NEWSLETTER
The Sun-Time’s Ben Pope reported yesterday that the Blackhawks were making progress on a Dominik Kubalík trade. Pope named the Anaheim Ducks and Edmonton Oilers as the two teams in on the 26-year-old winger.
Cool, right? Not so fast. Last night, Ryan Rishaug of TSN reported that the Oilers were likely out on Kubalík, with the team more focused on adding blue line help at the deadline.
I suppose things can change quickly, but it is my sense that Kubalik is not on the Oilers radar at this moment in a meaningful way. I believe the focus remains on some blue-line help. A depth F is a possibility but not at or near top of the list.
— Ryan Rishaug (@TSNRyanRishaug) March 16, 2022
Now, this morning, Pope is reporting that not only is Edmonton still a team that he is hearing to be involved in Kubalík discussions (along with Anaheim), the Winnipeg Jets have now thrown their hat into the ring as a third-team potentially in on the one-time 30-goal scorer who is in desperate need of a change of scenery.
Sounds like Winnipeg has joined Edmonton and Anaheim in Dominik Kubalik trade conversations, for the record.
Here’s my column from yesterday diving deeper into the Kubalik situation: https://t.co/inRrgcPwWN
— Ben Pope (@BenPopeCST) March 17, 2022
But the the Ducks and Oilers are still “the front-runners,” as it were.
For what it’s worth, I think that Ben Pope does as good a job covering the Blackhawks as anyone, and he’s not an “insider” type on Twitter, in that if he has transactional news and information, he’s probably getting it from a bulletproof source. Now, that’s not to say that Ryan Rishaug isn’t dialed into the Oilers news the same way, but I tend to take what Ben says as gospel.
Again, this is a lot of discussion for a struggling forward whose trade value has cratered in the past two years, in a market that seems to be trending towards asking prices not being met.
https://twitter.com/frank_seravalli/status/1504180914896703492?s=20&t=Kwdk6QQ4V0yXCROH9GIHWQ
Maybe the Blackhawks get a mid-late-round pick for Kubalík. If they can, they should pull the trigger. Kubalík is in line for a $4.4 million qualifying offer as a restricted free agent this summer, so, if the Blackhawks don’t trade him before Monday, they’ll almost certainly let him walk for nothing in the offseason. So, whatever the price ends up being, Davidson should take it.
This is fluid, we’ll continue to flesh it all out and bring it to you over the next few days.
