Chicago Blackhawks: Could they trade the third overall pick?

The Chicago Blackhawks won one of the three lotteries, but is there reason to believe that they will trade the third overall pick?

The Chicago Blackhawks had a little bit of draft lottery luck when the moved up from 12 to 3 in the 2019 NHL Entry Draft. The third pick is where the scouting and decision making come in this year because this draft has two locks going one and two. There are some very good players at the top of this draft outside of the top two, but this could be the type of top three situations that causes the Blackhawks to think about trading down.

This is one of the deeper drafts in recent memory and there will be great players that play a lot of NHL games that come out of this draft. This could be an opportunity for the Blackhawks to trade down and get a player in return as well as another lower pick. This could be the type of move that would be good for the Blackhawks because their core is aging. Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane, Duncan Keith, Brent Seabrook, and Corey Crawford are all over 30 now and the window of winning with that group is closing.

Because of the possibilities of the third overall pick, you would think the Blackhawks would need a hefty package in return to trade the pick. That impact type player they would be looking for would likely be a defenseman. This is a team that can already score a lot of goals but they are not too good at defending the house. They need to beef up the blue line if they want to make one more deep run in the playoffs before their generational stars retire.

This third overall pick if selected could really give them some nice depth especially if they take a center. The unnamed center with Toews and Dylan Strome would make a really nice 1-2-3 punch. If they were to trade down, it should be for another top ten pick and an NHL ready defenseman. If they cannot find a package like that out there, then they should keep the pick and make it. Drafting and developing homegrown talent is extremely important in the NHL, as the recent Blackhawks dynasty has shown.

Due to the fact that they likely won’t receive such a package, it is a safe guess to say they will not make the trade, but you never know. It is rare to see the top ten picks traded in general let alone a top three pick. But this has been a weird season on the ice, so if it got weird off the ice it also shouldn’t surprise anyone either.