Chicago Blackhawks: Nikita Zadorov trade is great work

Before we get started, we should address the elephant in the room. Nikita Zadorov’s departure adds another layer to the worst trade in the history of the Chicago Blackhawks. They traded an MVP caliber player in Artemi Panarin to the Columbus Blue Jackets to get Brandon Saad back. After a few years, they traded Saad to the Colorado Avalanche for Nikita Zadorov. Earlier in Saad’s career, they traded him away to the Blue Jackets for an awful return as well.

That means they have lost a trade involving Brandon Saad three times. It is a horrible chain of events for this team. Now, they traded Nikita Zadorov to the Calgary Flames for a 2022 third-round pick. The pick originally belonged to the Toronto Maple Leafs. It is a good individual trade for the Hawks as Zadorov made them a worse team for the most part but when you link it back to Panarin, it is sad.

Now, the Hawks have to move forward with the defense that they have. It is going to be wildly improved with Seth Jones and Caleb Jones joining the mix. Connor Murphy, Ian Mitchell, Nicolas Beaudin, and Riley Stillman will all try to make an impact as well. We know that Calvin de Haan is there as well but nobody should be surprised if he is traded sometime soon.

Zadorov will go to Calgary and play under the contract that he just signed with the Blackhawks. That team is interesting as far as their future because it is hard to understand what they are doing. They clearly believe in Zadorov’s potential but then again, they only gave up a 3rd round pick to get him. The Hawks took it because they would rather play the previously mentioned defensemen on the roster instead.

The Nikita Zadorov trade is another in a long list of Chicago Blackhawks moves.

This has been a very busy offseason so far for the Blackhawks. Landing a third-round pick for Zadorov is really nice. Trading Brent Seabrook’s eventual LTIR contract to take on Tyler Johnson’s bad contract and get a draft pick was a bad idea. However, the trades for the Jones brothers and Marc-Andre Fleury were really good in a lot of ways.

They clearly want to improve their defense. They also made moves to help them with the issue they have of giving up high danger chances at a high volume. All of their new defensemen are an upgrade and letting Zadorov go is a big key in that. He may find success in Calgary but things clearly didn’t click for him in Chicago.