Blackhawks Deal Another Veteran To Edmonton For Big Return

On Monday, the Chicago Blackhawks sent Connor Murphy to Edmonton for a 2028 second-rounder, a solid return for a player who will be a rental for the Oilers for the rest of the season. On Wednesday night, GM Kyle Davidson again struck a deal with his former boss.

The Blackhawks are sending forwards Jason Dickinson and Colton Dach to Edmonton for Andrew Mangiapane and a 2027 first-round pick (top-12 protected). 

Most insiders and outsiders expected Dickinson to be shipped off before Friday’s trade deadline; he’s 30 years old and his $4.25 million AAV contract is expiring this summer. The Blackhawks are retaining half of his salary, which means they’re using their third and final retention slot for this season (Murphy, Seth Jones).

Dickinson was a true star through much of Chicago’s rebuild, having been acquired via trade in the fall of 2022. In 2023-24, he picked up 35 points and a shocking plus-four mark despite an awful Blackhawks campaign, becoming a name talked about in Selke Trophy conversations. He’s taken a step back since then, but has still been a strong center in Chicago.

Losing Dach hurts a bit when looking at the big picture. The power forward hasn’t been having the best of seasons in his first full-time campaign with the Blackhawks, but the big 23-year-old is brimming with potential. He has 189 hits this year and will be a nice bottom-six piece someday for Edmonton or another team down the line.

With the Oilers trading for both Murphy and Dickinson this week, they now have half of the Blackhawks PK unit that has been the best in the entire league. That’s one way to fix your special teams. Both players also recently wore the “A” in Chicago. Murphy’s was given to Connor Bedard this week, so it’ll be interesting to see who Chicago recognizes as another leader in the locker room.

As for return, Mangiapane is an interesting acquisition for the Blackhawks. He’s 29, so he’s a bit older than Chicago’s typical assets, and has one more year with a $3.6 million cap hit. A sixth-round pick in 2015, Mangiapane cleared waivers on Monday after a pretty dismal season. The current campaign makes him seem like more of a cap dump than anything else, and the Blackhawks will take on the cap hit without flinching. 

The biggest asset in this trade (at least for Chicago’s purposes) is the protected first-round pick in 2027. With it being top-12 protected, it likely won’t materialize into anything franchise-altering right away, but it’s another crown jewel of a stacked war chest of picks. I wouldn’t be surprised to see the Blackhawks flip it, along with one or two of their three second-rounders this year, to move up in this summer’s draft or pick up a solid prospect. Hard to see a problem with this one; good business from Davidson.