Why The Chicago Blackhawks Should Stand Pat Until Draft Day

With contracts, trades, buyouts, and other things looming in the Chicago Blackhawks’ direction, it’s best if they wait until draft day to make moves.

The Chicago Blackhawks should wait until the 2020 NHL entry-draft before making any big decisions. If they want to trade up, they should wait until draft day to see who is on the clock. The reasoning for that is so they don’t trade up expecting a player to be there and he isn’t. It would just be a waste.

It seems like Stan Bowman is happy with the 17th-pick though, as he believes it’s a very strong draft class. It’s unlikely that he will trade up, as he’s made the media believe he already has a few players in mind, that he believes will be there at 17.

Besides making any trades, what should the team do with their contracts and the possibility of buying out a player?

Well, they should try to re-sign Dominik Kubalik and Dylan Strome as soon as possible. If Corey Crawford wants to play the waiting game, let him. They can find a replacement in free agency or via a trade. Crawford re-signing for $3,500,000 is great. Him wanting more isn’t. They cannot wait too long to make a move on a goalie.

Chances are, the team will buy out a player. Whether it’s Olli Maatta, Brandon Saad, or Zack Smith, they should wait and see if they could trade any of these players for draft picks. They could likely use any one of those players as a sweetener to move up in the draft. It might not move them up much in the first round, but they could get multiple middle-round picks for Maatta and Saad.

The Blackhawks have interesting decisions to make during this week. These next few days will set the tone for the entire offseason. It’ll be exciting to see what they do and who they draft.