Yes, Blackhawks fans, we’re seven (7) games into the 2024-25 regular season and it’s already time for the rumor mill to start churning. And, this time — for the first time in a few years — it sounds like Chicago might be in the buyer market.
On Wednesday, David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period reported the Blackhawks (and Calgary Flames) are looking around for an upgrade at the center position in their top six. And Thursday morning, Elliotte Friedman followed suit and reported similarly in a written version of his “32 Thoughts.”
Thus far this season, the Blackhawks have been primarily rolling with Philipp Kurashev as their second-line center. He’s winning better than 50 percent of his faceoffs to start the season and that line with Taylor Hall and Tyler Bertuzzi has generated chances, but the consistency hasn’t been there.
Kurashev was a healthy scratch for the Vancouver game, giving Andreas Athanasiou a shot to start a game at the 2C spot. By the end of the night, Lukas Reichel was skating between Hall and Bertuzzi. As we’ve talked about, Reichel has been better in the NHL on the wing so that doesn’t feel like a role he’ll fill for long. Kurashev was back in the role at practice on Wednesday.
So, yeah. This is a situation we’ve been paying attention to since the start of training camp.
Blackhawks Need a Center?
When the Blackhawks went out into the free agent market with purpose this summer, the one spot they didn’t address was the second-line center spot. Part of the thinking there was the Blackhawks were at least intrigued to see if Frank Nazar would win an NHL roster spot in training camp. He did not; Nazar is off to a good start in Rockford, however (two goals — including one short-handed — and two assists in three games).
What makes these reports most intriguing is the Blackhawks’ depth of potential centers in the system. With Nazar, the Blackhawks have selected potential centers Oliver Moore, Ryan Greene, Sacha Boisvert and AJ Spellacy in recent drafts. They also have Dominic James, who is excellent in the faceoff circle, playing college hockey right now. And Ilya Safonov is skating in Russia right now but could be a potential contract candidate after this KHL season.
If the Blackhawks are looking for a younger center with some term either on his current deal or a likely extension candidate, that means they’re at least looking at many of these younger players as being potential wings. That would include Nazar, who has played center since turning pro.
Moore has been both a wing and center at Minnesota and for the US in international tournaments. Greene, James and Aidan Thompson figure to be potential bottom-six centers. Boisvert, a freshman at North Dakota, and Spellacy have size the Blackhawks lack with the rest of their center prospects but are 2024 draft picks and likely need more development time.
It’s worth noting at this point that Athanasiou and Kurashev are both in the final years of their respective contracts. Kurashev will be a restricted free agent after this season. I would safely assume Athanasiou will be gone.
Potential Blackhawks Target
One name I’ve heard linked to the Blackhawks since before the trade deadline last year is Anaheim’s Trevor Zegras. He’s 23 and has two 23-goal seasons in the NHL on the back of his hockey card already; last year was a lost season for him with the Ducks being bad, him signing late in camp and then dealing with injuries.
My pushback on the Zegras link is that he isn’t that different from Nazar; he’s a little bigger but plays a similar offensive game (I would argue Nazar has a better defensive game). The response has been that many scouts see Nazar as a 60-point guy in the NHL and see Zegras as a 75-80 point guy when he’s right and on.
The fact that the Blackhawks are being mentioned this early in the season as lurking around the trade market to add is a good change from the past few years. Who they target — and the cost of acquisition — will be interesting. And, as a reminder, it takes two GMs to make a deal happen.
This is something to watch moving forward…