Why Should Blackhawks Fans Care About the Leafs?

PUBLICATION

Jim
May 25, 2023 (10:20 PM)

SHARE THIS STORY

During this year's trade deadline, the Blackhawks traded Jake McCabe, Sam Lafferty, and two 4th round picks to the Toronto Maple Leafs in exchange for a 2025 1st round pick (top 10 protected, moves to 2026 1st), 2026 2nd round pick, and forwards Joey Anderson and Pavel Gogolev.

Well, the trade may end up working out for Chicago. Davidson said he got a 2025 first round pick because he wanted to spread out the draft capital. But that 2025 first may be really important...

Toronto is falling apart. There's no way around it. Brenden Shanahan fired General Manager (GM) Kyle Dubas. Afterwards, Shanahan went out and told the whole story and threw Dubas under bus because he wasn't sure he wanted the job. The «Shanaplan» isn't working, and tough decisions are going to be made this offseason.

Auston Matthews and William Nylander are going to be able to sign new contracts in the next five weeks. Mitch Marner's no-movement clause starts in five weeks (NMC). The draft is in five weeks. This is a franchise altering five weeks and they're going into it without the GM they've had for the past five years. The Core Four isn't working, and Toronto is bound to trade one of them, and I think Marner will be out before the draft. Will Matthews and Nylander want to resign? They certainly have the money for it, but in the end, it's up to them.

So how does this help the Blackhawks? Well, all we got to do is hope they implode. The worst they do, the better the draft pick.

For one, they have $7,500,000 tied up in Morgan Reilly until he's 35 years old. Another thing is Captain John Tavares' contract is also up in 2024-25. Will they want to renew him at age 34? Lastly, the farthest a forward contract reaches out to at the moment is three years, and it's 31-year-old Calle Jarnkrok.

Their team may be good now, but in the next couple of years, it isn't looking too sharp.