The Chicago Blackhawks have had busier trade deadlines than this one, especially compared to last year.
But less stressful?
Blackhawks general manager Kyle Davidson wasn’t ready to go that far.
“Yes and no,” Davidson said after the 2 p.m. CT deadline passed on Friday. “Last few years were just stressful for different reasons — the activity, the gravity of some moves. This year was more stressful, it wasn’t more stressful, but it was a different kind of stress because the last two deadlines I’ve worked have been so busy that this felt different. You’re thinking, ‘Is there something else I should be doing?’ It was different. To say it was much more quiet would be an understatement. It was different. You still work the phones the same, but there’s less substance in those phone calls, which feels like you’re spinning your wheels a bit. But (it was) all good. It was just a different year for us.”
Davidson ultimately completed one trade at the deadline this year, and it wasn’t even the one he expected.
“I didn’t really have anything pegged, but heading into it, I thought there would be a little more activity, whether we did something or not was a different story,” Davidson said. “I just thought there would be a little more action on our end, but it was quieter, which is fine. We’re happy with the group we have moving through the deadline. I wasn’t like dead set on trying to make other moves. If it happened, it happened, and it didn’t.”
It didn’t. Still, here are 10 thoughts on the Blackhawks from the deadline.
1. Before the season, the Blackhawks anticipated this would be a little busier trade deadline. They thought Taylor Raddysh, Corey Perry and Tyler Johnson might be some of their most valuable assets. Of course, that didn’t go according to plan with Raddysh having a rough season, Perry having his contract terminated and Johnson missing time due to injury.
Jason Dickinson, Petr Mrázek and Nick Foligno might have drawn some interest at the deadline with how they’ve played this season. All three were going to be unrestricted free agents, but the Blackhawks decided to re-sign them well before the deadline arrived.
“That was a decision we had made and understood that those signings would likely limit the interest or volume of calls we were going to field at the deadline,” Davidson said. “That all went into the mix and, in the end, we came out strongly in favor of keeping them around than any potential activity around the deadline.”
So, the deadline mostly became a watch of whether Colin Blackwell would be dealt, and he wasn’t.
2. Davidson was contacted about retaining salary in other teams’ trades, but he didn’t think it was worth it.
“You get feelers on that,” Davidson said. “The ones that came to us, I don’t think it made sense given that we only have two retained salary spots left. For a late-round pick, it’s just something I didn’t want to potentially limit ourselves whether (it) be today or down the road or whatever. I just wanted to keep those spots open.”
3. Boris Katchouk being claimed off waivers by the Ottawa Senators was somewhat surprising. The Blackhawks were hoping to get Katchouk through waivers to make him eligible for the Rockford IceHogs’ playoffs, but he probably wasn’t going to have a future with the organization beyond this season.
“At times, he gave us some big boosts,” Blackhawks coach Luke Richardson said after practice on Friday. “I don’t think it was consistent, but I don’t think anybody on our team has been that way this year. This is a great opportunity for him. It’s a good young team that’s got some good offensive powers, and I think he showed at times here some good speed and good offensive abilities. Hopefully, this is a good opportunity for him.”
4. The Blackhawks did assign Louis Crevier, Isaak Phillips and Zach Sanford to the IceHogs on Friday to make them eligible for the playoffs. Crevier and Phillips could stay in Rockford with Nikita Zaitsev expected to return to the Blackhawks on Saturday. Sanford was solely a paper transaction.
trade time ⏲️ pic.twitter.com/uKcT0fOXDg
— Chicago Blackhawks (@NHLBlackhawks) March 7, 2024
5. The Blackhawks didn’t expect to have any takers for Anthony Beauvillier at the trade deadline, but the Nashville Predators called out of the blue on Wednesday and negotiations began.
“As you mentioned, Barry (Trotz) had some previous experience with Anthony and so that familiarity was something that definitely came into play with him showing some interest and eventually getting a deal done,” Davidson said.
6. What the Blackhawks have done with fifth-round draft picks could use a travel map. Follow along:
• March of 2022: The Blackhawks traded Ryan Carpenter to the Calgary Flames for the Flames’ 2024 fifth-round pick.
Result: The Blackhawks own two fifth-round picks.
• February of 2023: The Blackhawks trade a conditional 2024 fifth-round pick to the Toronto Maple Leafs as part of a large package deal.
