Team: 2020-21 Chicago Blackhawks

Initial Creation Date: Oct. 24, 2020

Published: Oct. 25, 2020

Salary Cap Mode: Basic

With the "rebuild" finally "underway," the Hawks have some things to figure out regarding the roster in order to truly live up to the comments made in the "we're rebuilding" letter. And NO, that isn't trading Kane, Toews and Keith....

De Haan is a solid 2nd pairing d-man, who was pretty solid before he got hurt and in the playoffs. With Boston in need of another LHD (unless they want Moore or Zboril on the 2nd pair), De Haan could be a reasonable option to lock down the top or 2nd pair until a guy like Lauzon or Zboril can develop into that role full time. Seeing how similar players were valued on the trade market this offseason, I think a mid-round pick would be fair compensation, maybe with a condition for an upgrade or an additional pick if he plays a certain amount of games (CDH does have a tendency to get hurt).

Taking on bad contracts is another thing I'd like to see. We're not going to get any super high end prospects or draft picks by taking guys like Brendan Smith, but if we move De Haan and Zack Smith is on LTIR, we're gonna have quite a bit of cap space, this year and next year. Tyler Wall is a goalie prospect who is turning pro this year and put up great numbers at UMass-Lowell for the past 4 seasons. Wouldn't mind having another young goalie with some upside in the system. Again, doesn't have to be this but if we could get a nice prospect/pick for taking on a bad contract for a year or two, I'd like that a lot too.

Finally, Kahun is a guy we really never should've let go and the stars have aligned for us to undo that mistake. Idk what kind of contract he would want, but if we could get him for relatively cheap, I'd absolutely love to have him back. Just a good two-way guy who fit in on whatever line he was on and is still young enough to be apart of the core long term.

FInally, I think more guys will get moved out midseason or before the expansion draft next offseason. Janmark seems like a very likely candidate to get flipped at the deadline and unfortunately I think Connor Murphy is a guy who could be moved as well. Not going to include them in the trades yet, just because a lot can change between now and whenever the trade deadline is. Hopefully we hold onto Murphy, one of my favorite players and I think he's exactly what we need, but that's besides the point for this post. Hopefully we can wrap up the offseason with another nice surprise like Kahun or a solid prospect via cap dump.

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