The three most likely Chicago Blackhawks to be selected by Seattle

Labeling Brent Seabrook’s contract as radioactive waste would not be an overstatement at this point. However, there is a chance that a team like Seattle would be willing to take a look at him.

Seabrook’s contract is somewhat unmovable at this point. While there are other potential options for unloading him, it seems that the only legitimate option at this point would be for Seattle to grab him.

The biggest issue, besides the 8-year, $55 million contract that he’s locked into, is that Seabrook has a full-no movement clause. This means that Chicago would be required to protect him from the expansion draft, unless they could convince Seabrook to waive the clause.

This is not necessarily a complete impossibility. After all, it is possible that Seabrook would be willing to take on a more significant veteran leadership role in a different locker room. There are a number of defensive prospects that will likely get a look for Chicago next season, meaning that Seabs’ role will likely diminish more than it already has.

With the Seattle Kraken having almost no cap hit against them on the books, they should certainly be able to take on Seabrook’s contract. Whether or not they want to is a different story.

However, if Seattle gets to a point in the draft where they have selected mostly younger prospects and players with smaller contracts, I don’t think it’s completely unrealistic that we could see Seabrook in a Kraken jersey come next year.

There are a number of really good defensemen coming up in the Blackhawks’ system, and they have some guys on the backend that will need new contracts within a few years.

This could leave a big-bodied player exposed for the expansion draft, and one that Seattle might want to grab. Connor Murphy is 6’4 and 212 pounds, and while he is not a defenseman that is going to put up points every night, he is a presence on the ice that any team would like to have.

While Murphy only has two years left on his contract, there are other defensemen that the Blackhawks will want to extend as well, which could leave Murphy the odd one out.

Combined with the fact that there are guys like Ian Mitchell waiting in the wings for a spot on the Hawks, Murphy may be one of those guys that Chicago is okay losing. Although he is one of the only big guys on the team right now, they added some size in the 2020 Entry Draft with Louis Crevier.

I think the chances of the Kraken picking a guy like Murphy really depends on how much size and physicality they will have taken from other teams. If most of their team ends up being built around skill and speed, a big defensive defenseman would likely be a smart pick for the NHL’s newest club.

Goaltending is obviously a hot-button issue for Blackhawks fans with the recent departure of Corey Crawford, a player that many thought Stan Bowman should’ve tried harder to negotiate with.

Adding onto this, Chicago recently re-signed Malcolm Subban to a 2-year contract that will keep him in the Windy City through 2022, and they also just drafted a potential goalie of the future in Drew Commesso. All of this leaves one player in particular that will likely be extremely tantalizing for Seattle.

Collin Delia still has a great upside to him, and at only 26 years old, could still potentially turn into a starter for a number of teams, particularly a team like the Kraken that likely won’t have a ton of goaltenders competing for the starting role.

It is almost a given that Chicago will protect Subban given that they just re-upped him to a new contract, and unless they plan on grabbing another goalie in free agency, he will likely rotate through the starting role next year.

I don’t want to say that Delia is necessarily the out-man out, however, the Hawks have shown that they are willing to allow him to go given the goalies that they currently have in the system. Although Subban is not a bonafide starter by any means, it is possible that Commesso could eventually turn into one.

With Delia putting up a respectable .906 save percentage over his career, he may, at the very best become Seattle’s starter, and at the very worst, become a rotating backup. Either way, there’s a real possibility that he could be in the Kraken crease soon.