Four games. Twenty Points. And that’s just since last Friday for Patrick Kane and Max Domi. Those two have been amazing since the Blackhawks flopped in Toronto. Runs like this rarely happen for one player, but for two guys to have ten points each over a four-game stretch is special. Chicago overcame a three-goal deficit in the second period and won the the game in the third — all after making an eyebrow-raising trade earlier in the evening.
Good morning, David Gust fans! He’s coming to Chicago! Rockford’s leading scorer got an NHL contract and recalled this morning. So… get ready for the trade parade.
The Blackhawks made a trade last night! No, not Kane. General manager Kyle Davidson took on the next year-plus of defenseman Nikita Zaitsev from Ottawa with a second-round pick in 2023 and a fourth-round pick in 2026 in exchange for Future Considerations. That, my friends, is how you weaponize cap space! And there’s more cap space where that came from…
As a public service, I’ve been keeping track of everything Kyle Davidson has done since becoming the interim GM of the Blackhawks. And that will continue as long as he’s the general manager; I did it for Stan Bowman’s entire tenure previously (for good and bad).
Here’s where we’re at for the first three rounds of the next two draft classes after the Zaitsev trade (pretty freakin’ good if you ask me):
Speaking of trades and, yes, Kane… apparently the Rangers aren’t completely out on 88? Larry Brooks of the New York Post reported just as the Blackhawks’ game started in Dallas that the Rangers were trying to figure out how to make a run at Kane.
According to sources, the Rangers have signaled they will try to make it work if Kane — who has yet to declare his intentions — is willing to waive his no-move clause in order to come to New York. We are told interest has not waned in the least since the acquisition of Vladimir Tarasenko from St. Louis on Feb. 10.
Brooks notes this transaction would require a third team to eat some of Kane’s cap hit to work financially for the Rangers, but they’re efforting that process now. Earlier this week, Brooks wrote that a precursor to a Kane trade might include waiving 23-year-old wing Vitali Kravtsov. Stay tuned…
We’ll stick with the trade rumor mill for one more moment here. David Pagnotta at The Fourth Period noted that Jake McCabe and Sam Lafferty continue to be hot names in the market. With the Blackhawks acquiring Zaitsev, it certainly feels like the writing is on the wall for at least one of Chicago’s defensemen and McCabe’s the top name.
The Blackhawks are still in last place in the Central Division and are still among the worst teams in the NHL, but… this is absolutely a testament to the coaches and these players buying into what they’re selling. This team really doesn’t have the amount of high-end offensive producers to be setting franchise records yet here we are.
Nolan Allan got some love from The Daily Faceoff’s prospect roundup on Thursday after a four-point night earlier this week. He got in a fight the night before putting up the career-best four points.
His physicality, skating and solid defensive zone play make him one of the better prospects in the team’s system, and he projects to be more of a shutdown option. At the very least, he’s making himself known right now.
As much fun as winning is… a reminder of why winning the 2023 NHL Draft Lottery is important:
An interesting trade went down on Wednesday afternoon that is, quite frankly, another example of the NHL allowing the Arizona Coyotes to circumvent the salary cap floor. Vegas traded the contract to effectively-retired defenseman Shea Weber, who hasn’t appeared in an NHL game since the 2020-21 season, to the Coyotes for defenseman Dysin Mayo. Arizona received a fifth-round pick as a “thank you” for taking Weber’s contract.
Weber has a $7,857,143 cap hit for three more years after this one. So Arizona is basically spending the same amount of real money to not have to spend enough to get to the floor. I ask again: how is this not cap circumvention?
Weber’s former team in Nashville was on the fence between buying and selling. Well, the update we got this morning on center Ryan Johansen doesn’t help the case to buy before the deadline.
Finally, this docuseries about quarterbacks looks absolutely amazing! Patrick’s got some more details.
NEWSLETTER
