It isn’t even November yet and there are trade rumors swirling around the NHL. And the Chicago Blackhawks are starting to be mentioned frequently, which is fascinating.
Last week, NHL insiders David Pagnotta and Elliotte Friedman reported the Blackhawks are in the market for a second-line center to upgrade their current NHL roster.
On Tuesday, Friedman made an appearance on the Oilers Now show with Bob Stauffer during which they discussed how to fix the struggling Edmonton team. Which, of course, came to a discussion about solving their blue line situation.
Blackhawks defenseman Connor Murphy‘s name came up quickly.
“A guy who I think people would take a look at and think, ‘does this make sense at all?’ would be a guy like Connor Murphy,” Friedman said. “Last year, there were a lot of teams that were interested in Murphy.”
Friedman went on to say Murphy was a player “who was wanted last year before he got hurt” and then noted “if you’re going to get that deal done now, you’re going to have to give them a reason to do it.”
Blackhawks Defenseman Wanted
Murphy, 31, has two years remaining (including the 2024-25 season) on his contract that carries a $4.4M cap hit. He has appeared in all 10 games thus far and is averaging 18:08 per night with four assists on his record.
According to PuckPedia, the Oilers currently have $1,296,267 in available cap space for this season. Their cap situation becomes further complicated next year when Leon Draisaitl’s cap hit goes from $8.5M to $14M when his new extension kicks in.
That number won’t change enough because Connor McDavid isn’t going on IR for very long after suffering an injury earlier this week. The team tweeted that a legitimate crisis won’t happen and he’ll only miss 2-3 weeks.
It isn’t a shock that there would be teams interested in Murphy, who plays a physical game. He’s worked well with Wyatt Kaiser this season for the Blackhawks and is an assistant captain.
What makes the timing of this rumor additionally intriguing is a trade that was consummated on Tuesday. The Utah Hockey Club, who are dealing with injuries on their blue line, gave up a third-round pick for the rest of the season of former Blackhawks defenseman Olli Määttä.
Make It Worth It
My question/concern for the Blackhawks is how moving Murphy now — or even at the deadline for that matter — would impact the overall blue line makeup. As we’ve discussed when considering TJ Brodie‘s spot on the roster, the only two right-handed defensemen on the Blackhawks’ NHL roster right now are Murphy and Seth Jones.
So I’m not personally sprinting to move Murphy.
But let’s play it forward. What would motivate the Blackhawks move one of their veteran leaders with two seasons left on his contract?
I don’t know that the Blackhawks are in a position to continue stockpiling draft capital. They’ve drafted very well over the past few years and, at some point, are going to need to move bodies out to make room in both Chicago and Rockford — and could come up against the reserve limit as well.
If the Blackhawks want to address their second-line center situation now, I don’t see it happening with Edmonton either — especially with McDavid now hurt. Adam Henrique is second on their roster in faceoffs taken (he’s winning under 49 percent of his draws) and I’m not sure he does enough to consider him a second-line center in Chicago right now. Derek Ryan isn’t a guy to fill that role, either. And the Hawks aren’t getting Leon Draisaitl (sorry).
So what about prospects who could help the Blackhawks? Again, I’m not sure there’s a real big win available here. Matthew Savoie is considered their top prospect, but he’s 5-9 and likely projects as a wing. Sounds like some guys the Blackhawks already have, right?
The Oilers recalled Noah Philp when McDavid got hurt. He’s a 6-3 center. He’s also 26 and hasn’t appeared in an NHL game yet. He had a career-year last season with 37 points in 70 regular-season games in the AHL.
Sam O’Reilly, for whom the Oilers traded back into the end of the first round of the 2024 NHL Draft, is an interesting as a 6-1 center prospect but he’s still in London in the OHL. So his timeline is likely similar to Sacha Boisvert, and both of them project as a middle-six center.
Beau Akey is a 19-year-old right-handed defenseman playing for Barrie in the OHL this season and is also considered one of Edmonton’s top prospects. He’s good. But I’m not sure the degree to which he moves the needle with Artyom Levshunov and Sam Rinzel being right-handed defensemen in the Chicago system already.
So is there a deal to be made? I don’t know. I’m not sure I like the prospect capital the Oilers have available to help the Blackhawks in the near-term and I’m not sold that moving out a veteran leader from the current roster is in the best interests of the Blackhawks this season either.
But it is certainly noteworthy that Friedman brought up Murphy quickly when discussing the Oilers’ needs and potential trades. We’ll see if there’s any smoke behind this fire…