The Blackhawks’ season has gone off the rails fast, and that kind of stumble tends to send ripple effects across the league. Chicago is 31st in the NHL standings, and Elliotte Friedman said on Nov. 7th’s Saturday’s Headlines that the team has become a seller. For the Maple Leafs, that opens a lane they’ll want to watch closely.
Chicago’s slide has been ugly. The club was 3-5-0 on Oct. 15th, a record that still left room for a turnaround.
Instead, the losses piled up, including nine defeats in its last 10 games and a 9-2 drubbing by the Hurricanes. The Blackhawks are now 4-13-1, and the outlook has shifted from slow start to full-blown collapse.
Friedman said the Blackhawks are active and fielding interest on multiple fronts.
“The Blackhawks have a lot of things out there. They’ve been asked about some of their prospects, they’ve been asked about some of their guys that can play center.
The other thing is, they’ve got Jordan Greenway out there, they’ve got Teravainen who’s struggled out there, the Blackhawks are definitely active in terms of trying to help their team.”
That puts Teuvo Teravainen squarely in the conversation for Toronto. The 32-year-old would give the Maple Leafs more than just another scoring option.
Since becoming a full-time player in 2016, he has averaged 16 goals and 49 points, and he brings value on the face-off dot, on the power play and on the penalty kill. He also brings elite career possession numbers and a positive GF/60 to GA/60 rate of 2.9 to 2.3.
For Toronto, the fit goes beyond the ice. Teravainen is a pending free agent in 2027, so the tagging rules that restrict Toronto do not hit as hard here.
His $5.4 million cap hit is also manageable, and that number disappears this summer anyway. The price to get him may not be steep either, with the kind of mid-tier prospect package that could include a Borya Valis and Brendan Brisson type of deal.
The need is obvious. Toronto has struggled to get offense from its third line, and Teravainen would be a clear upgrade over Dakota Joshua and Colton Sissons while also helping lighten the load on players like Nick Paul.
There’s also a bigger layer to this. If Teravainen helps the Maple Leafs get past the second round or even further, it could strengthen the case that Toronto is a place where players can win. And while he does have trade protection, if a chance to win is there, it’s hard to imagine he’d pass it up.
That possibility now feels more real with Chicago in sell mode, and with both teams headed in different directions, this is the kind of deal that could come together sooner rather than later.
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