The Chicago Blackhawks had a season they most likely will wish to forget. Last offseason you'd think they did everything right, they improved their goaltending bringing in Marc Andre Fleury, improved their defence by trading and signing Norris calibre defenceman Seth Jones, they improved their center depth with captain Jonathan Toews returning, and when you factor in another year of development for youngsters like Alex Debrincat, Dylan Strome and Kirby Dach, how could this team not be a winner, right?
Ahead of the trade deadline, the Blackhawks hired Kyle Davidson who immediately announced that this team would be entering a rebuild. This did not sit well with veteran leaders Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews, and resulted in trades to Brandon Hagel, Marc-Andre Fleury and Ryan Carpenter.
Kubalik joined the Hawks for the 2019-20 season after being traded on January 24th 2019 from Los Angeles Kings to Chicago Blackhawks for round 5 pick in the 2019 draft (Frederik Dichow). He had an immediate impact in his first season scoring 30 goals, but has failed to reach 20 goals in his 2 seasons following.