Chicago Blackhawks Offseason Moves Kickstart Rebuild into Motion

Everyone knew that the Chicago Blackhawks were going to make a lot of moves this offseason.  No one knew to what extent these moves would be. The first move really kicked the wheels on the rebuild.  Much of these offseason moves forced Hawks fans to realize that we are in a full-blown reset.

Departures

Alex DeBrincat was traded to the Ottawa Senators for this year’s 7th overall (Kevin Korchinski, D), this year’s 39th overall (Paul Ludwinski, C), and a 2024 Third Round pick.

Kirby Dach was traded to the Montreal Canadiens for this year’s 13th (Frank Nazar, C) and 66th (Gavin Hayes, LW) picks.

The DeBrincat trade will most likely go down as the worst trade in Blackhawks history; worse than the Artemi Panarin trade.  It will be incredibly hard to find another player that can have two 40-goal seasons by the time he is 24 years old.

The Kirby Dach trade (in my opinion) was worth it.  Yes, Dach is a great player.   However, I am very excited for Frank Nazar.

The free agents that we decided to let walk really does not sit well with me.  Kyle Davidson had the chance at the deadline to at least get some return for players like Dylan Strome,  Dominik Kubalik, and Kevin Lankinen.

But Davidson decided to not get any return for these players, chose not to even qualify Strome or Kubalik, and just let them walk for nothing.  One would think that a team entering a rebuild would love the assets in return for these players.  However, Davidson would rather get nothing in return than have them on his team.

Dylan Strome signed a 1 year $3.5 million contract with the Washington Capitals.  Dominik Kubalik signed a 2-year $5 million contract with the Detroit Red Wings.  Erik Gustafsson and Henrik Borgstrom also signed one-year deals with the Capitals, Kevin Lankinen signed a one-year contract with Nashville, Collin Delia signed for one year with Vancouver, and Brett Connolly and Calvin de Haan are currently unsigned, free agents.

All of that value was sitting on Kyle Davidson’s table, and he decided to give it all away.

When teams let that many players walk, they need to make some sort of free agent signings.  This is where Kyle Davidson redeemed himself a little bit.

Arrivals

Max Domi and Andreas Athanasiou were both signed to 1-year $3 million deals.  These are great pieces that can be flipped at the deadline.  Based on how they perform and who they play with, Davidson could get some nice packages for these players.

With the departures of Lankinen and Delia, Davidson’s next order of business was goalies.  Petr Mrazek was acquired from Toronto, and Alex Stock was signed to a one-year $750,000 contract.

Colin Blackwell was signed to a two-year $2.4 million contract.  He is a forward I think the Hawks will hold for at least the duration of his contract (and not flipped at the deadline).

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Draft Pieces

There are two players that the Blackhawks drafted that I am excited to see play.  Kevin Korchinski and Frank Nazar were selected 7th and 13th overall in the 2022 NHL Entry Draft.  I am curious to see if Korchinski was a steal or a bust.  I am almost certain that Frank Nazar will be a Blackhawk for a long time coming.  He will be an NHL-caliber player in a few years’ time.

If Kyle Davidson’s goal was to make this team so unbelievably bad that we are almost guaranteed to get Connor Bedard, then he did a great job.  I know this team will be hard to watch for at least a year, but hopefully, the Blackhawks will once again be at the top of the league and become a dynasty again.