3 players the Chicago Blackhawks must trade to rebuild properly
The Chicago Blackhawks need to have a hard look in the mirror before deciding what direction to take their franchise. It sounds like Kyle Davidson believes that this team needs a rebuild and he would be absolutely right about that.
They were not good in 2021-22 but they were trying to be. They added Seth Jones, Tyler Johnson, and Marc-Andre Fleury ahead of the season but to no avail as they were horrible again. Now, it is clearly time to rebuild.
In order to rebuild, you need to build from the back end out and bring in high-end young talent. You saw the Blackhawks do that in the 2000s and it led to championship success in the 2010s. They had goaltenders and defensemen in place when they landed forwards that can make an impact.
It is time for them to start doing that again. In order to do it the right way, these are three players that they need to trade:
Seth Jones. 4. player. 94. . D. Chicago Blackhawks
The Chicago Blackhawks might need to move on from Seth Jones to rebuild.
Seth Jones is a very good defenseman. A lot of people don’t love his underlying numbers and that is a fair criticism but his impact offensively cannot be denied. In 2021-22 on a bad Blackhawks team, he had five goals and 46 assists for 51 points.
The Blackhawks were not a good defensive team at all so he can’t be fully to blame when you criticize that part of their game. Can he be better? For over nine million dollars a year (that cap hit kicks in this upcoming year), the answer is definitely yes.
Unfortunately, it would be really hard to properly rebuild with a 27-year-old (who will be 28 by the season’s start) making that much money against the cap. If they can find someone who will take on that risk, they need to trade him. He would look really nice on a contender.