Should The Chicago Blackhawks Trade Colin Blackwell At The NHL Trade Deadline?

The Chicago Blackhawks are having a quiet NHL trade deadline as compared to last year.

General manager Kyle Davidson completed nine trades before last year's trade deadline. Patrick Kane, arguably the franchise's greatest player, was among those players dealt when he requested a trade to the New York Rangers.

A lot of those deals had to take place to finish the roster teardown portion of this extensive rebuild. Now the Hawks are in the early stages of collecting talent to build around Connor Bedard.

Davidson is off to a good start with two drafts improving the team's prospect pool to the seventh-best according to the Athletic's Scott Wheeler. The Hawks still need to add more talent through the draft and they have 16 picks in the first three rounds over the next three drafts.

Still, it would be nice to have more picks with the trade deadline being another avenue to add more draft capital or a prospect. The problem is the Blackhawks do not have many players teams would be interested in like they had last year.

Tyler Johnson is a player that makes sense to be dealt. He is a two-time Stanley Cup winner who can still produce some goals for a contender's third line. If the Blackhawks retain 50% of his salary, there is a chance they could fetch one a decent draft pick.

Colin Blackwell is another player who is rumored to be getting interest from contenders.

The veteran forward may not produce a lot of offense, but he does all the little things you want a bottom-six wing to do.

He plays hard. He is willing to go to the boards to win a puck battle. He will deliver a powerful hit when necessary. He has shown when he gets on that rare odd-man rush, he can put the biscuit in the basket.

Plus, he will be an unrestricted free agent who has a $1.2 million cap hit and will be 31 at the end of the season. The Hawks might as well get something for him as the team has plenty of forward options in their system who can fill Blackwell's role.

The problem is Blackwell will likely not fetch much of a return.

The Hawks at best are probably going to get a late-round pick. While the team could use one in this year's draft, they only have a sixth-round pick after the third round ends, those picks usually end up being nothing more than organizational depth pieces.

Plus, Blackwell wants to be here. That is right. He wants to stay during the losing part of this massive rebuild.

The main reason the Hawks do not have a lot many desirable veteran players on the trade market is because they extended them this season. The Hawks gave short-term extensions to veterans Nick Foligno, Jason Dickinson, and Petr Mrazek. The main reason they were retained was to be bridge players and provide veteran leadership.

Blackwell has a case to be a veteran bridge player too.