3 players the Blackhawks can steal from the Avalanche in NHL free agency

Yakov Trenin, F

If the Blackhawks didn’t want to go through the trouble of seeing if they could land a talent like Casey Mittelstadt thanks to restrictions, they could always opt for another recently traded player in Yakov Trenin. Trenin won’t score or put up helpers often, as seen by his 17 points in the regular season and six career playoff points in 19 outings as of May 14th, but he’s a strong middle-six player who’s well-known for the plays he makes defensively. 

Trenin employs powerful body checks to dismantle sequences, which would lead to more scoring opportunities for a team that lacked them this past season. Chicago won’t finish second-to-last next season in shots on goal, where they landed just 26.2 per game, with an addition like Trenin.

He may have landed 207 hits in the regular season and another 28 in the playoffs, but he’s not the one-dimensional player some big hitters are. He had 44 takeaways this year, so Trenin is also someone who can steal the puck, drive it through the neutral zone, and serve as the catalyst for sequences in the offensive zone. 

We also know this because his 51.5 Corsi For at even strength was over 17 percentage points higher than that of his offensive zone starts, which sat at just 34.1 percent. He won’t help the Blackhawks put up more points with helpers and goals, but he will set up teammates to put up the points instead.