Everybody Wins in the Seth Jones Trade

The Chicago Blackhawks and Florida Panthers pulled off a huge trade Saturday evening. This might turn out to be one of the rare NHL trades where both sides win. The Panthers add Jones to a defensive corps where he doesn’t have to be the No. 1 option. The Blackhawks get themselves another first-round pick and their potential goaltender of the future in Spencer Knight. And they are only retaining $2.5 million of Jones’ salary. There is not a lot to be upset about in this deal.

When Jones made his desire to play for a contender public, the trade rumors amped up. Many proposed deals included the Blackhawks retaining half of Jones’ $9.5 million salary, which didn’t make much sense for them. Retaining $2.5 million over the next five years is a much easier pill to swallow. General manager Kyle Davidson deserves a lot of credit for making this deal happen before the deadline without retaining half the deal.

The Blackhawks get to another first-round pick and a young goaltender who was taken with the 13^th overall pick back in 2019.

“I think we really solidified the future of our goaltending position, gained some more draft capital that we can use on the market,” Davidson told Scott Powers of The Athletic. “We made sure to find a home for Seth that accomplished kind of what he was looking for — that he expressed last week, to go to a contender. It feels like we checked a number of boxes. Got some young talent, got some draft capital, and found a new home for Seth.”

That first sentence is very intriguing. The Blackhawks have 12 picks in the first two rounds of the next three drafts. It sounds like Davidson is ready to use his stockpile of picks and prospects to improve the NHL roster. With the additional cap space created and a ton of expendable assets at his disposal, this needs to be a big summer for the young general manager.

This will be a busy offseason for Davidson and a crucial one for his legacy. This has been a disastrous season with a terrible record and the CHSN debacle. There is a big disconnect between the team and the fan base that needs to be repaired. The best way to do that is to put a winning product on the ice.

Davidson’s first and most important task is to hire the right head coach. He absolutely has to get this hire right because he won’t get the chance to hire a third coach. After that, he’ll have pick at the top of the NHL Entry Draft with plenty of talented prospects to choose from. Once the draft is over, free agency begins, and Davidson has a ton of cap space to play with. If he doesn’t get everything he needs on July 1, or wants to keep adding, he has a lot to offer on the trade market.

This isn’t the last trade Davidson will make before Friday’s deadline. The roster will look different when they take the ice against the Utah Hockey Club that evening. The door is open for young defensemen like Alex Vlasic, Ethan Del Mastro, Wyatt Kaiser, Nolan Allan, and Louis Crevier to earn more playing time and cement their spots in the NHL.

The addition of Knight creates an intriguing situation. He is the third NHL goaltender on the roster, with Petr Mrazek and Arvid Soderblom. Knight has one year left on his contract, as does Mrazek and the injured Laurent Brossoit, and Soderblom is a restricted free agent. The Blackhawks could carry three netminders on the roster in the short term. Davidson is surely working the phones to possibly trade Mrazek, or Soderblom if he can snag a better return. Add solving the goaltending situation to his busy summer to-do list.

As for the Panthers, they get to add Jones to a championship team. He won’t have to be the No. 1 defenseman in Florida. He won’t even play on the top pair as that assignment belongs to Aaron Ekblad and Gustav Forsling. Acquiring Jones also gives the Panthers an insurance policy, as Ekblad will be an unrestricted free agent after the season. If they can’t re-sign him, they already have his replacement locked in for the next five seasons. On a side note, if Ekblad hits free agency, he should be on the Blackhawks’ target list.

Declaring an instant winner is pointless, as all NHL trades need time to see who ultimately gets the better end of it. But right now, the Blackhawks, Panthers, and Jones all got what they were looking for yesterday.