The Chicago Blackhawks have the best seat at the table ahead of the 2023 NHL Draft. One NHL writer has a trade in mind so the Blackhawks could steal the league’s best payer in a trade with the Edmonton Oilers this offseason.
Via lottery luck, the Blackhawks are in a position to land Connor Bedard. Most hockey analysts consider Bedard to be his generation’s best player. The Blackhawks have an easy choice going into June’s draft–even though Bedard has stressed multiple times he’s not assured of being drafted by Chicago at one. However, Bedard won’t be a magic fix for the Blackhawks in one season.
Would the Edmonton Oilers give the Chicago Blackhawks a Connor?
Joe Yerdon with Bleacher Report recently wrote about “dream scenarios” for NHL teams to trade with the Blackhawks for the number one pick. Yerdon doesn’t think the odds are high that the Blackhawks would consider trading the chance to draft Bedard but thinks this “what if” scenario with the Oilers could cause a pause in the Blackhawks’ thought process before the draft. Yerdon wrote the Oilers could try and swap the best player in the league, Connor McDavid, for the best prospect, Bedard:
“Who’s the best NHL player in the world right now? It’s Connor McDavid and, like Connor Bedard, he’s been in this position before as the young phenom that will change a franchise forever.
When the Oilers won the lottery in 2015 to take McDavid, the common thought was Edmonton’s return to glory was imminent and the Stanley Cups they won throughout the 80s and into 1990 would be back in greater numbers with No. 97 in charge.
Now that we’re eight years past McDavid’s draft and the Oilers haven’t been much closer a Stanley Cup since they’ve added him (under no fault of his own, mind you), a change of scenery would be the best thing to happen.
The Oilers could continue their never-ending pursuit of a Cup with yet another player out of the Wayne Gretzky mold of generational talent and Chicago would get the absolute best player in the game right now while he’s in the prime of his career. It’s the known quantity versus what’s in the mystery box.
The mystery box could be anything, it could even be the next McDavid, but having McDavid means knowing exactly what you’re getting and what Chicago would be getting is the best scorer in the league by leaps and bounds. Bedard could become that, but when the bar is set at playing as well or better than McDavid, just having McDavid would be great.
Edmonton could loosen their salary-cap situation and get a player that may well be the next McDavid. They’d also be able to do with Bedard what they haven’t done with McDavid: give him a deeper supporting cast to win a Cup or two.”
Proposed Trade
The Chicago Blackhawks receive:
- Connor McDavid
- 2024 1st-round pick
The Edmonton Oilers receive:
- 2023 number one overall pick (Connor Bedard)
Connor McDavid is a sure thing, but Bedard could be better
McDavid is a six-time All-Star. He’s been a major part of the Oilers making the playoffs the last three seasons. However, the Oilers still haven’t been able to get back to the Stanley Cup Finals with McDavid. (Though they battled hard, losing in a 4-2 conference semi-finals series to the eventual Western Conference champion Las Vegas Knights in this year’s playoffs.)
Of course the Oilers want to reset their window with Bedard. But this doesn’t seem like it’s in the best interest of the Blackhawks. Sure, Bedard might be a bust, and we know McDavid is great. However, the Blackhawks must reset their roster and build around a young talent like Bedard. The Blackhawks don’t need to spend money on McDavid when they can get sellout crowds from a 17-year-old.
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