ANAHEIM, Calif. — Less than a week from the NHL trade deadline Friday at 2 p.m. CT, the Blackhawks have many logs in the fire but nothing flaming hot quite yet.
Seth Jones’ desire for a trade has become one of the biggest storylines around the entire league, and Hawks general manager Kyle Davidson also has a number of other players who he could possibly deal away.
Davidson is no stranger to busy deadline weeks, considering he traded Brandon Hagel at his first deadline and Patrick Kane at his second, among many others. Last year represented a reprieve, though, as Anthony Beauvillier was the Hawks’ only deadline-week move.
Davidson’s 2025 deadline week will likely feel more like 2022 and 2023 than like 2024, although that’s not guaranteed since the league-wide market — which saw a flurry of moves back in late January, including the Hawks trading Taylor Hall to the Hurricanes — has yet to really rev up again. Saturday did bring a small surge in activity, though.
Here’s a breakdown of all the players (or groups of players) who could be involved in negotiations this week:
Jones, the big fish
Established contenders generally have less available salary-cap space than up-and-coming teams do, making Jones’ wish to be traded to an established contender despite his five remaining contract years with a $9.5 million cap hit especially difficult to grant.
The Hawks will only trade Jones if it makes sense for them and if they believe the return package will benefit them long-term, regardless of his increasingly honest and bold comments.
They’re trying to improve imminently, and they’re a better team with a talented, minutes-crunching — albeit overpaid — player like him on the roster than without. On the other hand, Jones could become something of a distraction, and they would like to get his contract off the books eventually, so if now is the best time to do so, perhaps it’s an opportunity worth jumping on.
Salary retention will also be a sticking point, although it will almost certainly be necessary to make a trade possible. They can retain up to 50% — $4.75 million — but it has to be the same percentage every year through 2030. They likely won’t be willing to retain more than $2 to $3 million annually.
The Stars and Panthers are the main two teams being mentioned so far in Jones trade speculation. Either destination would probably please Jones, for whom Dallas is home.
For the Stars, the right-handed Jones could help balance out their left-leaning defensive corps and also temporarily replace star Miro Heiskanen, who isn’t expected to return from a knee injury until April. However, Heiskanen is signed through 2029 and fellow defenseman Esa Lindell through 2030, and the Stars might not want a third long-term contract clogging up their chart.
For the Panthers, right-handed Aaron Ekblad is the best pending free-agent defenseman in the league, and Jones could preemptively replace Ekblad on their top pairing with Gustav Forsling. However, the Panthers will only have enough cap space to fit Jones this season if forward Matthew Tkachuk — who is currently out indefinitely — is ruled out until the playoffs.
As far as the return, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported the Hawks are asking for young players who can help them now (or soon), not more draft picks.
Ryan Donato
Opinions are split within the Hawks’ organization — as they are within the fan base — over whether to keep (and try to re-sign) or trade Donato.
The 28-year-old journeyman forward is enjoying a career year, with his 19 goals and 40 points (in 57 games) having already shattered his previous bests. This therefore marks the ultimate sell-high moment on Donato, who likely won’t be able to repeat this production in future seasons.
However, players with his level of consistent work ethic are scarce on this team, and he isn’t going to lose that trait. He helps build the kind of culture the Hawks want moving forward. He has been unwilling to even consider trade deadline-related questions the last couple months.
The Hawks’ decision on Donato might depend on what they’re offered. If another team dangles a second-round pick, he could go. If a third-round pick (or less) proves to be the highest offer, he’ll probably stay.
Veteran rentals
Pat Maroon, Craig Smith and Alec Martinez are all aging players on one-year contracts who could theoretically be in play this week — although if any of them are traded, they wouldn’t fetch the Hawks much in return. Their experience and leadership will appeal more to contenders than their on-ice abilities.
Maroon has recorded 13 points and Smith 14 points as the Hawks’ fourth-line wingers. Martinez has quietly averaged 20 minutes of ice time on defense. Smith and Martinez have each missed significant time due to back and neck injuries, respectively.
Maroon, whose wife is pregnant and due in April, implied to the Sun-Times last month he might prefer to not be traded.
“Kyle knows where I’m at, but I’m going to let Kyle do what he thinks is right,” Maroon said. “We communicated, obviously. … I like it here. Maybe I’d like to stay, too. I don’t know what’s going to happen, honestly.”
Players with term
The biggest wild cards of the Hawks’ deadline week are Connor Murphy and Lukas Reichel, two players with one year left on their contracts after this season and absolutely nothing else in common.
With prospects Ryan Greene, Oliver Moore and Sam Rinzel all possibly turning pro after their college seasons end this spring, the Hawks need to open up roster spots for them somehow. Trading Murphy, the Hawks’ longest-tenured player and alternate captain, and/or Reichel, the Hawks’ former top prospect, would mean a lot more than simply opening spots, though.
Murphy’s reasonable $4.4 million cap hit and on- and off-ice steadiness could appeal to a team looking for defensive depth and cost certainty. He has survived multiple generations of roster turnover the last eight years, so his departure would be jarring.
Reichel, whose future looked bright two years ago, has struggled in the NHL ever since and frustrated coaches Luke Richardson and Anders Sorensen, although many fans believe he hasn’t received enough patience and opportunity from either.
It’s easy to see how another team could view Reichel, who’s still just 22, as an enticing reclamation project. And Davidson has historically been merciful to players whom he believes need changes of scenery. But trading Reichel now would definitely represent selling low — not to mention perhaps premature — from the Hawks’ standpoint.