Blackhawks Trade Deadline Preview

Yesterday, the Blackhawks traded defenseman Connor Murphy to the Edmonton Oilers in return for a 2028 2nd round pick. The longest tenured Blackhawk is now 24-year-old Alex Vlasic.

With the NHL deadline approaching on March 6, the Blackhawks don't have the most interesting players on the market. The two known players on the market are two defensive forwards: center Jason Dickinson and winger Ilya Mikheyev. Despite Mikheyev's excellent penalty kill play (you can read about him here), Dickinson has the higher value... and that might be somewhere around a 3rd round pick.

Some fans would like to keep Mikheyev. For that to be feasible, he'd have to sign on for a short-term deal (two years max). At 31-years-old, that ain't happening. And the Blackhawks don't want him for longer than two years (rightfully so). He's wonderful on the PK. But not at the expense of blocking a spot for the Hawks' youngins.

What Kyle Davidson should do is trade a player who might have some more value. Tyler Bertuzzi is having a career year, and he's been solid. At 26 goals and 19 assists in 57 games, Bertuzzi is on pace for 37 goals, which would be a career high. Would Bertuzzi get a lot on the market? According to The Athletic's trade board, the highest rated winger is Blake Coleman at number 6 and 34 years old. I'm not saying Bertuzzi is worth a lot, but I am saying a Bertuzzi trade could get you a little surprise.

But that return would most likely only be a draft pick, which is what Kyle Davidson has been accumulating, and after the Murphy trade, KD now sits on 11 picks through the first two rounds in the draft until 2028. You do not have to use those picks to draft players and build a team completely through the draft. You could—and should—acquire players via trade. And the thing is, I have a scary feeling that Davidson might not do something like that.