Kyle Davidson has only exacerbated Stan Bowman's trade blunder
Today the Chicago Blackhawks acquired the 7th and 39th overall picks this year, and a third-round pick in 2024 in exchange for Alex DeBrincat
Last offseason the Chicago Blackhawks went all in. They brought in a Vezina-caliber goaltender in Marc-Andre Fleury, two quality veteran players in Tyler Johnson and Jake McCabe, and traded for a true #1 defenseman in Seth Jones.
Unfortunately the 2021-22 season ended as soon as it started for the Blackhawks. They started 1-10-2, Stan Bowman and Jeremy Colliton were fired, multiple players were dealt at the deadline (Brandon Hagel, Fleury and Ryan Carpenter), and now Alex DeBrincat was traded today. I think it’s important to go back and understand how they got into this mess in the first place.
Seth Jones trade
One of Stan Bowman’s last mistakes was acquiring and signing Seth Jones. He traded last year’s 12th overall pick (Cole Sillinger), Adam Boqvist, a second-round pick (became Jake Bean), and this year’s first-round pick (became sixth overall) for Jones and Nolan Allan. He also signed Jones to a massive eight-year extension with an AAV of $9.5M and a Full NMC.
Jones is an elite defenseman, and played like a true #1 for the Hawks this season. He put up five goals, 46 assists and a +3.10 5v5 xGF% rel in 78 games. I had no major gripes with his game this year, but that’s not really the problem. It’s what the Hawks gave up.
Sillinger at only 18-years-old made the NHL and was a fixture in the Blue Jackets middle-six. He scored 16 goals, added 15 helpers, and had a +0.38 5v5 xGF% rel in 79 games. He looks like a future top-six center.
Boqvist was impressive for the Blue Jackets putting up 11 goals, 11 assists, and a +1.48 5v5 xGF% rel in 52 games. Regardless of what you think about Boqvist his offensive talent cannot be denied. His potential is still relatively high at only 21-years-old.
As mentioned above the Hawks also traded other picks in this trade. They traded a second-round pick which became Jake Bean (in a separate trade with the Carolina Hurricanes), and this year’s first-round pick. That first-round pick became the sixth overall pick.
Just a major disaster all-around for the Hawks, and it really couldn’t have gone much worse. That takes us to today and the Alex DeBrincat trade.
Change in philosophy
When Kyle Davidson was named the full-time General Manager of the Chicago Blackhawks, he announced that the team was embarking on a full blown rebuild. That meant that everyone was on the table besides Patrick Kane, Jonathan Toews and Seth Jones. One name that wasn’t listed amongst the other untouchable players was Alex DeBrincat, which raised some eyebrows.
DeBrincat wasn’t traded at the deadline, but that didn’t seem to curb any trade speculation. About two weeks before the draft he started popping up on trade target lists, and eventually trading him became a matter of when and not if.
From a certain perspective it made sense for the Hawks to potentially trade the two-time 40 goal-scorer. They could kickstart a rebuild by getting multiple high-end picks/prospects. They wouldn’t have to worry about a long term deal that could potentially hinder the contention window down the road.
The Blackhawks traded Alex DeBrincat to the Ottawa Senators about three hours before the draft. They acquired the seventh overall pick, 39th overall pick, and a 2024 third-round pick for the emerging superstar winger.
How are the Seth Jones and Alex DeBrincat trade connected?
There are two major connections between the Jones and DeBrincat trades. The first connection was that the Blackhawks wanted to add high-end future assets (picks/prospects) because of the Jones trade. One of the only ways to do that was to trade DeBrincat.
The other connection was the contract situation. As reported by Scott Powers of The Athletic, the Blackhawks were worried that the combination of Jones and DeBrincat’s contracts would shorten the team’s next contention window. So for example if/when their good prospects (let’s just say Lukas Reichel) are due for big pay raises they didn’t want to be in a bad cap spot.
While in a vacuum those are valid reasons to trade DeBrincat they should’ve been able to get more for the 24-year-old budding superstar who already has two 40-goal seasons to his resume.
Final Verdict
The return for Alex DeBrincat was less than ideal, that much the majority can agree on. What started off as a risky trade by Stan Bowman was only made worse by Kyle Davidson. The Hawks are in for a long rebuild and they must hit on their draft picks/prospects.
Other points
I recently finished up all of my prospect profiles for the 2022 NHL Draft, but with the Hawks acquiring the seventh overall pick here are some names you should keep an eye on.
Joakim Kemell - RW - Finland - Possesses an elite shot, good skater, competes hard, smaller build
Marco Kasper - C - Austria - One of the best skaters in the draft, best work ethic in the draft, good playmaker, questions on high-end offensive upside
Jonathan Lekkerimaki - RW - Sweden - Has an elite shot, great with the puck, questions about off the puck play
Kevin Korchinski - LHD - Canada - Has high-end offensive upside, excellent with the puck and in transition, questions regarding defensive play
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