The Chicago Blackhawks have a big offseason ahead of them that already started by hiring their 42nd head coach in franchise history. Beyond that, there is some roster reworking to be done because Chicago can't head into next season after finishing 31st in the league with minimal tweaking. That being said, there are stages, and the first is what has to be done by the 2025 NHL Entry Draft.
The first buyout window in the NHL opens a couple of days after the Stanley Cup Final concludes. There is absolutely no reason for the Blackhawks to wait on buying out TJ Brodie as he was a non-factor later in the season and just wasn't that good.
As some say, good defensemen can look bad on bad teams. Take Seth Jones in Chicago compared to with the Florida Panthers for example. Nevertheless, there isn't any place for Brodie on the Blackhawks next season as Connor Murphy is still around and there is a great deal of young d-men fighting for roles that include Alex Vlasic, Artyom Levshunov, Sam Rinzel, Wyatt Kaiser, Kevin Korchinski, Nolan Allan, Ethan Del Mastro, and Louis Crevier.
Brodie carries a $3.75 million AAV cap hit for one more year, so the buyout will only impact the team for next season and the one after that. He can probably sign elsewhere, but the second year given to Brodie on this contract was not a good move even though there is more than enough cap space to deal with it.
The Blackhawks didn't trade Ryan Donato during his best season by a mile even though they were at the bottom of the league. Donato got his opportunity because of how the lineup was laid out, but also because he fought his way up through the lineup to be arguably the best player on the team this season.
Donato is being lowballed, but I can also see why considering he only showed what he could be as a player this season. Chicago is running low on time before the veteran is going to hit free agency and then likely leave because of the amount of offers he will receive if contract talks don't go anywhere with the Blackhawks. Even though there are a lot of high draft picks and good prospects, Chicago can't just lose an asset like that. It would be very poor asset management and the team would lose a top-6 player they had in their back pocket.
The Blackhawks have many high draft picks over the next three drafts and could afford to trade some away if it meant either moving up for a better pick or acquiring a player who would help them right now.
Chicago has five first-round picks over the next three years and 12 picks in the first two rounds over that span as well. They draft seven times in the first four rounds this season. I don't see a reason to jump up from the third overall pick this year, but moving up from 25th to somewhere a little higher if the Blackhawks have their eyes on someone still on the board would be a smart play.
Maybe some of the upcoming high-end players that are on the Blackhawks' radar sign with their current teams and the market thins a lot. The team could be looking around to see if there is anyone available to trade for instead with all of their assets.
