The Chicago Blackhawks have joined the action this offseason as the team announced that they have acquired forward Andre Burakovsky from the Seattle Kraken in exchange for forward Joe Veleno. From a Blackhawks and Kraken standpoint, this is a win.
The Blackhawks only got a smaller look at Veleno this season after acquiring him. He played 18 games for the team and recorded three goals and seven points. The 25-year-old fit in as the fourth line center, but the Blackhawks have lots of cap space and want to improve. I think they have added a lot more offense and done just that with this deal with Seattle.
Veleno put up eight goals and 17 points in 74 games this season split between Chicago and the Detroit Red Wings and has one year left on his deal with a cap hit of $2.275 million AAV. He will be a RFA after the deal expires.
From the Kraken's perspective, Burakovsky was not the same player that they signed to a five-year, $5.5 million AAV deal. He had a strong first season with the Kraken in 2022-23, putting up 13 goals and 39 points in 49 games, but followed that up with a major offensive decline last season and this one.
Burakovsky recorded 10 goals and 37 points in 79 games this season and played a middle-6 role. With the latest addition of Mason Marchment, this may have bumped Burakovsky down to the fourth line. The Kraken are trying to compete and get better and need cap space to do that. This freed them up from over $3 million for this season and next while getting themselves a fourth line center in Veleno. It was looking like the current placeholder would have been John Hayden who is a fringe NHLer.
I expect Burakovsky to slot in on the third line and the Blackhawks are hoping for him to at least provide 40 points this season. That would not only be a nice boost from what the team had, but Chicago gets two seasons of their newest forward.
Burakovsky can be another power-play option for the Blackhawks, likely on the second unit and does have career highs of 22 goals and 61 points. I don't think he'll reach that with the Blackhawks this season, but with the right chemistry, he could definitely challenge some of the other wingers for top-6 time. The Blackhawks are not done adding after this move. The team still has $22 million in projected cap space. Look for multiple more moves in the coming days and weeks.
