Honestly, i don't see the hawks doing this. They have 3 rookies on the left that look good, with 2 more LHD guys in the AHL who on thinner team would be getting a chance to play. Hawks stick to organically developing their prospects and not creating more of a logjam in my opinion.

If Dorion does this, it would add to the long list of upsetting moves he made. This is a very poor return.

Not expecting outsiders to know much about Brannstrom though. Brannstrom has dominated his role last season, his 23 y/o season. He has also paced for 24 pts per 82 games since 2020-21 (he was 21 y/o), almost all at ES and from the 3rd pairing. He has this kind of advanced metrics because of a very good hockey IQ, great passing and excellent quickness. That makes him so much better at defending than a guy like Hamonic for example, despite "size and toughness" (Hamonic who by the way didn't get destroyed last season since he played with Sanderson)



Not only that, moving Brannstrom is not SMART since he is a much much better than anything after him (Hamonic, Guenette, JBD, Thomson, Matinpalo, Larsson...). One injury in the Top-4 and Sens are screwed if Brannstrom is gone.

The NO BRAINER move is to simply trade Kubalik