The NHL Trade Deadline is less than two weeks out, and the Blackhawks have sprinted out of the break with all of the news. Seth Jones is stirring a lot of the conversation around the league at this point after making his trade request public last week. As the dust kinda sorta settles around that, the conversation around the how/where/why is adding layers by the day. And, now that it’s out there, Jones’ teammates are answering questions about his demand.
“Obviously, you wish he felt differently, but he has his reasons, and rightfully so,” Blackhawks captain Nick Foligno said Saturday. “It’s how he feels.”
Here’s my best effort to bring a lot of the Jones-Blackhawks trade commentary together for consideration and discussion.
Friedman’s Latest
On Monday morning, the latest edition of the “32 Thoughts” Podcast dropped and they spend a solid six minutes or so talking about the Jones situation. Elliotte Friedman had one comment that was particularly interesting, saying he feels this entire situation is being driven more by the player than the organ-I-zation. And, if the Blackhawks can’t make a move that’s satisfactory to their overall building plan, they won’t move him before the deadline.
As they shouldn’t.
Friedman mentions Columbus as a potential landing spot, which isn’t a shock after Jones had dinner with a few former teammates while the Blackhawks were there and talked glowingly about his time playing with Zach Werenski.
McKenzie Weighs In
The Godfather, Bob McKenzie, was on the Canadian broadcast’s intermission last night and they talked about Jones (of course). Interestingly, he said the belief is the Blackhawks are looking for young players/prospects who are either in the NHL or ready for the NHL and not picks in a deal for Jones. That would be a slight change of course for the Blackhawks’ front office — but one that makes sense.
McKenzie includes Dallas and Florida as potential suitors. The Florida Panthers are a fascinating team for me in this entire mix because Aaron Eklbad, their top pair right-handed defenseman, is a free agent after this season. And they might have some LTIR space open up if Matthew Tkachuk is going to miss an extended period of time after suffering an injury during the 4 Nations Face-Off (and that seems to be a likely outcome at this point).
Weekes’ Take
It was shared with me last night that apparently on ESPN’s intermission report Kevin Weekes jumped into the mix on the Jones talk and said the Blackhawks might need to find another team to help make the money work. I respect Weekes’ takes and sources and think he does a good job, but I can’t see a scenario where that happens at all. For a team to eat money as a third wheel until 2030 makes no sense to that team or the Blackhawks and Jones’ ultimate destination.
Chicago has plenty of cap space to waste on retained salary between now and the end of his contract and, frankly, nobody is saying the Blackhawks will even had to retain half of his cap hit (except fans that just irrationally hate Jones).
Chicago’s Finest
If that’s what the league-wide folks are saying, what about the folks in the press box at the United Center every night? There are varying takes from the beat writers who cover the Blackhawks on a daily basis as well.
Mark Lazerus hit us with a really good column after the game last night at The Athletic. A few nuggets from it:
“If anyone on the Blackhawks has the right to say “get me out of here” during Year Whatever of a however-many-year rebuilding plan, it’s [Connor] Murphy, by far the team’s longest-serving player. His timeline and the Blackhawks’ timeline simply don’t line up. And surely some contender would be happy to acquire a steady second-pair defenseman who can play on either side, who’s not afraid to throw the body around and who’s great in the room. But Murphy hasn’t asked out. Not explicitly, anyway. …
“[It] still has to gnaw at [Nick] Foligno, who instead of chasing that elusive Stanley Cup in his late 30s is pouring his heart and his soul and the twilight of his career into trying to build a positive, winning culture in Chicago, planting crops he’ll likely never get to harvest. It has to eat at Tyler Bertuzzi and Teuvo Teräväinen, who signed multi-year contracts to be part of the long-term solution here.”
That perspective from the guys in the room who aren’t bailing at this point is well stated. As is this nail on the head comment:
“This isn’t some franchise icon, a longtime legend by whom they have to do right. Davidson’s only obligation is to the Blackhawks, and if it takes him four months or four years to find the right taker for Jones, so be it.”
Kyle Davidson's obligation is to the Blackhawks, not Seth Jones. But will circumstances force the GM's hand?My column:www.nytimes.com/athletic/615…
— Mark Lazerus (@marklazerus.bsky.social) 2025-02-24T13:41:24.282Z
Similarly, Ben Pope at the Chicago Sun-Times weighed in with a strong column this weekend.
Pope notes that, usually, when a player acknowledges the potential of being traded — as Taylor Hall did recently — it’s usually a player in the final year of their contract whose bags are half packed already. Not a guy with five years remaining on a massive contract, as is the case with Jones. Here’s some of what Pope wrote:
Jones added Friday that this trade idea has been “thrown around” for a while between him and his agent, Pat Brisson, but they recently decided to “push the needle a little bit.”
That probably explains some of his honesty about the subject. Making his wishes public puts more pressure on general manager Kyle Davidson to try to make something happen. It also alerts other teams around the league that he’s available, perhaps piquing their interest.
Pope’s spot on that, as long as this doesn’t become a distraction in the room, it’s kind of a whatever issue for the Blackhawks. This isn’t the first trade deadline at which Chicago is selling during this rebuild, so late-February and early-March departures have become part of the norm since Kyle Davidson became the general manager.
Even so, Pope and Lazerus both quote the Blackhawks’ captain answering questions about Jones before the game in Columbus. And Teräväinen answered as many questions about Jones’ trade demand as he did about hitting 500 career points after the game last night. So to think the most expensive player on the roster going public with a trade demand isn’t going to have an impact in the room might be shortsighted.
By making his trade desires so public, Seth Jones puts more pressure on Blackhawks GM Kyle Davidson to try to make something happen — and also alerts other teams around the NHL that he’s available, perhaps piquing their interest.
Story: https://t.co/EIyEIGJ1Cs
— Ben Pope (@BenPopeCST) February 23, 2025
I’ll close with something Lazerus pointed out and that I’ve continued to state here as Jones trade speculation has percolated in recent years: the Blackhawks actually need Jones right now. For a couple important reasons.
First, if/when Jones is traded, the Blackhawks will be left with Murphy and Louis Crevier as the only right-handed defensemen in the system with NHL experience. Artyom Levshunov isn’t ready, and we shouldn’t expect Sam Rinzel to jump straight into the NHL permanently when he signs his entry-level contract (presumably when his collegiate season ends).
The most likely scenario for Rinzel is that he follows the path of guys like Alex Vlasic, Landon Slaggert and Frank Nazar — sign, burn the first year of the contract getting a taste of the NHL and then report to Rockford in the fall to work on his game at the pro level until he shows he’s ready to contribute on a nightly basis. The Blackhawks shouldn’t shift course from their intentional development program with their top prospects just because Jones asked out. Don’t hurt the long-term because Jones isn’t happy.
The second and more immediate need for Jones in Chicago is the cap. As a reminder for Blackhawks fans: the NHL’s salary floor is going up to $70.6 million next season, $76.9 million in 2026-27 and $83.9 million in 2027-28. This goes back to my argument against Weekes’ assertion the Blackhawks might need a third team to eat salary to make a deal happen. With all of the money coming off the Blackhawks’ books in the next couple offseasons, they’re going to have to spend big money just to get to the floor. Removing most of Jones’ $9.5M just makes that task harder for the front office.