Result: The Blackhawks again own just one 2024 fifth-round pick. The condition of the Leafs’ trade was the Blackhawks give Toronto their highest fifth-round pick at the time of the draft.
• November of 2023: The Blackhawks trade a 2024 fifth-round pick to the Vancouver Canucks for Anthony Beauvillier.
Result: The Blackhawks have zero 2024 fifth-round picks.
• March of 2024: The Blackhawks acquired the Nashville Predators’ 2024 fifth-round pick for Beauvillier.
Result: The Blackhawks have one 2024 fifth-round pick again. The Maple Leafs would pick at the Blackhawks’ original draft location, which will occur early in the fifth round, and the Blackhawks would draft in the Predators’ fifth-round slot.
7. The Blackhawks (.294 points percentage) may be currently ahead of the San Jose Sharks (.298) in the battle for last place and the best odds at winning the draft lottery, but the Sharks have positioned themselves to overtake the Blackhawks. The Sharks moved Anthony Duclair and Tomáš Hertl at the deadline, and for a team that already struggled to score, that’s a ton of production. Duclair was tied for a team-leading 16 goals and Hertl was third with 15 goals. The Sharks also traded goalie Kaapo Kahkonen.
The Blackhawks and Sharks do meet twice before the end of the season.
8. With the deadline done, Davidson will now focus even more on draft preparation and prospect assessment.
“(Draft prep’s) definitely going to take up a lot of the focus now,” Davidson said. “That along with tracking some of the prospects down the stretch and see how they’re doing, where we might want to have them play, whether it’s to end this year or to play next year. Those kinds of conversations are going to really heat up and start to be had.”
Davidson is expected to have conversations with college prospects Landon Slaggert and Frank Nazar over the next month.
Slaggert’s season could end as soon as this weekend and he could be with the Blackhawks soon after. Davidson talked about Slaggert’s development this season.
“He had a great year offensively especially, goal scoring, kind of found a little extra goal-scoring punch, which I think is good for his confidence,” Davidson said of Slaggert. “Again, being a leader there, getting a lot of time and playing against some pretty good teams in the Big Ten is a great experience. But he just continued that style of play, the relentless, high compete style and added a little bit of offense this year, which was good to see and good for his confidence when his season is done and hopefully we can turn him pro.”
9. The Seattle Kraken re-signing Jordan Eberle to a two-year contract on Friday eliminates a free agent possibility for the Blackhawks this offseason. The Blackhawks need to get Connor Bedard someone to create alongside him, and Eberle would have made a lot of sense as a player and as a short-term signing.
Davidson was asked Friday whether he could see himself making long-term signings in free agency this summer. He wouldn’t commit to anything.
“You have to get to that point to see who’s available first of all,” Davidson said. “The thing about a lot of these, whether it’s free agency or what have you, if you’re looking long term at some pretty good players, normally their teams do everything they can to lock them up and there’s still a considerable amount of time to do that. I don’t know if we’ll be in the long-term game. We’ll kind of evaluate that when we get there and see where we’re at in a couple of months.
“But we’ll again, as we did last year and maybe more so this year, we’ll look to probably explore free agency and see. It’s all about what’s there, too, right? We can sit here today and the free-agent list looks like this (big) and you get there and it’s much more minimal. So, it’s kind of a situation that’s lacking some information right now, so we’ll see who’s available in free agency and go from there. But it’s something we’re willing to explore and kind of dip into if it’s advantageous to us. But we also have to be mindful of where we are in this process as well and not do anything to harm the long term.”
10. Not trade deadline news, but Taylor Hall was on the ice before the Blackhawks’ practice. Hall had surgery on his right ACL on Nov. 27. Hall is still expected to miss the rest of the season, but it’s a positive sign going forward as he will be returning to the Blackhawks next season and likely playing a top-six role.
“He won’t be introduced to any team practice or contact or anything, but he said he felt really good and he looks like a machine,” Richardson said. “He’s built like an Adonis. So, it’s going to be great to see him when he’s feeling great. He mentioned he may not even be needing a knee brace anymore, to have a little more freedom out there with his speed and his veteran leadership. I think that’s going to be big.”
(Photo of Kyle Davidson: Chase Agnello-Dean / NHLI via Getty Images)
