Assessing Chicago Blackhawks recent trades with history in mind
By Todd Welter
The Chicago Blackhawks are in desperate need of a rebuild.
Moving a budding superstar in Hagel and a superstar goalie in Fleury for this kind of return is a good move.
The Chicago Blackhawks farm system is woeful. It needs to be restocked with talent as soon as possible. Getting more picks always the Blackhawks more chances to acquire players to improve a roster that has declined.
The Hawks roster as it stood before these trades was nowhere close to a Stanley Cup. The Blackhawks roster has not been good enough to even come close to making the playoffs.
The Blackhawks have technically not made the Stanley Cup playoffs since 2017–they made the COVID-19 pandemic expanded playoffs in 2020.
Getting a possible first-round pick for Fleury mitigates the Hawks not having their first-round pick when they gave it up in the Seth Jones trade.
The Blackhawks could get lucky and end up winning the NHL Draft Lottery and keep this year’s pick. It is a long shot but the Chicago Blackhawks have a slim chance at having two first-round picks this offseason.
That is a great way to jump-start the rebuild. The Hawks need undergo a rebuild after pushing it off under prior general manager Stan Bowman–and then sort of doing a half-hearted rebuild before trading for Jones and Fleury.
The Hawks are just not very good and currently second to last in the Central Division standings. A rebuild is necessary if the Chicago Blackhawks ever hope to contend for the Stanley Cup as they did so often last decade.
History is not on the Chicago Blackhawks side when it comes to big blockbuster trades like this.
There is one problem with these trades. The Blackhawks just do not seem to “win” these types of trades.
Hopefully, new general manager Kyle Davidson can break that streak. It seems like when Chicago ships out a primetime player, the return it gets never works out.
The Hawks have either gone the cheap route when Bill Wirtz was the owner or have misevaluated prospects when Bowman was the general manager.
It just seems like the Blackhawks cannot get the better end of these types of trades. They ship out a talented player but do not reap the rewards on the return.