Chicago Blackhawks: Trading for Patrick Marleau a great idea

The Chicago Blackhawks could facilitate a trade with the Toronto Maple Leafs and could get an asset along with a veteran winger.

The Chicago Blackhawks are in a decent spot if they’re trying to get the most out of the end of Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews‘ prime. They have missed the postseason in each of the last two seasons, but it might be something they can build on if they do it right.

If they draft a guy like Bowen Byram with the third overall pick, make sure that Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook have just the right amount of ice time, and shore up their bottom six forward group. That might be helped along if they made a trade with the Toronto Maple Leafs.

39-year-old Patrick Marleau has one year left on his deal with 6.25 million left. The Maple Leafs are in cap trouble with a ton of restricted free agents that they have to pay. The Blackhawks might be able to use this issue that the Leafs are facing to their advantage. If the Blackhawks were willing to deal with Marleau’s cap hit for one year, they might be able to get an asset in return and Marleau could certainly help the Blackhawks bottom six.

There have been reports of Marleau and potential trade talks with the Arizona Coyotes and the Los Angeles Kings. Nothing has happened yet, but the Blackhawks would be a much better fit for the veteran winger. This is also a better place to make one more run at a deep playoff run out of those three, you would think.

Marleau isn’t the guy that he once was, which is a Hall of Fame left wing. In 2018-19 in a limited roll in a star-studded forward group for the Maple Leafs, he had 16 goals and 21 assists for 37 points. Those are far off his career numbers but still belonged in an NHL lineup. In his 21 year NHL career, he has 551 and 615 assists for 1166 points. He has played in over 1600 games and in 2018-19, he played in every single game for the 10th straight season.

The Maple Leafs have both Andreas Johnsson and Kasperi Kapanen as RFAs. They are likely going to lose one of these good players because after getting superstar winger Mitch Marner‘s contract done, they are going to have even more cap trouble. The Blackhawks might be able to get one of those two in addition to Marleau. The Maple Leafs might be willing to send one of Johnsson or Kapanen to whoever is willing to take on Marleau for one year, especially if they didn’t make them retain.

If the Blackhawks added one of the young guys along with Marleau they would probably have an even better forward group:

Brandon Saad-Jonathan Toews-Patrick Kane

Alex DeBrincat–Dylan Strome–Brendan Perlini

Patrick Marleau-Artem Anisimov-Kasperi Kapanen/Andreas Johnsson

Drake Caggiula–John Hayden–Dominik Kahun

David Kampf

If those were their forward lines in 2019-20 they would score a lot of goals, especially if Kane, Toews, Strome, and DeBrincat can have the same types of years they had in 2018-19. This could be what the Blackhawks need to find themselves back in the playoffs in 2020.

By taking Marleau’s cap hit, it probably wouldn’t cost the Blackhawks all that much even if they were to take one of Kapanen or Johnsson. If the Blackhawks and Maple Leafs can find a deal, this might be something that really helps both teams in the present and future.