Blackhawks Trade Rumors: Hot Defense Market, Domi a Popular Name, More
We’re now within three weeks of the NHL’s Trade Deadline. At some point in the coming days, the Blackhawks’ front office is going to have conversations with a number of players about their respective futures, most notably two future Hall of Famers. But the Blackhawks, surprisingly, aren’t the only team looking to make dramatic moves before the deadline hits at 2 PM CT on Friday, March 3.
Here’s a look at some of the buzz that’s out there right now and how it might impact the Blackhawks in the coming days.
Defense Market
On Sunday, David Pagnotta at The Fourth Period dumped some trade rumors from around the league. He begins with Arizona scratching defenseman Jakob Chychrun for “trade related reasons” on Saturday night and the strong rumors that the LA Kings are going to make that deal soon (Arizona is on the ice tonight, so we’ll see).
The list of teams he indicates have been interested in Chychrun include LA, Boston, Edmonton, Toronto and Calgary. The thought over the weekend was that he was headed to LA and the Kings were simply waiting until after the Dustin Brown ceremony to make it happen, but this nugget from mid-day on Monday appears to complicate matters:
If those teams are interested in Chychrun, there’s likely interest in Chicago defenseman Jake McCabe as a strong Plan B. Unfortunately for Edmonton and Calgary, indications are that the only Canadian team he would accept a trade to is Toronto. So the Bruins (though questionable how much they need more), Leafs and Kings are hypotheticals for McCabe depending on what happens with Chychrun.
Edmonton has also generated a lot of buzz in their apparent pursuit of San Jose stud Erik Karlsson, who might become the first defenseman to reach the 100-point mark in almost 30 years this season. If Edmonton goes all-in for Karlsson, that would remove them from the possibility of making a strong offer for Patrick Kane and/or Jonathan Toews.
Power Plays
The Athletic tweaked their weekly power rankings to make them a trade rumor central this week. With each team, they look at what the team might shop for before the March 3 trade deadline. And, as you might guess, Blackhawks players showed up frequently.
Here’s where Blackhawks players were mentioned with teams’ needs:
(Note: I won’t include it in the notes below, but they threw more water on the idea of the Rangers still doing more financial gymnastics and getting a third team involved to make a move for Patrick Kane because the need is no longer as strong.)
Carolina Hurricanes — Need: a top-six scorer — “Would Patrick Kane waive his NMC for Carolina? Would Carolina look past his hip injury and disastrous five-on-five impacts?“
Colorado Avalanche — Need: a 2C — “… their full attention can turn toward getting a better 2C option than J.T. Compher, and they can look to the Blackhawks for help. We’re talking, of course, about Max Domi.“
Vegas Golden Knights — Need: replace Mark Stone — “they can just trade for Kane. He’s a really expensive star dealing with an injury of his own, so he’ll fit right in.“
Pittsburgh Penguins — Need: 3C — “They’re capped out and perilously short on the assets necessary to improve. But sure, adding a guy like Domi would help.“
They ranked the Blackhawks 31st this week, ahead of only Columbus. Chicago’s biggest need: a market for Kane. “And they need that market to line up with Kane’s personal preferences. That, combined with widespread, public acknowledgement of his hip injury and the fact that the Rangers are (basically) off the board, has the options starting to look a little … thin? Bad?“
Regarding finding a potential fit for Kane now that the Rangers are seemingly out, even though his comments about said Rangers’ trade were incredibly transparent on Friday the Blackhawks’ star didn’t give us anything about where else he might have interest.
