Staff Predictions for the Chicago Blackhawks 2021-22 season

One player the team will trade for…

Jeremy Riback: Radko Gudas. A bit of a wild card here but the Hawks are a young team that lacks physicality at just about every level of the game. Gudas is a big, right shot defensive defenseman who would be a great pairing with a guy like Riley Stillman on the backend. The Blackhawks could certainly use another right shot defenseman and Gudas could be a great fit if the Blackhawks are in the playoff hunt.

Justin Klawans: Jack Eichel! Okay, in all seriousness though, I could see the team trading for a journeyman defenseman to have fill out their back end with the addition of the Jones brothers.

Seth Stauffer: Um…Mark Giordano? If Chicago goes on a tear and looks like they could really make a run for the Stanley Cup, Stan Bowman is going to be looking for a talented veteran. Someone like Mark Giordano, a player that was cast away by his former club, but could help put a contender over the top as far as team depth goes. If Chicago blows it this year, I’d expect that they start trading for first-round picks since they had to send a couple to Columbus in order to acquire Seth Jones.

Matt Kamholz: Jesse Puljujarvi, Edmonton OilersIt’s a long shot and he isn’t much of a reclamation project anymore, but I would love to see the skilled 6’4 right-handed forward in Chicago. He’s smart with the puck and quick for his size, two essential elements to Colliton’s defensive scheme. He’s also just flat-out fun to watch. Is it likely? Probably not, but it would be entertaining. Also, I was very tempted to put Brandon Saad here for the meme.

Jimmy Lynch: Wouldn’t mind seeing the team trade for Joel Quenneville, but if that can’t happen I guess adding a guy that used to play for the team would make sense following Stan Bowman’s rules. Oh wait, the team just added Erik Gustafsson to make that a reality. With the recent Gustafsson addition I am not going to even give a pick for big additions to the team, and I would actually go the opposite direction and say I predict the team is not going to trade for any big rentals at the deadline, the only deals the team could make is to move a guy like Strome at some point.

The season begins on Wednesday for Chicago and in a few months, we can all look back on these predictions and judge them accordingly.