were, however, denied, only being able to acquire two backup goalies in Patrick Lalime and Sebastien Caron. Chicago was one of the biggest buyers in the trade market, though, acquiring a future franchise player in left-winger Martin Havlat, as well as center Bryan Smolinski from the Ottawa Senators in a three-way deal that also involved the San Jose Sharks. The 'Hawks dealt mean forward Mark Bell to the Sharks, Michal Barinka and a 2008 second-round draft pick to the Senators, while Ottawa also received defenceman Tom Preissing and center Josh Hennessy from San Jose. Havlat gave the Blackhawks the talented, first-line caliber gamebreaker they so desperately needed. The Havlat trade was soon followed by another major trade — winger and key Blackhawk player, another left wing, Kyle Calder, was traded to the Philadelphia Flyers in exchange for grinding defensive center Michal Handzus. The move caused a stir in Chicago. Calder had won an increase in his contract through arbitration, which was accepted by the Hawks, but rather than ink their leading scorer, the Blackhawks decided to address their need for a proven center by acquiring Handzus. Injuries to both Havlat and Handzus hurt the Blackhawks, and Smolinski was eventually traded at the trade deadline to the Vancouver Canucks. On November 26, 2006 Blackhawks GM Dale Tallon fired Head Coach Trent Yawney and appointed assistant coach Denis Savard as head coach. Savard had been the Assistant Coach of the Blackhawks since 1997, the year after he retired as one of the most popular and successful Blackhawks of all time. The Blackhawks continued to struggle, and finished last in the Central Division, 12 games out of the playoffs.

 

They finished with the fourth worst record in the league, and in the Draft Lottery, won the opportunity to select first overall in the draft, whereas the team had never had a draft pick higher than 3rd overall. They used the pick to draft center Patrick Kane from the London Knights of the Ontario Hockey League.

 

On 26 September 2007 after a brief battle with cancer, longtime owner Wirtz died at age 77. During a tribute and moment of silence for him during the Blackhawks home opener on 8 October 2007, the Chicago crowd displayed their displeasure with Wirtz's operation of the organization by booing the proceedings.

 

On 22 October 2007, Rocky Wirtz, Bill's son and the new chairman of the Chicago Blackhawks, announced the team is in negotiations with Comcast Sports Net Chicago to begin televising home games beginning on November 11th. This is something that his father had refused his entire time as team president. On November 20, 2007 Rockwell Wirtz named former Chicago Cubs President John McDonough as the new Blackhawks president. McDonough was the architect of the Cubs' incredible marketing machine established in the 1980's and 1990's.