3 Chicago Blackhawks trades that get them back into first round

The Chicago Blackhawks and Toronto Maple Leafs have a few options available.

The Chicago Blackhawks could really use a first-round pick this year. They are a very bad team and need to rebuild. There are plenty of teams who can afford to give them one and one of those teams is the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Toronto was defeated in the Stanley Cup Playoffs by the Tampa Bay Lightning in the first round. It was a devastating defeat as they were so close to beating their playoff demons and getting into the second round for the first time since 2004 but came up just short.

They want to improve as badly as any team in the league. Their first-round pick will not help them do that so they should consider moving it t change some things up with their roster. Changes are going to be made around the edges as they may bring back the core for one more run at it.

Taking Connor Murphy, Dominik Kubalik, and a third-round pick in return for that first, Alex Kerfoot, and TJ Brodie might help them change things up. Murphy and Brodie are just swapping salaries (Toronto actually gets a million dollars of relief) and Kerfoot would be replaced with Kubalik as long as Toronto can extend him as an RFA. He would probably be cheaper than 3.5 million after his bad 2021-22.

That third-round pick originally belonged to Toronto. They traded it to the Calgary Flames who then traded it to the Chicago Blackhawks in exchange for Nikita Zadorov. They could take it back along with another second as a kicker in this deal and the Hawks would be getting that first-round pick back in the 20s.