Chicago Blackhawks need to root for this team for draft purposes

The Chicago Blackhawks were strongly rooting for the Minnesota Wild to reach this point of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The second-round pick that Chicago acquired in the Marc-Andre Fleury trade would have become a first had the Wild made it this far with Fleury getting at least half of the wins.

Unfortunately, they were defeated by the St. Louis Blues in six games. However, their hope of upgrading a draft pick is not all lost as they still have a chance to see one get upgraded. There is still a team out there that can help them do that.

The Blackhawks acquired a third-round pick in the Duncan Keith trade with the Edmonton Oilers. If the Oilers make it to the Stanley Cup Final and Keith is top four on their team in ice time amongst defensemen, the pick will become a second-round pick. That would be huge for Chicago.

As of right now, Keith is third on the team amongst Oilers defensemen with 19:52. He only trails Darnell Nurse (21:18) and Cody Ceci (20:46). Evan Bouchard is in fourth at 18:22 and Tyson Barrie is fifth at 18:10. Neither of them is likely to pass up Keith so all Edmonton needs to do is win.

The Chicago Blackhawks need the Edmonton Oilers to go to the Stanley Cup Final.

That is the hardest part, however. They are going to be facing the Colorado Avalanche. Of course, the Oilers have star power with guys like Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, and Evander Kane but the Avalanche had amazing players like Nathan MacKinnon, Cale Makar, and Mikko Rantanen amongst others.

It is going to be a very hard series for both teams. The Avalanche are the more complete team but the Oilers have both McDavid and Draisaitl who are setting lots of different playoff records. If they are able to keep firing away like that, they will be hard to beat.

There is no point for the Blackhawks fans to root against the Oilers now. They should have been the ones to trade for Fleury as Mike Smith can be shaky but that is in the past now. Upgrading from a third to a second would be really nice for Kyle Davidson and his staff. 

In addition to having this rooting interest, it is just going to be an incredible series. Each of them has the Stanley Cup on their mind and rightfully so. There are some all-time great players going here and it is going to be a war. Hopefully, the games are as spicy as the rosters suggest they will be.