Should The Blackhawks Be Looking To Trade Alex Debrincat?

So this report/rumor/whatever distinction you want to give is causing shock waves throughout Blackhawks twitter. People up in arms at the very notion of trading Debrincat. A lot of people like this guy in my mentions today

There is nothing inherently wrong with the logic of Jordan's tweet here. Debrincat is a legitimate All-Star. He is still young at 24 years old. He is on pace for like 45 goals this year on a team with a substandard power play and near the absolute bottom of the league in 5 on 5 shot attempts. Imagine what kind of numbers he'd put up on a competent NHL team? Probably 50+ goals. I love basically everything about his game. He is smart. He plays hard. He is responsible. He is much more than a pure goal scorer. If all of those things are true (they are) then why trade him?

There is one question to ask yourselves about Debrincat: 

Is he good enough to be the best player on a team that wins the Stanley Cup? 

If you answer "yes" to that question because of the reasons above I won't argue too hard with you. 

My gut, eyes, balls, and heart say that he isn't though. If you dropped 24 year-old Alex Debrincat on the 2015 Chicago Blackhawks he would probably be the 5th best player behind Keith, Kane, Toews, and Hossa. He'd be in that next group with Crawford, Hjalmarsson, Sharp, and Seabrook for the next most important players on the team. He wouldn't be the driving force on that team, but an INCREDIBLE complimentary player. 

Saying a guy isn't elite enough to be the best player on the best team isn't an insult or underappreciating Debrincat. There are hall of famers like that. 

If Debrincat is not that guy, then why would the Blackhawks pay him to be that guy? That is essentially what they'd have to do after next year. They'll have to pay him over $10M. I am just not sure that is wise if he is not a true MVP cornerstone type piece. 

I am not saying I would actively shop him, but if a team comes knocking with an offer that could reset the future of the organization with a stockpile of assets you have to listen. Debrincat's value has never been higher. He still has a full year left on his deal at a very reasonable cap hit of $6.4M. That is attractive to teams. He wouldn't be a pure rental. You get an All-Star caliber player for at least one full season and two playoff runs if you trade for him before the deadline. If some team knocks your dick off with a package that could turn into 3-4 NHL players then how do you not listen? 

The Blackhawks have a problem going forward in this rebuild. 1) The only young player in the entire prospect pool who projects as a top 6 forward is Lukas Reichel. They have zero starting caliber goalies in the pipeline and no defenesmen who project into the top 4. How can you possibly expect to get better in the future with no prospects and no assets? You can't. You'd be relying on ONLY Alex Debrincat, Seth Jones, and maybe Reichel and mayyyybbbbeeee Dach to turn everything around. That is just not possible. That is not enough. We have kinda run that experiment this year. It hasn't worked. 

Now, I said I liked all the offseason moves. I liked bringing in Jones, McCabe, and Fleury. I was okay with and tried to be optimistic about the Tyler Johnson trade. I thought the team would be "pretty good". Meaning...a wild card spot. I said before the year that their ceiling was 3rd in the Central and MAYBE win one round if everything went their way. I thought it was likely they'd be in the playoffs as a wild card (and they probably would be if they didn't waste an entire month+ on Colliton and Stan). And honestly, as a fan, that was good enough for me. Two years left on the Toews and Kane deals. We knew this wasn't going to be a Cup team, but I wanted a couple of seasons with meaningful games down the stretch and in the playoffs with 19 & 88. They deserved that and so did we. That dream is gone now. A full rebuild is required and I don't think you can do it around Alex Debrincat making $11M/year on his next deal. 

Some people are probably thinking like this guy

The amount of times I have talked about the Panarin trade over the last 4 years is insane. I've thought about probably 1000x more than I've talked about it. So if you're new you may not remember this tweet from after the Blackhawks got smoked by the Predators in 2017

It wasn't that I wanted to trade Panarin. It is that I looked at the landscape of the Blackhawks roster with heavy cap hits, no-movement clauses, a depleted prospect pool, and limited draft capital and thought the quickest way back to the top would be to trade Panarin for a treasure trove. I wanted a young cost-controlled, established, NHL defenseman (I mentioned Brandon Carlo at the time) plus picks and assets. I wanted a package similar to what the Avalanche got for Matt Duchene. What Stan Bowman got was Brandon Saad. An utter failure immediately

If you're trading Debrincat, you need to get a HUGE package in return. You need a high-end prospect and a first round pick. The Blackhawks would likely need to target a team that feels they're on the upswing and need another top 6 winger. Minnesota, New York Rangers, Nashville, Kings, and Anaheim. 

A pipe dream trade--

Minnesota gets: Debrincat, de Haan (Chicago retains 50%), and a 2022 3rd round pick

Chicago gets: Wallstedt, one of either Rossi/Boldy, and a 2022 1st round pick

Now, I don't know what Billy Guerin is thinking long term, but he has a very good team right now and adding Debrincat and de Haan could be the pieces that put them over the top in the West. The next three years the Wild have to deal with those BIG cap hits from the buyouts of Parise and Suter. Those two combine for at least $12-14M of dead cap for the next three years. Could you get the Wild to pay a big ticket for a STUD and the ideal playoff depth defenseman in de Haan? Very possible that Guerin could be thinking the exact opposite. That he could be in dire need of good, young, cheap talent for the next three years. Just a thought, maybe it was a high one, but that is where the asking price would start for me. 

Could you go to the LA Kings and ask for Turcotte, Vilardi, and a 1st round pick? They have a TON of good center prospects. 

Could you ask the Rangers for Laff, Zac Jones, and a pick? They have everything else they need right now and Debrincat could be the missing piece as a winger upgrade that Laff has yet to deliver on. 

For clarification, one last time, I do not think the Blackhawks should be actively shopping Debrincat, but if they get a holy shit offer that gives them a better chance to build a deep system that can lead to greater goals than being a Wild Card team then they have to entertain that idea even if it is uncomfortable. Stan left nothing but a pile of rubble. Kyle Davidson and whoever is next need to build for what is next. 

As for Hagel and Kubalik being available….Hagel is a piece that every team needs and the Hawks will need again. His cap hit right is so beyond a steal at $1.7M for 3 years that trading him would also require a HAUL in return. A 1st plus another asset. 

Kubalik was also mentioned…I would've traded him yesterday and the day before that.