ESPN shares intriguing details on Blackhawks defenseman Seth Jones being traded
The Chicago Blackhawks are playing with a lineup that's missing key pieces, including Seth Jones. Jones is a right-shot defenseman who has been unpopular, due to the cost of his contract to the organization.
He hasn't lived up to it, arguably until this season, where he's been a fixture on the top-pairing. He helped mentor Alex Vlasic last season, and the return on the investment has paid off, at least in our opinion.
Jones has ranked first in the NHL with ice time with the Chicago Blackhawks and before being placed on IR played 26:12 TOI against the Seattle Kraken.
Jones, while being in year 3 of his 8-year $9.5 Million AAV contract is drawing interest across the league from different GMs. According to ESPN's Greg Wyshynski, the Blackhawks could receive a nice haul, for Jones a right-shot defenseman.
One of those teams has a former Blackhawks GM in the front office, the Edmonton Oilers.
Jones had 10 points in 17 games for the Blackhawks, earning half of those while quarterbacking their power play. He's first in the NHL in average ice time (25:43), one of the trademark aspects of the defenseman's game for years.
The logic behind this prediction was that a rising salary cap would make Jones's $9.5 million AAV on his contract (which runs through 2029-30) more palatable to another team. If he showed an uptick in play - or if another general manager felt his underwhelming numbers in Chicago were due to the Blackhawks being terrible rather than a deficiency with Jones - perhaps there would be interest.
Again, I don't know anything concrete here, despite some digital hockey media sites treating as news my pondering of Edmonton GM Stan Bowman going after the player he signed in Chicago. But I do know top-pairing defensemen are hard to come by. And I know the Blackhawks remain a team with about a dozen holes to fill.
Perhaps GM Kyle Davidson sees Jones as part of the long-term plan for Connor Bedard & Co., despite not having traded for him or signed him. Or perhaps, if the conditions are right, he moves him to a contender.»
- Greg Wyshynski, ESPN
It's a wild idea considering the Edmonton Oilers don't have much cap space to to work with at the moment. Per PuckPedia Stan Bowman's moves have left with Oilers with a mere $281K in cap space, he'd have to move significant pieces to fit Jones's contract in the organization's financials.
Given that Bowman was the original Blackhawks GM who signed Jones to the massive deal he has now, it would make sense he'd try and bring him to Edmonton.
With the eventual increase in cap space, it'd be a win for the Blackhawks as they can continue to prioritize their next move while freeing up $9.5 Million in the budget.
With youngsters like Nolan Allan, Wyatt Kaiser, Ethan Del Mastro, Kevin Korchinski, and Artyom Levshunov waiting in the wing, this could be a great move.
While the Blackhawks would miss Jones's ability to eat minutes on the blueline and help on special teams, right-shot defensemen are of high value on the market lately and a nice return in assets would be more beneficial in the long run.
In 17 games played with the Blackhawks this season, Seth Jones has scored 10 points( 2 G, 8 A) with a -5, 38 shots on goal, and one game-winning goal to his name.
