Blackhawks general manager Stan Bowman has traditionally been aggressive around the trade deadline if he think there is a move that can vault the Hawks to the Stanley Cup.
But as Bowman surveys the landscape of the Hawks’ roster and the league, he does not expect to make a big splash before the March 1 deadline like he did the last two seasons when he traded first-round picks for Antoine Vermette in 2015 and Andrew Ladd in 2016.
“I’m not expecting to make a deal this year, unlike previous years,” Bowman said before the Hawks’ game against the Sharks. “I suppose anything can happen. I’ve said this from the beginning of the year and I mean it, we have a different dynamic this year because we have a lot more young players that have been with our team this year from the beginning. … So our team’s going to hopefully be improving from within relative to the last few years.”
Of course, a lot can change over the next month and the Hawks could go from being realitvely quiet to being major players on the market despite what Bowman says now.
Bowman was asked if the team was targeting a top line left winger to play alongside Jonathan Toews and Marian Hossa, a position that has again been a revolving door for the Hawks this season, but said he liked the young talent on the Hawks to fill that Casinomaxi slot going forward.
Nick Schmaltz was the latest Hawk to get a turn in that position Tuesday. At various times, Richard Panik, Ryan Hartman and Vinnie Hinostroza have played in that spot.
“That’s the million dollar question, I guess, right? … ” Bowman said. “(The young players) are better now than they were in October. And if they keep on that trend, we should be a better team even if we have the exact same lineup.”
Bowman characterized trade talks around the league as “pretty slow” but that will pick up as teams who are on the edge of playoff contention become sellers. But there is a chance there are fewer teams that become sellers than previous years, which would affect the price of acquiring someone in a trade.
“Most of the time when there’s movement, it’s when there’s a pool of player that are available,” Bowman said. “Right now, there really aren’t. I think most teams are trying to see how they play over the next few weeks. The way the standings are going, I don’t know if teams are going to fall out of the race.”
The NHL draft is in Chicago this summer and Hawks President John McDonough has said he would like to keep the team’s first-round draft pick for the event. Bowman, however, said Tuesday he did not think he would be hamstrung by trying to keep picks just because the draft is in Chicago.
“I don’t know if it’s a primary factor,” Bowman said. “Keeping your picks is more of a function of wanting to keep you picks, because that’s how you continue to maintain your team year to year, is you’ve got to build through the draft. Certainly we’re going to have some picks this year regardless of whether we make a trade or not.”
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