Blackhawks trade deadline preview: Connor Murphy, Jason Dickinson, other veterans could be moved out

For the fifth time in five seasons under general manager Kyle Davidson, the Blackhawks will be sellers at the trade deadline.

This time, however, the rationale is a bit different. The Hawks are no longer trying to worsen their NHL roster or urgently accumulate as many draft picks as possible.

Picks are still valuable to them, but the main reason why they need to ship out a few veterans before this year's March 6 deadline is to free up roster spots for prospects graduating into the NHL.

Forward prospects Anton Frondell, Nick Lardis and potentially Sacha Boisvert (if he turns pro) need opportunities, and it would also be nice to open another defensive spot for the group of Sam Rinzel, Kevin Korchinski and Ethan Del Mastro.

The deadline is less than two weeks away, with zero home games scheduled between now and then. The league's roster freeze for the Olympics will lift late Sunday night, and moves could happen at any time. The Hawks' biggest trade last year (the Seth Jones blockbuster) went down six days before the deadline.

Five pending unrestricted free agents — forwards Jason Dickinson, Ilya Mikheyev and Nick Foligno and defensemen Connor Murphy and Matt Grzelcyk — are the primary players the Hawks will shop around. It would be surprising to see anybody else moved.

That's because the Hawks are obviously prioritizing young players, and they'll also likely need their four remaining veteran forwards (Andre Burakovsky, Tyler Bertuzzi, Teuvo Teravainen and Ryan Donato) and their cap hits to reach the salary floor next season.

Trade options

There are countless ways this deadline could play out, but it seems almost certain that at least a couple of those five UFAs will be moved — at least one of the forwards and one of the defensemen.

Dickinson and Murphy seem most likely. They have both talked openly about the possibility while reflecting on their lengthy (four- and nine-year) Hawks tenures.

They're both consummate professionals who would appeal to contending teams for reasons beyond their on-ice impacts, and they both play positions (center and right defense) where teams often seek extra depth at the deadline.

The Hawks have two available salary-retention slots they could use to slash in half their $4.25 and $4.4 million cap hits, respectively, to make them easier for teams to absorb financially.

But Murphy played extremely well in January — while rookie Artyom Levshunov fell off a cliff — and now seems relevant again to the Hawks' short-term defensive success (after getting temporarily phased into a minor role in November).

The Hawks don't want to capsize down the stretch, so if offers for Murphy don't blow them away, it's possible they could pivot and ship out Grzelcyk ($1 million cap hit) instead.

Davidson faces a similar conundrum with the forwards. Mikheyev has enjoyed a much better season than Dickinson — for the second season in a row — and is a key reason why the Hawks' sport the league's best penalty kill. His ability to translate between English and Russian also helps Levshunov and would help Roman Kantserov next season. Many Hawks fans are eager to see him re-signed.

But for those same reasons, trade interest in Mikheyev ($4 million cap hit) might prove much heartier than in Dickinson. If there's a big enough gap in offers, or if Mikheyev demands a longer-term next contract than the Hawks are willing to commit to, they could conceivably trade him and keep Dickinson instead.

Foligno is the wild card. The team captain playing out potentially his final NHL season will get to decide his own deadline fate, likely in an upcoming meeting with Davidson.

A trade seems unlikely, but once Davidson informs Foligno ($4.5 million cap hit) of his intention to sell, might one last playoff push with either the Blue Jackets or Bruins (his former teams) appeal to him?

Asking prices

The Hawks landing a second-round pick for any of those UFAs would be impressive. They'll likely ask for that, but contenders will likely respond that a third- or fourth-round pick is the most they're willing to offer.

Could the Hawks and their trade partners look further down the road to reach an agreement?

Most teams will value 2027 or 2028 picks slightly less than 2026 picks and be more willing to part with them, whereas the Hawks might actually prefer 2027 or 2028 picks. That's because they already own five picks in the first two rounds of 2026 and already have an enormous prospect pool.

Future picks could either help the Hawks space out their pipeline timeline-wise or give them more assets of predetermined value that they could turn around and trade for active NHL players in 2027 or 2028 (if they've become a contender by then).