NHL Rumors: Chicago Blackhawks, Calgary Flames, Colorado Avalanche

Welcome to another edition of Full Press Hockey’s NHL Rumors! The NHL Draft is history, and every team has high hopes for the prospects they added. Now, with free agency moves mostly done, rumors are still around. Clubs are always working to improve their rosters for next season. Some teams are having difficulty creating enough cap space to make moves. Others are experiencing severe injuries to star players. The new 2022-23 season will begin on October 13th, and trade rumors/predictions are still prevalent. In this Sunday edition of NHL Rumors, we will take a look at the Chicago Blackhawks, Calgary Flames, and Colorado Avalanche.

Chicago Blackhawks – Patrick Kane/Jonathan Toews

Rumor: Per – Joe Yerdon – bleacherreport.com. These two Blackhawks stars have had trade rumors tied to them all summer. Here’s where they both could go if trades do happen.

• Patrick Kane – Yerdon predicts that Kane will be headed to the Toronto Maple Leafs. It would no doubt make the Leafs the undisputed best offensive team in the NHL. The salaries for this proposed trade would add up without Chicago having to retain any salary. Shipping Kane to Toronto for Alexander Kerfoot ($3.5 million cap hit), T.J. Brodie ($5 million) and former Blackhawk David Kampf ($1.5 million) still keeps Chicago’s rebuild alive and well even without draft picks. Kerfoot is just 28 with five years of NHL experience. Brodie is no youngster at 32 but has that $5 million cap hit for the next two years, making the salaries match. Kampf is 28, with five years in the league, and a former Blackhawk. It’s been well documented that Kane wants out of the Chicago rebuild, and can still excel offensively as displayed by his 92 points in 78 games last season. He wants to add another Cup to his collection, and going to the Leafs gives him the best shot.
• Jonathan Toews – There has been some speculation that Toews could be headed to the Winnipeg Jets. which would be home for him. In exchange, Pierre-Luc Dubois along with Kristian Vesalainen could form a deal for both teams. This gets Dubois out of Winnipeg since he has been politicking to be traded. Although he wants to go to Montreal instead, he is still a restricted free agent after this season with a $6 million cap hit. The two teams would exchange draft picks and Chicago would be receiving a big player (6′-3″, 218 pounds) who tallied 28 goals and 32 assists in 81 games last season. With Toews’ stats decreasing, the Hawks will need to retain salary for this trade to work. The Jets have only $5.5 million in cap space to work with and that includes not paying Vesalainen who is an unsigned RFA now.

The Hawks need desperately to move on from the $21 million contracts of Kane and Toews and these deals will help them with rebuilding plans.

Calgary Flames – Noah Hanifin

Rumor: Per – Joe Yerdon – bleacherreport.com. Another interesting trade prediction involves the Calgary Flames sending Noah Hanifin to the New York Rangers for Kaapo Kakko and disgruntled defenseman Nils Lundkvist.

The New York Rangers came close in the Eastern Conference Final last season, but their defense failed them. They left Vezina-winning goalie Igor Shesterkin out to dry too many times. While trading Lundkvist is inevitable, to get a good quality defenseman like Hanifin they need to sweeten the deal. Throwing in Kakko should do the trick. The Rangers seem to be losing their patience in Kakko’s development and the former second-overall pick of 2019 seems to be expendable.

Hanifin would join the likes of Adam Fox, Jacob Trouba, K’Andre Miller and Ryan Lindgren. That transforms the Rangers defense into one which can compete for a Cup. And Shestrekin would be appreciative of the addition. From Calgary’s view, adding Kakko would supplement their offense and they are deep on the blueline and can afford to lose Hanifin. Juuso Valimaki could then move into Hanifin’s role on the blueline. They can even promote Connor Mackey who had five goals, 31 assists in 53 games with the AHL Stockton Heat last season.

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Colorado Avalanche – Pavel Francouz

Rumor: Per – Joe Yerdon – bleacherreport.com. While the Avalanche added Alexandar Georgiev as their replacement for Darcy Kuemper, will Francouz want to be a number-one goalie somewhere else?

The Avalanche may want to have Jake Allen in between the pipes as a backup instead of Francouz. Both Georgiev and Allen are 32 years old. Allen has a $2.875 million cap hit due to expire after next season, while Francouz is at $2 million and is good through the 2023-24 season. Jake Allen becomes an unrestricted free agent after the 2022-23 campaign. Allen would give the Avs much more experience in net with his 353 career NHL games under his belt. Francouz, while collecting an exceptional 6-0 record in the 2022 playoffs, has only participated in 57 games.

This may boil down to the Avalanche wanting more of an experienced goalie who has 29 playoff games to his credit. His postseason stats are very impressive with a .924 save percentage and a 2.06 goals-against-average. The Avs may also want Allen around in case Georgiev’s performance isn’t up to the standards they desire, or an injury happens.

While these are all trade predictions, they could also become NHL rumors. Stay with Full Press Hockey to know the latest.

That concludes this edition of NHL rumors. Be sure to catch our next article, and thanks for reading!