Blackhawks News: Chicago makes a great trade for draft capital
The Chicago Blackhawks have the potential to make a lot of trades before next Friday’s trade deadline. Guys like Patrick Kane, Max Domi, and Jake McCabe amongst others are all potentially ready to be traded away which is really going to make things interesting.
On Wednesday, however, the Hawks made a trade that is on a slightly smaller scale. They acquired Nikita Zaitsev, a 2023 second-round pick, and a 2026 fourth-round pick from the Ottawa Senators in exchange for future considerations. This trade isn’t huge but it isn’t small either.
It shows that Kyle Davidson is really interested in adding draft capital for as long as this rebuild exists. They have the cap space to weaponize and they did so by taking Zaitsev here in this deal so that they can land draft picks. It is a really smart move.
Zaitsev has a cap hit of 4.5 million for the rest of this year and all of next. He hasn’t really lived up to that number so the Sens decided to get rid of him. The Hawks have the draft capital to take him on but that came at a price for Ottawa who will be trying to win again in 2023-24.
The Chicago Blackhawks made a decent trade-sized on Wednesday night.
The Chicago Blackhawks just bought some draft capita from the Ottawa Senators.
— Emily Kaplan (@emilymkaplan) February 23, 2023
Chicago acquires Nikita Zaitsev, a 2023 second round pick and 2026 fourth round pick from Ottawa for ‘future considerations’ per sources.
He is a player that isn’t going to help the Hawks very much but he will be able to play some minutes on the back end. In 28 games so far this year, he has no goals and five assists. He doesn’t defend all that well or help his team create offense.
This move, if Zaitsev continues to struggle, can also help the Blackhawks in the Connor Bedard sweepstakes. Getting an extra second in 2023 and a fourth in 2026 is really nice. The draft picks continue to stock up, especially in 2023.
#Blackhawks GM Kyle Davidson on Nikita Zaitsev trade: “We are getting an NHL caliber defenseman and acquiring very valuable draft capital in this upcoming draft and beyond. Nikita gives us added depth on the right side and we anticipate him joining us soon.”
— Charlie Roumeliotis (@CRoumeliotis) February 23, 2023
It seems as if Kyle Davidson believes that adding more draft picks is the most important thing for this franchise and he is right. He also knows that adding an NHL defenseman is smart in case he trades one of his other defensemen before next Friday.
This is only the beginning for the Chicago Blackhawks as they are going to be busy. They might not be doing a lot of winning down the stretch here but the future will be brighter.
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