The Chicago Blackhawks have had some magnificent years with Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane. Lots of individual awards have come along with three Stanley Cup championships. Each of them will be in the Hall of Fame as a result of their brilliance with this franchise.
Going into 2022-23, however, it is very different from the way things used to be. Patrick Kane is still elite while Jonathan Toews is a mid-level player. They both have one year left on their contracts making north of 10 million dollars.
The team is also very bad. They are one of the worst teams in the league and have their eyes set on winning the 2023 NHL Draft Lottery. There are some really good prospects at the top of the next draft that might be worth it.
Of course, when you are rebuilding the way that the Blackhawks are, the highly paid veterans with one year left on their deal all of the sudden become the biggest trade targets on your squad. That is going t be the case for Toews and Kane this year.
The Chicago Blackhawks have some big decisions to make this upcoming season.
Trading both of them away is something that would help the Hawks in multiple ways. They would get good returns for them that can help them in the future. They would also make their NHL squad worse which will increase their chances of the best possible draft pick in 2023.
It might also be good for the players because they would almost certainly be traded to good teams trying to win the Stanley Cup. They each provide the experience that a lot of teams are missing and would be able to help in a lot of different ways.
The newest rumor out there is that the Blackhawks have not received a trade request from either Toews or Kane yet. That day may come or it may not come. They both have no-move clauses in their contracts so any trade would have to go through them first.
The report comes from Ben Pope who covers the Hawks for the Chicago Sun-Times. He revealed that this came from Kyle Davidson. It is unclear if they will ever ask for a trade out of town but that doesn’t mean that it’ll never happen.
If the Blackhawks were smart, they would be wanting to move one of both of them. The pros outweigh the cons a lot. The future is what this team is going for and two players on the wrong side of 30 are not the future.
