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SALT LAKE CITY \u2014 It\u2019s perfectly clear and understandable why Seth Jones would like to be traded.<\/p>\n
He wants to play for a winning team, and the Blackhawks have been abysmal in each of his four seasons in Chicago. They\u2019re hoping to start improving soon, but as the 30-year-old defenseman said last week, \u201cmy timeline might be different\u201d than the franchise\u2019s.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s much less clear and understandable, however, why the Hawks would trade Jones, aside from perhaps wanting to do right by him as a person or wanting to remove a potential distraction from the locker room.<\/p>\n
Jones\u2019 informal trade request comes at the same time as Hawks general manager Kyle Davidson is about to get aggressive bringing in established, talented, upper-end players \u2014 players exactly like Jones \u2014 to bolster his NHL roster and supplement its incoming youth movement.<\/p>\n
The organization intends to begin climbing the standings next season, and they\u2019ll need a well-formed defensive corps \u2014 among other things \u2014 in order to do so. Any well-formed defensive corps needs a No. 1 defenseman to anchor the unit.<\/p>\n
The Hawks have Alex Vlasic averaging nearly 24 minutes per game in the NHL this season \u2014 only 47 seconds less than Jones \u2014 but Vlasic probably doesn\u2019t bring quite enough offensive pop to be a true No. 1 defenseman long-term. He\u2019ll be better suited as a defense-focused No. 2 who can also move the puck.<\/p>\n
The Hawks also have three elite defensive prospects \u2014 Artyom Levshunov, Sam Rinzel and Kevin Korchinski \u2014 ready or nearly ready to graduate into the NHL, one of whom (Levshunov) they hope eventually develops into a No. 1 and another of whom (Rinzel) has developed so rapidly it\u2019s not inconceivable he could become a No. 1. But that wouldn\u2019t be until a couple seasons from now, at best.<\/p>\n
Ethan Del Mastro, Louis Crevier, Nolan Allan and Wyatt Kaiser add depth to the defensive pipeline, but none of them project to ever be more than third-pairing guys. And veterans Alec Martinez, Connor Murphy and T.J. Brodie aren\u2019t even worth mentioning in this conversation.<\/p>\n
In other words, the Hawks don\u2019t have anyone immediately available to slide into Jones\u2019 spot as their No. 1 defenseman, imperfect as he may be in that role. Which means if Davidson trades Jones, he\u2019ll need to turn around and promptly find another Jones.<\/p>\n
The best pending free-agent defensemen this summer are Aaron Ekblad, Jakob Chychrun and Ivan Provorov, and among those three, only Ekblad is a No. 1 on his current team. There\u2019s no guarantee all three make it to open market, either, although Ekblad\u2019s potentially imminent departure may circuitously make the Panthers interested in Jones.<\/p>\n
Plus, Davidson will already have his hands full pursuing the best pending free-agent forwards, too, if Mikko Rantanen and\/or Mitch Marner make it to market. Pitching the Hawks to any of these players will be a challenge, even though the organization does have plenty of money to offer them. It seems overly optimistic to believe they could manage to win not just one but two massive free-agent sweepstakes.<\/p>\n
Looking ahead, it would probably make more sense \u2014 in several ways \u2014 for the Hawks to trade Jones in 2026-27 or 2027-28 rather than now or anytime soon.<\/p>\n
In the meantime, Jones\u2019 oversized salary-cap hit of $9.5 million would help them reach the salary floor next season, which could be challenging with so many cheap entry-level contracts populating the depth chart. By that time, Levshunov (or Rinzel) will ideally be more prepared to take over Jones\u2019 role. And Jones\u2019 contract will become easier for another team to absorb as the cap rises.<\/p>\n
Jones likely wouldn\u2019t enjoy sticking around for that long, but he holds no leverage in this situation. Then again, the Hawks don\u2019t want this issue to become a dark cloud hanging over things. It\u2019s a tricky route they\u2019ll have to navigate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It would probably make more sense for the Hawks to wait until 2026-27 or 2027-28 to deal away their No. 1 defenseman, but his public impatience does complicate the situation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15394,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15393","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chicago-blackhawks"],"yoast_head":"\n