The Chicago Blackhawks are running out of patience, and that could open a door for the Vancouver Canucks.
Chicago went into this season hoping the Connor Bedard era would finally start moving in the right direction. Instead, the Blackhawks are once again stuck near the bottom of the NHL, right there with the Canucks in the race for last place rather than anything resembling a playoff push. Bedard is in his fourth season, and Chicago has finished 31st in each of his first three.
That kind of slide has pushed general manager Kyle Davidson toward a more aggressive approach. He already made a major offseason swing, sending the fourth-overall pick, a second-round pick in 2026 and defenceman Louis Crevier to the Buffalo Sabres for Bowen Byram and Jordan Greenway.
But the results haven’t followed. Greenway has barely made a mark, and Byram has been limited to just six games this season because of injury.
On Sportsnet’s Saturday Night Hockey broadcast, Elliotte Friedman said the Blackhawks may be willing to go even further.
“They have Florida’s first-round pick, they have Edmonton’s first-round pick, they have a couple of second-rounders, in addition to their own first,” said Friedman. “Those picks appear to be in play.”
If Chicago is truly willing to move first-round picks, Vancouver should be paying close attention. A deal between these two teams could work in two ways for the Canucks: they could add draft capital, and they could also make Chicago better enough to stop the Blackhawks from hanging around the same basement spot.
If the Blackhawks are chasing scoring help, Jake DeBrusk is the obvious name on the Vancouver side. The 30-year-old winger has scored 20-plus goals every season and is on pace for 24 goals and 48 points this year. He also looks like the kind of player who could fit next to Bedard.
But there’s a catch. DeBrusk has a full no-movement clause. He’s reportedly open to a trade, but it’s hard to see him wanting to leave one struggling team for another.
That leaves the Canucks with cheaper options such as Drew O’Connor, Linus Karlsson and Paul Cotter. Karlsson stands out most of that group. At 26, he’s still relatively young, and he has shown he can produce offence from a middle-six role on a Canucks team that has struggled overall.
The question is whether any of those players would be enough to land the kind of assets Chicago seems willing to move. If not, Vancouver could try to target prospects who haven’t quite broken through yet.
Marco Rossi is another name to watch. The 25-year-old centre was part of the return in the Quinn Hughes trade and finished last season strongly, but this year his role under new head coach Manny Malhotra has been less stable, and the production has dipped with it.
Rossi still has a strong NHL résumé, including a 60-point season with the Minnesota Wild, and he also brings former top-ten draft pedigree. The issue is whether Vancouver would actually move him, and whether Chicago would pay enough to make it worth it.
His $5-million cap hit complicates things, but the Canucks could absorb a veteran contract like Greenway or Teuvo Teravainen to help make the money work. In that scenario, Vancouver would likely push for Chicago to add another pick or prospect to the package.
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