The Chicago Blackhawks were involved in one of the most surprising three-team trades in NHL history on Jan. 24, as the Carolina Hurricanes acquired Blackhawks’ forward Taylor Hall and Colorado Avalanche forward Mikko Rantanen, with the Avs receiving Hurricane forwards Jack Drury and Martin Necas, as well as Carolina’s 2025 second-round pick and 2026 fourth-round pick, and the Blackhawks receiving their own third-round pick from the Hurricanes while taking on $4.65 million of Rantanen’s salary.
Related: Hurricanes Change the NHL Season Landscape With Rantanen & Hall Blockbuster Trade
Yes, the deal is a mouthful, and seeing major point producers like Rantanen and Necas on the move adds a level of spice to the league we usually don’t see. How often does a playoff team trade a two-time 100-point producer midway through the season? If you’d like more analysis from a Hurricanes’ perspective, read my colleague Zach Martin’s latest on how the deal changes the NHL landscape.
Let’s look at this move from a Blackhawks’ perspective and why it feels like general manager Kyle Davidson left a lot of moves on the table, just to acquire their own third-round pick.
Taylor Hall on the Move
As Hall’s time with the Blackhawks comes to an end, it’s hard not to look back and feel like it was a disappointment, ending without even a whimper. The 33-year-old basically started last season injured, and only played 10 games before requiring ACL surgery and missing almost all of the 2023-24 campaign.
This season, he struggled mightily, opening the year with just two goals in his first 20 games, then after scoring a hat trick against the Dallas Stars on Nov. 27, producing just four goals and 11 assists in 25 games.
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Hall, a former Hart Trophy winner and five-time NHL All-Star, was a healthy scratch for the first time in his career on Nov. 16 against the Vancouver Canucks, later telling reporters “It was unexpected,” and “I just didn’t know I was even close to being in that spot.” Two months later, with trade rumors ramping up in the new year, Hall said he knew a trade was likely coming.
Taylor Hall believes he will likely be traded. He would be open to signing an extension but has “a feeling that’s not really in the cards.”
— Ben Pope (@BenPopeCST) January 15, 2025
“I came into this year wanting to be a Blackhawk for years to come. I don’t know if that’s going to be the case anymore.”
“I came into this year wanting to continue being a Blackhawk for years to come,” Hall said on Jan. 15. “I don’t know if that’s going to be the case anymore. But I’ll leave that door open, for sure. (I) understand that it’s a business and the team is going to do what’s best for them.”
Now in his 15th NHL season, Hall has 275 goals and 446 assists for 721 points in 876 career regular-season games with the Blackhawks, Boston Bruins, Arizona Coyotes, Buffalo Sabres, New Jersey Devils and Edmonton Oilers. As Hall joins his seventh NHL team, he hopes to find playoff success, as the 2010 first-overall pick has never made it beyond the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Blackhawks Could Have Done Better
Let’s look at the return: the Blackhawks take on half of Rantanen’s $9.25 million contract and receive their own 2025 third-round pick from the Hurricanes. On the surface, the deal is … underwhelming, considering they gave up one of their few NHL-caliber forwards, along with taking on more than $4 million in salary for a player who will never play for them, all for a third-round pick that was originally theirs.
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Some fans on social media see the move as just getting something for someone who wasn’t going to re-sign. “Just get something.” But that’s the kind of apathetic, bottom-feeder mentality that breeds mediocrity, leaves teams in the basement and makes the climb out even more difficult. When the Blackhawks traded for Hall in June 2023, the thought process was that he would be a contributing veteran and help the younger players learn to be professionals, and if there was a chance to move him for a number of assets, you would pull the trigger. But what played out turned out to be a worst-case scenario.
Look deeper into the trade, and it’s even more underwhelming: players with the pedigree of Hall can usually fetch more than a third-round pick at the deadline, especially if the team trading them away is willing to eat salary. It’s hard to envision a world where the Blackhawks retain 50 percent of Hall’s $6 million salary and someone isn’t willing to offer more than a third-round pick.
Taylor's turn to meet the boys 🤝 pic.twitter.com/UH6oOfSo6h
— Carolina Hurricanes (@Canes) January 25, 2025
Besides, what are the odds that third-round pick amounts to anything? Fans can pick and choose their favorite players who were found between the cracks of the fourth, fifth or sixth rounds, but in reality, less than 30 percent of third-rounders even play 100 games, and just 10 percent play more than 500. At the end of the day, you gave up a player whose value could have risen as we got closer to the deadline, for a draft pick that may never step on the ice of an NHL rink, and you retained $4.65 million of salary for a player who will never play for you.
At this point in the Blackhawks’ rebuild, you can’t keep piling up draft picks. Let’s look at the best-case scenario for a third-round pick: they play two more years in junior, or enroll in college and spend three or four years developing, then they turn pro and likely spend at least one or two full seasons in the minors. At best, this third-rounder will become a full-time Blackhawk in 2030, maybe later, and that’s if they even develop well enough to get to that level.
Related: Blackhawks Youngsters Showing Promise Despite Bad Record
Chicago is in the midst of a transitional period, and Davidson has to know that you can only do so much planning for the future before that future arrives in front of your face. Next season will be Connor Bedard’s third professional campaign, and he’s no closer to playing for a team that’s competing for a playoff spot than he was in 2023 when he stepped on the stage and took a photo after being selected first overall.
That’s an organizational failure, and both Davidson and the rest of the Blackhawks need to do a better job of asset management and making the most out of trades and transactions, as well as putting their players in a position to succeed.
Who Else Will Blackhawks Trade?
At the time of this publication, we’re two-and-a-half weeks from the NHL’s 4 Nations Face-Off tournament, and a little over a month from the NHL trade deadline. The Blackhawks are also 15-28-5 with 35 points, the second-worst record in the league, and have a number of pending unrestricted free agents.
Pat Maroon is a veteran winger and three-time Stanley Cup champion, so there may be a market for a team looking to add some size on their fourth line. Defenseman Alec Martinez, another three-time Stanley Cup champ, has only played 21 games this season, but his experience and ability to make a good first pass could fetch the Blackhawks an asset. The same goes for Craig Smith, whose six goals and 11 points would be an attractive bottom-six forward option.
Ryan Donato is an interesting player, as the 28-year-old has 14 goals and 14 assists for 28 points in 46 games, second on the team in goals and third in points. There’s no doubt Chicago could acquire some strong assets, but for a team trying to end their rebuild, why not retain one of the few bright spots of the 2024-25 season?
If we want to get real nuts, is there a market for Seth Jones? The 30-year-old blueliner has three years left on his contract after this one with a cap hit of $9.5 million, but if the Blackhawks were willing to take on $2 or $3 million of it, would someone be interested? Say what you will about Jones, who at times has really struggled as a Blackhawk, but a right-handed defender with size and offensive upside would look great on a lot of second pairs, and Jones playing between 18 and 20 minutes a night instead of 24 would do him a lot of good. With plenty of cap space after Tyler Seguin’s injury, maybe the Dallas Stars take a crack at Jones?
There’s still plenty to be done going into the second half of the 2024-25 campaign, and you can bet this won’t be the last trade made before the March 7 deadline. But the Blackhawks will need to do a much better job of managing assets if they want to remove the rebuilding label from their lapels. If they don’t, it will be someone other than Davidson making the decisions going forward.
