Kyle Davidson gets maximum value for Jason Dickinson

Last night, Chicago Blackhawks general manager Kyle Davidson made his second trade this week the Edmonton Oilers. After trading Connor Murphy to Edmonton on Monday, Jason Dickinson and Colton Dach were the next to head to Alberta on Wednesday. It’s no surprise that Davidson and Stan Bowman have made a pair of deals, as they spent quite a few years together working in the Blackhawks front office.

The Trade That Keeps on Giving

You hear the term “asset management” a lot this time of year, and Davidson put on a master class when it comes to Dickinson. He maximized the value he got out of the veteran center from his acquisition through his nearly four seasons here and his trade to the Oilers.

Dickinson was acquired just prior to the start of the 2022-23 season. The Vancouver Canucks were desperate to create cap space, so they gave up their 2024 second-round pick for the Blackhawks to take on the final two years of his contract. All Davidson had to give up was defenseman Riley Stillman, who played 32 games for the Canucks before he was traded to the Buffalo Sabres.

Davidson traded that second-round pick to the New York Islanders, then packaged their pick to move back into the first round of the 2024 NHL Entry Draft to select Sascha Boisvert, who will turn pro this spring. One of the picks they received from the Carolina Hurricanes was then traded back to them the following year, allowing the Blackhawks to move up to select Marek Vanacker.

In his nearly four seasons with the Blackhawks, Dickinson became an important player in the early stages of the rebuilding process. He provided a two-way presence on the ice and veteran leadership in the locker room. With players moving in and out of the organization, he was one of the few constants younger players could lean on. He even chipped in with a career-high 22 goals during the 2023-24 season.

Bowman’s Desperation is Blackhawks’ Gain

Davidson getting a first-round pick for Dickinson was really good work. Yes, he had to take on Andrew Magiapane for the rest of this season and next, but that’s not the worst thing in the world. If I were an Oilers fan, I’d be more upset that Bowman gave up a first-rounder to dump a guy he just signed this past summer. The 29-year-old winger scored 35 goals for the Calgary Flames in 2021-2022, but hasn’t come close to repeating that since. However, the Blackhawks will need a veteran bottom-six forward next season to replace guys like Dickinson, Nick Foligno, and possibly Ilya Mikheyev. If they don’t like what they see of him over the final stretch of the season, they could always look to flip him or buy him out this summer.

Sending Dach to Edmonton is not going to hurt the Blackhawks in the long haul. He was given a chance coming out of training camp to cement his place on the NHL roster. Head coach Jeff Blashill was high on him, but he fell out of favor and has been a healthy scratch numerous times recently. There were too many nights when his only stat was hits, which are needed, but those can be easily found. With prospects like Boisvert and A.J. Spellacy coming down the pipeline, he needed to step up his game, but he never really did. Bowman drafted Dach in 2021, taking him in the second round when he likely would have been available later in the draft. But, he had to get that feel-good story of having both Dach brothers. Now the Blackhawks have none.

Getting first and second-round picks for Murphy and Dickinson is better than most predicted. Davidson took advantage of his former boss’s desperation to win. Bowman is under a ton of pressure, especially with Connor McDavid only signing a two-year contract extension. He has to win now, future be damned, and the Blackhawks have benefited from that.

When Davidson acquired Dickinson back in 2022, there wasn’t a lot of fanfare. He was stockpiling draft picks and trying to hit the salary cap floor during the infancy of his rebuild. Four years later, he turned Dickinson into two legit NHL prospects, a future first-round pick that can be made or traded to get more immediate help, and a veteran leader who left his mark on the Blackhawks’ locker room. That, my friends, is asset management.