Chicago Blackhawks: Trading Marc-Andre Fleury might be smart

The Chicago Blackhawks have won three straight since firing Jeremy Colliton. They are playing a much better game under Derek King and everybody involved deserves credit. With that said, even though the season is just over a month old, the Chicago Blackhawks appear to be in a hole that is too much to overcome.

They went into the season with expectations of being a bubble team. A team like that could either make the playoffs or just miss. Well, with the bad start to the season, they are in a big hole as mentioned before. They might play like that bubble team the rest of the way but that won’t be enough to be a playoff team in the Western Conference.

Because of their bad start, they need to be better than a bubble team going forward and that just doesn’t seem possible. The roster has some really good players on it but they would need to go on a very big run in order to make it to the playoffs.

As a result of this, they would be smart to trade someone like Marc-Andre Fleury. The reigning Vezina Trophy winner has mostly struggled to keep the puck out of the net as a member of the Chicago Blackhawks. However, very few people blame him as most goalies would have struggled on this team in October.

The Chicago Blackhawks should trade Marc-Andre Fleury as soon as possible.

Every smart team in the NHL knows that Fleury would be much better on a team that actually defends well in front of him. They have had a defensive spark under Derek King but it may not be as sustainable as you think. There are some very tough games ahead of them. Fleury deserves a chance at one more Stanley Cup in his career and he isn’t going to get it on this team.

He is also in danger of ruining a very impressive streak right now. Fleury has never missed the Stanley Cup Playoffs at any point in his career with the Pittsburgh Penguins or Vegas Golden Knights. If he were to be traded away from Chicago this year, it would almost certainly be on a contender.

The team that deserves mention for this is the Edmonton Oilers. Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl are the two best players in the NHL right now and need a significant goalie upgrade. Fleury has proven time and time again that he could be that guy.

There are also plenty of other teams out there that could use a goaltender like Fleury. If they can get some good assets, and they would, they should consider making this move sooner rather than later. Chicago’s second, third, and fourth wins shouldn’t change the fact that they aren’t as good as we thought.