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Melissa Tamez/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
While we wait for NHL prospects’ games to be played and for training
camp to open, we’ve all got a lot of idle time, and idle time for the hockey fan
means scheming up ideas for trades.
Everyone loves to play armchair general manager for their favorite team
and come up with their favorite totally-not-at-all lopsided trade ideas that
instantly make their team the winner and the other team look like they traded
Filip Forsberg for Martin Erat. And you know what? We’re not any different.
Trades and trade ideas are the fuel that makes the internet run.
It’s the rocket fuel that sends comment sections on blogs soaring out of the
galaxy and into the realm of the galaxy-brained. We love the proposed trades,
we hate that the person that came up with the latest one dared put it online,
and we love to hate all of it.
That’s why we’ve put together a few ideas for trades
that, on paper or in video game form, would be fascinating to see happen. Sure,
it would be easy to just come up with wild stuff like Connor McDavid for
a bunch of draft picks and then have all of you throw your computer or phone in
the garbage in disgust. Instead, we came up with these ideas that might make
you do the same thing, just not quite as fast.
You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll yell at me online for
putting these ideas into the ether, but most of all you can’t wait to see what’s
next.
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Toews could probably see his house from the downtown arena in Winnipeg (Photo: Jonathan Kozub/NHLI via Getty Images)
It’s no secret that the good times are over in Chicago. Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane, free agents after the 2022-23 season, are more likely than not to be traded, so if you’re going to trade Toews, sending the Winnipeg
native home would make sense.
The Jets have had an offseason filled with rumors of angst within
the locker room. Players are frustrated at missing the playoffs, and forward Pierre-Luc
Dubois went so far as to go
to Montreal during the NHL draft this summer, anticipating a trade to the
Canadiens going down during the event. You swap the two players, and it makes sense
for both teams, although Chicago might want a little extra.
Winnipeg’s 2017 first-round pick Kristian Vesalainen is set
to play in Sweden after up-and-down times with the Jets. He was a restricted free agent this summer
and was qualified by the team, but most times when something like this happens,
if or when that player comes back to the NHL, it’s usually with another team. Perhaps
a new situation would do him well. With Chicago in full rebuild mode, playing
time would be easy to get.
Toews’ production was down last season, as he put up a career-low 37 points. He’s 34, and there’s always the
possibility he hangs it up after this season. Chicago is getting the better
player right now in Dubois, so a swap of picks by round gives the Jets an actual
second-round pick and Chicago moves one of its two seconds to add a third
third-round pick.
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Patrick Kane teaming up with Mitch Marner would be wild (Kevin Sousa/NHLI via Getty Images)
As we mentioned regarding Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane is likely going to
wind up somewhere else before the season is over. We also know the Toronto
Maple Leafs are this close to desperate to win a Stanley Cup. They’re closer
than they’ve been in some time, and they’re perpetually one piece away. So, if
you have Auston Matthews on the roster and you can score a ton of goals, why
not score a ton more and have Matthews play with one of the best American
players in NHL history?
The main problem here is the money. Kane has a $10.5 million
cap hit, and the Maple Leafs are currently a bit over the cap, so making sure the
money balances out or comes as close as possible is needed. With that
in mind and knowing full well that younger players are needed for Chicago to be
good with a deal, let’s give this a go.
Alexander Kerfoot ($3.5 million cap hit), T.J. Brodie ($5 million) and former
Blackhawk David Kämpf…
Read More: 5 Bold Trade Predictions Ahead of the 2022-23 NHL Season | News, Scores,