One way the Blackhawks could address their roster flaws and inject life into their season before it fully slips away is by making a trade.
The trade market is typically quiet this early in the season, but this is no typical season. The Red Wings’ messy Dylan Larkin and Simon Edvinsson situations remain unresolved, and Lightning star Nikita Kucherov just shook the NHL world with his shocking trade request Friday.
It wouldn’t make sense for the Hawks to pursue Larkin or Kucherov, given their ages — 30 and 33, respectively — and how much it would take to acquire them. Nor would either approve a trade to the Hawks, in all likelihood.
Nonetheless, general manager Kyle Davidson could try to take advantage of the excitement and instability those players are introducing into the market or the domino effect that might occur after one gets dealt.
It sounds as though Davidson is working the phones, at least. NHL reporter Frank Seravalli said Tuesday on Chicago Sports Network that the Hawks are specifically looking for a ‘‘shoot-first scoring winger with size.’’
The Hawks lack size among their top-nine forwards and coach Jeff Blashill has been calling for more of a shooting mentality, so that prototype makes sense.
Based on my guesswork, here are a few guys who might be Hawks targets:
• Capitals forward Ivan Miroshnichenko reportedly has requested a trade because he has been a healthy scratch for all but three games this season. He has good size (6-1 and 205 pounds), skates well and was productive in the AHL the last two seasons (76 points in 94 games combined).
He’s in a similar position to Hawks defenseman Kevin Korchinski, who was drafted 13 picks before Miroshnichenko in the first round in 2022. Both are in limbo because they’re no longer waiver-exempt. Perhaps the Hawks and Capitals could work out a swap? Then again, the Capitals’ strong roster doesn’t have free spots on defense, either.
• Blue Jackets forward Dmitri Voronkov is another player struggling to crack his team’s lineup this season. The 26-year-old is huge (6-5 and 230 pounds) and has scored a combined 40 goals in the last two seasons.
He might just be a poor man’s version of Tyler Bertuzzi, though, and his skating and work ethic don’t get rave reviews. He’ll be a restricted free agent next summer.
• Canucks forward Jake DeBrusk is a more established Bertuzzi-like player who has been taking shots and scoring on a decent percentage of them around the net for years. Like Bertuzzi, however, he tends to be streaky.
He’s a decent skater, too. But he’s 30 years old (although he hasn’t shown signs of decline yet) and wields a full no-movement clause, which has prevented the rebuilding Canucks from trading him to this point. He still has four years left on his contract.
• The most ideal target might be Flyers forward Owen Tippett, but it’s far from certain they would be willing to trade him, given that he’s a quality player.
Tippett, 27, is a great skater with good size (6-1 and 210 pounds) and a fire-away shooting mentality that would fit perfectly on the Hawks. He has put up between 43 and 53 points in four consecutive seasons, to go along with excellent analytics. He has six contract years left with a reasonable $6.2 million salary-cap hit.
He’s only worth mentioning because the Hawks and Flyers are off to terrible starts after entering the season with real ambitions. They could shake up each other’s struggling rosters with one move.
It’s unclear, too, whether Davidson would be willing to part with any of his young players on the roster. He likely would be more eager to trade some of his three first-round and two second-round picks in the 2027 draft.