Morning Chirps: Seth Jones, Ryan Donato, Ilya Safonov Rumors, IceHogs Win 4th Straight

The Chicago Blackhawks and the rest of the National Hockey League return to action today after the 4 Nations Face-Off. Watch for our preview of tonight’s game against the Columbus Blue Jackets later this morning. Today’s Chirps are full of trade rumors, prospect news, and a fourth straight win for the Rockford IceHogs.

Blackhawks Chirps

• Seth Jones expanded on his revelation that he wants to facilitate a trade to a contender. While he hopes to play in the postseason, he will continue to give 100% to the Blackhawks for however long he is here.
• Speaking of Jones, Scott Powers, Mark Lazerus, and Chris Johnston of The Athletic compiled a comprehensive list of potential landing spots for the veteran defenseman. You can follow along for all the latest rumors with our Blackhawks Trade Deadline Hub.
• Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff doesn’t think the Blackhawks are getting many calls on Jones. As I mentioned on Thursday’s CHGO Blackhawks podcast, moving Jones’ contract at the deadline will be difficult and is more likely to occur in the summer when the salary cap goes up.
• According to Arthur Staple of The Athletic, you can scratch the New York Rangers off the list of potential suitors for Ryan Donato. Staple doesn’t see general manager Chris Drury acquiring a rental player but wants to add players who can be part of the future beyond this season.
• According to a report from RG, Ilya Sanfonov will sign with the Blackhawks once the KHL season is over, but his agent declined to confirm it.
• Ben Pope of the Chicago Sun-Times has the latest on Blackhawks assistant coach Kevin Dean after successful prostate cancer surgery.
• Aidan Thompson had two assists in Denver University’s 5-1 win over Miami. His first helper made him the 104^th player in program history to score 100 points at Denver.  Later in the game, Denver captain Carter King became the 105^th player with 100 career points.
• Nick Lardis had his 17-game goal streak snapped last night. He scored 28 goals for the Brantford Bulldogs during the streak.
• Sacha Boisvert scored his 10^th goal of the season for the University of North Dakota. The goal came at the expense of 2023 second-round pick Adam Gajan, who was making just his second start since late November due to a lower-body injury.

• The biggest upset in hockey history occurred on this date when the United States beat the Soviet Union 4-3 in the medal round of the Winter Olympics. Blackhawks draft pick Jack O’Callahan was limited in this game due to a knee injury. He eventually made his NHL debut in Chicago in 1982 and played 303 games over five seasons with the Blackhawks.

• On this date in 2019, Patrick Kane scored a goal during a 5-3 loss to the Colorado Avalanche, becoming the seventh player in NHL history to have multiple point streaks of at least 20 games in his career.

IceHogs Chirps

• The IceHogs extended their winning streak to a season-high four games by beating the Iowa Wild 2-1 last night. Goaltender Mitchell Weeks was the hero early by stopping all 16 shots he faced in the first period. Artyom Levshunov broke the scoreless tie early in the third period with a power-play goal. Zach Sanford scored the eventual game-winning goal about nine minutes later. He had the secondary assist on Levshunov’s goal for his third multi-point effort in the last four games.
• In his last nine games, Levshunov has three goals and nine points with a plus-2 rating. He has 20 points and 125 shots on goal in 45 games this season.

NHL Chirps

• The 4 Nations Face-Off accomplished precisely what the league was hoping for by getting a ton of eyes on the game. Over 16.1 million viewers watched Thursday’s championship game across North America, including 9.3 million in the United States. It was the second-most watched game in the last decade, only behind Game 7 of last year’s Stanley Cup Final (16.3 million), and was the most-watched non-NFL event ever on ESPN+. Overall viewership for the 4 Nations Face-Off was up 256% from 2016’s World Cup of Hockey.
• According to Dan Kingerski of Pittsburgh Hockey Now, Penguins captain Sidney Crosby is a game-time decision tonight despite playing in all four of Canada’s games at the 4 Nations Face-Off.
• Speaking of injuries, the Vancouver Canucks will be without defenseman Quinn Hughes and forward Elias Pettersson when they take on the Vegas Golden Knights tonight.