A trade for Andre Burakovsky is a gamble the Blackhawks can afford to make

The Chicago Blackhawks announced a trade Saturday morning, trading Joe Veleno to the Seattle Kraken for Andre Burakovsky.

Burakovsky, 30, registered 37 points last season (10G, 27A) in 79 games. The veteran has played in 696 games throughout his career, originally getting drafted in the first round of the 2013 NHL draft by the Washington Capitals.

Burakovsky is a two-time Stanley Cup Champion, having won with Washington in 2018 and with the Colorado Avalanche in 2022.

After winning the Stanley Cup in Colorado, Burakovsky signed a five-year, $27.5 million contract with the Seattle Kraken in free agency in 2022. The contract carried an AAV of $5.5 million and would last through the 2026-27 NHL Season.

Up to this point, Burakovsky has yet to live up to the contract, especially with a down season in 2024-25. Burakovsky's time in Seattle was riddled with injuries, and he never became the top-six forward the Kraken were hoping for.

The Blackhawks' gamble trading for Andre Burakovsky could be a home run.

The Blackhawks acquired Joe Veleno in a trade this past season with the Detroit Red Wings. Veleno, 25, played in 18 games with Chicago, registering 7 points during that time.

For a while, it seemed like Veleno would get an extended shot in the Windy City, especially with another year on his contract at a reasonable price of just $2.28 million.

With the emergence of so many young forwards near the end of the season, as well as more to come this summer from the Blackhawks' prospect pool, Chicago could no longer expect Veleno to be in the lineup night in and night out.

Blackhawks fans might look at this move and think of it just as a salary cap dump from the Seattle Kraken. Andre Burakovsky is signed for two more years at $5.5 million a season—that makes him tied with Tyler Bertuzzi as the Blackhawks' most expensive contracts.

While this move helped clear up some cap space in Seattle, it is a low-risk, high-reward opportunity for the Blackhawks. Chicago has the cap space to eat a contract like Burakovsky's, and the Hawks have made moves like this before.

Kyle Davidson brought in Jason Dickinson and Ilya Mikheyev in very similar trades, teams trying to move on from forwards with just a little too high of a cap hit for their liking.

Dickinson has become one of the Hawks' best centers and defensive forwards and Ilya Mikheyev registered 20 goals and 34 points last season—the best point total of his career. Maybe Burakovsky can be the Blackhawks' next success story.