Blackhawks Looking To Add Forward Help

It’s fair to say that this has not been the start of the season that the Blackhawks were hoping for.  They enter play on Saturday in an all-too-familiar position, at the bottom of the Central Division.

That has many hoping for some form of change.  In a recent appearance on 102.5 The Game (audio link), Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman suggested that the change won’t be off the ice, which suggests that head coach Jeff Blashill’s job isn’t in jeopardy.  Instead, Chicago’s preference would be to make a move to shake up the roster.

On that note, Chris Johnston of TSN and The Athletic recently relayed in a TSN Early Trading segment that the Blackhawks are hoping to augment their group up front.

For the young firepower that Chicago has, they sit dead last in goals per game so far this season.  Yes, Connor Bedard missed time but that was only six games and even with that absence, he leads the team in points.  Rookie Roman Kantserov has lived up to the hype with eight contests in 17 games as well.

However, things thin out after that.  Patrick Kane has eight assists but only one goal.  Youngsters Anton Frondell and Frank Nazar have been hot and cold in the early going.  Veterans Tyler Bertuzzi and Teuvo Teravainen have two goals and four assists each while Ryan Donato has one assist less than that.  Those three, plus Kane, were supposed to be the veteran supporting cast that could help carry the load and allow some of their younger players to ease in.  Clearly, that’s not going as planned.

The good news for Chicago is that they have ample trade capital.  They have three first-round picks next year plus extra second-rounders in the next two seasons.  They have one of the deeper prospect pools in the league, even if you count players like Kantersov and Frondell as graduated players.  If there’s a team that’s willing to trade a win-now piece for futures, the Blackhawks should have a realistic chance at getting that player.

However, the bad news is twofold.  For starters, few teams are willing to make that type of move this early in the season.  That makes the asking price for those players rather high at the moment.  The other is that they don’t have a lot of cap space.  They can add a player making a little under $2.4MM per PuckPedia, which doesn’t leave a lot of flexibility.  While they could move Ryan Ellis to LTIR, that would set them up for potentially a huge bonus carryover penalty next season.  If they want to add a player of significance, finding a way to afford it could be difficult.

Several years into their rebuild, the Blackhawks were hoping to be closer to the playoff mix this season.  It’s still early but they’re already ten points out of a playoff spot which is a big gap to try to overcome.  If they’re going to do so, they clearly need more firepower.  It will be up to GM Kyle Davidson to try to find an impact forward in a trade market that is still a while away from fully materializing.  Otherwise, it could be another long year in Chicago.