The Chicago Blackhawks make two quick free agent signings

The Chicago Blackhawks are not a team trying to win the Stanley Cup in 2022-23. In fact, they would probably be mad if they were kind of good and barely made the playoffs. The goal this year is to compete for the top of the 2023 NHL Draft.

It was obvious that they would only make a few small moves in free agency as they just need bodies to play for their team. They did just that after the free agency window opened in the National Hockey League.

Chicago is bringing in Max Domi and Andreas Athanasiou via free agency. They are each getting one-year deals worth three million dollars. Those are nice years for both the players and the teams for a variety of reasons.

First, the teams. The Blackhawks are going to be very bad. Both of these guys, however, fit what Kyle Davidson likes in players in different ways. Domi is hard to play against and Athanasiou is one of the fastest players in the National Hockey League.

The Chicago Blackhawks are making some low-key free agency moves.

With some of the young kids that the Blackhawks are going to be using over the year, it will be nice to have guys like this around for a while. Each of them can be a good model of what the team wants to show off to their kids in terms of what to expect.

For the players, they are going to make some money which is always nice. They aren’t going to do much winning in a Blackhawks sweater but that will be fixed for them down the stretch of the season. The Hawks will surely trade them to contenders for assets before the trade deadline.

Athanasiou was a really nice depth piece for the Los Angeles Kings team that surprised a lot of people in 2022-23. He only played in 28 regular season games but he scored 11 goals in those games. If he can stay healthy, he will score some goals using his incredible speed.

Max Domi also adds some nice depth to the wing for Chicago. He doesn’t score now like he did when he first broke into the league but he is hard to play against and uses physicality to make an impact out there. Hawks fans will like having him on the team for a cup of coffee.

These are some low-key moves that are going to help this team continue its rebuild. Being good leaders for a while before being traded for assets would mean that the Hawks get the most out of these guys.