The Chicago Blackhawks have been clear about the direction of their franchise under GM Kyle Davidson, both through words and actions. Davidson himself has not been shy about using the term “rebuild” to describe the state of the organization, and it became completely clear that the team was in fact rebuilding when they traded Brandon Hagel, a young, cheap, productive player to the Tampa Bay Lightning for a package of picks and young players.
Hagel, who doesn’t turn 24 until late August, is the sort of player most tend to believe that a rebuilding club should be building around, rather than trading. But by trading him, it became obvious that the Blackhawks were taking an extremely long-term approach to maximizing their eventual window of contention. The team’s front office seems to be operating with the intention of stockpiling as many draft picks and high-upside young players as possible, and they enter the offseason with a clean slate of possibilities to help them further that goal.
According to Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet, there could be even more Hagel-type trades this summer. Friedman states that Davidson and the Blackhawks are “testing the value” of any and all of their players “other than Seth Jones, Patrick Kane, and Jonathan Toews,” the three players on the team with full no-move clauses. Per his report, the Blackhawks will listen to offers for any player that other teams want to inquire about, and the possibility of making a trade comes down to whether another team can “make an offer that makes [the Blackhawks] want to seriously think about it.”
While it remains to be seen if the Blackhawks’ testing the trade market for most of their players actually ends up materializing in any trades, it’s clear from this report that the Blackhawks will continue to fully embrace the rebuild without any major reservation. Notable names including star winger Alex DeBrincat, former third overall pick Kirby Dach, and reliable defenseman Connor Murphy were not mentioned along with Toews, Kane, and Jones as being off the table, highlighting just how deep the team’s apparent commitment to a rebuild could be.
For contending teams, having such high-quality names available for trade is a unique opportunity. For any team willing to pay the significant asset cost it will likely take to acquire any of these names, they could get a player in return that they would not typically have the chance to acquire. Teams like the Ottawa Senators and New Jersey Devils, owners of the seventh and second picks, respectively, at next month’s entry draft have flirted with the possibility of dealing their number-one picks for a difference-making star player, so could they be in hot pursuit of a player like DeBrincat, who scored 41 goals and is only 24 years old? Moreover, are the Blackhawks more motivated to add one of those picks due to the fact that their 2022 first-rounder belongs to the Blue Jackets as part of last summer’s Jones trade?
Those are all questions that could be answered by the Blackhawks this summer. It’s possible that the Blackhawks may not ultimately receive the”Hagel-like” offers on their players that would lead them to finalizing a deal, but it’s also possible that they might receive transformational offers with the potential to considerably speed up their rebuilding process. While we don’t at this moment know what will end up happening with the Blackhawks and their crop of on-the-market veteran players, we do know that the status of the team and those players will be one of the top storylines to follow this summer.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images
Since Dach has been deemed a “bust” maybe they trade him for Zadina and a 3rd. LOL
Anyone know if Tyler Johnson healthy again? Can he be traded this summer? I don’t see him listed on IR.
Johnson had the same surgery that Eichel had at almost exactly the same time. Both came back and played well at the end of the season. Johnson has 1 year left on his deal at 5 million so sure they can trade him now as a salary dump but won’t get much back. Probably better to wait til the trade deadline and hope he stays healthy enough to bring back a decent piece to a contending team. Cause the Hawks won’t be a playoff team for awhile until the Kane and Toews deals can be taken off the books and redone saving 20 million.
TJ has 2 more years, I jut thought if he went to Detroit that his buddy Palat would sign there as well,…. for 2 years.
You are totally correct. Thanks for the correction. Well he will certainly be here for at least a year and a half then but still, His contract isn’t the one that will kill the Hawks. To get him off the books the Hawks would have to include pieces which they say they are reluctant to do. Or eat some of it and then what’s the point?
Kane to BUF?
Stop
Kane will sign in Buffalo after the 2022-23 season. He will be a free agent.
Kane to Buffalo for a 2nd (with $2.5 million retained) & signed to a 2 to 3 year extension at around $5mil per.
(But why trade for him when when you can sign him as a FA within a year?)
You yapped the same thing about Steven Stamkos signing with Toronto several years back. You seem to believe that every free agent from a city with an NHL team will sign with that team.
It’s amazing that Wirtz let Stan Bowman destroy this team over the last 5-7 years before he was fired over the Kyle Beach sex scandal.
The dumber move than the cover up that Bowman made was giving Toews AND Kane way over market deals that have killed the salary cap for the last 7 years. When the league signed the new TV deal then, Everyone thought the deal was in US money and when they found out it was Canadian money the deal ended up being an albatross. Everybody thought the Cap was going to go way up over the next 7 years and when it was undervalued those 2 contracts ended up being 25% of the teams cap. Throw in the even stupider deal he gave Seabrook and COVID and you have the Cap Hell the team has been in for years. If Davidson is serious about starting from the ground up, He should trade Debrincat, Kubalik and Strome and get as many draft picks as possible. Then maybe Kane and Toews will waive their no movement deals and move on. As a fan, I don’t want to see any of those guys go, But it’s better to go all in than half-A** it and do it in pieces. The next 2 drafts are supposed to be wickedly deep and with 2 2nds and 3 3rds this year, They can move around. Dach hasn’t shown anything at all and should bring something to a GM who thinks they can fix him.
“Starting from the ground up” has to include DeBrincat as part of the future. Otherwise, what the hell is the flipping point? No sane GM trades guys like DeBrincat OR Hagel — they trade FOR them, because there’s no sense in trading a guy who already is a star for a pick that MIGHT be a star … or, y’know, wind up being a Kirby Dach instead.
There’s only one reason for making such trades, and it has nothing to do with hoping to contend in the future. It’s in the expectation that you don’t have to actually pay your players, and can get away with cheap entry level deals in perpetuity.
Starting from scratch means just that. They have about 23 million cap space now and would save about another 13 million by trading those 3 guys. So with 36 million in cap space and whatever picks they add for those 3 you have a good start. They have 2 1st round picks in each of the next 2 years from the Hagel deal so if you can get that for him imagine what Debrincat would bring. Plus he is only signed through next year so if someone offers a huge RFA deal which somebody probably will, now you have a dilemna.
Trading stars for guys who might one day be stars is exactly how rebuilds work. And there’s a big difference between Hagel and Debrincat; Hagel is a nice 3rd-line player who had an insane shooting percentage for one year. Debrincat is a legit 40-goal scorer and a legit star. But if Davidson sees them taking 4 or 5 years to even sniff the playoffs, then this would be a good time to move him for multiple pieces.
There’s not really a concern about losing Debrincat to an offer sheet next year. Teams would have to give up about 5 first round picks so sign him . . . and the Blackhawks could match that deal. The question is really whether you sign him to a new 8-year deal as soon as you can — July 2022 — or trade him now.
I wouldn’t get too excited about the cap space as figuring into acquiring talent, either. First, they don’t really have that much to work with (capfriendly states about $20M in cap space . . . with 15 players signed and Murphy on the IL). If they use their cap space, it will be to take on some bad contracts or broker a trade between other teams (keeping half the salary).