Blackhawks Trade Kirby Dach to Montreal

It has been a whirlwind of a NHL Draft so far for the Chicago Blackhawks. As this is coming out a day after these events, you are certainly aware of the trades of both Alex DeBrincat to Ottawa and now Kirby Dach to Montreal. Site Expert Jesse Courville-Lynch covered the DeBrincat trade in a separate article. Summary: it was shockingly underwhelming.

Earlier in the day, there were many reports from various pundits, Frank Seravalli, Pierre LeBrun, Elliotte Freidman, etc. that the Blackhawks were shopping Dach to see what all they could get in a return and LeBrun specifically stated they were looking for "a top 15 pick" which nobody really expected they could attain.

Despite Dach being a top 3 pick only a couple years ago, various injuries, and pandemic-shortened seasons really stifled his development. Dach had an eyebrow-raising rookie season, but that was the greatest height he made as a Blackhawk. He could never really replicate that season, and his rookie season was good...for a rookie, but not what you want long-term from a top 3 draft pick.

Due to his underwhelming tenure with the team, nobody really thought the Blackhawks would be able to get the top 15 pick they wanted. Many thought the best case for the team would be to keep Dach and continue to develop him and hope that he could progress under the new coaching regime, seeing as he is only 21 years old. Evidently, Kyle Davidson and Luke Richardson felt differently as Dach was dealt.

What impressed me the most was that Davidson was able to get his top 15 pick as the Montreal Canadiens gave them the 13th overall pick and also pick 66. I was astonished by the return they got for Kirby Dach.

To me, this trade is a victory. Though Dach could still turn out to be a fantastic player, attaining both of these fairly high picks for him after an overall underperforming career is quite the accomplishment in my opinion.

This trade restores some hope in the Davidson regime, though many questions still remain. One of those is why was he so desperate to trade DeBrincat? The DeBrincat return pales in comparison to the returns now of both Dach and Brandon Hagel. Hopefully Kevin Korchinski (7th pick via DeBrincat trade) will make up for that.

And now we hope that Frank Nazar (13th pick via Dach trade) will make up for the loss of Dach.

Keep your eye on Blackhawk Up for more updates on the Blackhawks NHL Draft.