At the trade deadline last season, the Blackhawks announced they would be heading in a new direction to rebuild the team from the ground up, so when they were a contending team again, they would be for years to come, which honestly is the right way to do it.
The Blackhawks fully committed to this rebuild, especially when they traded away 21 year old Kirby Dach, 24 year old Alex Debrincat, and let former 3rd overall pick Dylan Strome walk for nothing, as well as former 30 goal scorer Dominik Kubalik.
Two players who have been with the Blackhawks during the glory days and now the gloomy days are veterans Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane.
Kane is thought to be the highest sought after prize right now, as the former 100 point scorer still has a lot left in the tank and with him on an expiring contact, he could make a very good rental for a team that is looking to contend for a cup this season.
So far this season, Kane has 4 goals and 22 points in 29 games, which leads the team in points. His $10,500,000 cap hit is going to be tough for some teams to take on, but if the Blackhawks are serious about this rebuild, retaining 50% of this salary would definitely entice a lot of teams to go all in, and according to this NHL Insider, these are the teams interested:
POLL | ||
18 DECEMBRE | 164 ANSWERS REPORT: 5 teams showing SERIOUS interest in trading for Patrick Kane Will Kane get traded this season? | ||
yes | 132 | 80.5 % |
no | 32 | 19.5 % |
List of polls |