Draft week is off to blazing start for the Chicago Blackhawks as they announced a major trade with the Boston Bruins in which they acquired forwards Taylor Hall and Nick Foligno for defensemen Alec Regula and Ian Mitchell.
Hall, 31, is coming off of a down year in Boston where he battled injury, playing in only 61 games and recording 36 points. Even though Hall struggled to stay in the lineup the Bruins saw great success capturing the President’s Trophy with 135 points.
The Bruins would fall in the first round to the Cinderella Florida Panthers where Hall had a pretty noticeble series, eight points in eight games. Hall is an interesting get for the Blackhawks as he really looks like a tremendous fit on Connor Bedard’s wing as a player that can get the puck on Bedard’s stick and help him break into the league.
Hall, also a former first overall pick, could play a huge role in developing the Blackhawks young talent and namely assisting Bedard in how to handle the pressure of being a first overall pick.
The other player acquired is a bit of a peculiar one in veteran forward Nick Foligno. Foligno is an unrestricted free agent on July 1st and from the sounds of it the Blackhawks are interested in trying to sign Foligno to help lead this young core.
I do wonder if they look to sign Foligno to a one-year deal that they can move at the trade deadline for picks and potentially retaining on his cap hit to make him an attractive target. We will see how this unfolds over the weekend.
As for the players on the way out for the Blackhawks, Mitchell is the most notable of the two as the former second round pick never lived up to the hype he generated coming out of college. Mitchell is a player that will look to jump start his career under his former college coach Jim Montgomery and could do so with this change of scenery.
The other player sent to Boston was defenseman Alec Regula, who was acquired from the Detroit Red Wings in 2019 for forward Brendan Perlini, did not seem to have a future in the Blackhawks defensive core with a bunch making a jump to the AHL this upcoming season. Regula looks like a solid top four AHL defenseman who could be a bottom pair/extra defenseman in the future but not a player the Blackhawks will miss.
This move to acquire Hall and the rights to Foligno shows that the Blackhawks are prepared to insulate their incoming franchise player Connor Bedard and is a signal to Blackhawks fans that this upcoming season is going to be a lot more fun than last year.
The Hawk Line 