Blackhawks Defensemen Reportedly Hoping for Trade According to Team Insider

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Graham Montgomery
February 19, 2025 (5:53 PM)

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Chicago Blackhawks team insider Ben Pope revealed today that veteran defenseman Seth Jones is hoping for a trade this year.

The Chicago Blackhawks have not improved much at all this season.

The team remains at the bottom of the standings, only ahead of the San Jose Sharks, and appears to be destined for another chance at the draft lottery.

As a result, the team is expected to be sellers at the upcoming March 7th trade deadline.

In fact, the team has already started to sell, as Taylor Hall was moved during a three-team trade centered around the Avalanche and Hurricanes.

That was just the first of many moves for Chicago this season. General manager Kyle Davidson will have many more tough decisions to make in the coming weeks.

One of those decisions will be what to do with Seth Jones, who has openly stated that he is hoping for a trade and a chance to win.

"We all know the whole story and what happened when I got here. I would like to give myself a chance to win in my career. I know that the money is not an easy thing to move, and that's what we're figuring out.

If it happens, it happens. Obviously, while I'm here with the Blackhawks, they have my full effort [and] full attention to this team to try to get this team better."- Seth Jones

The problem with Jones is that he is on a massive contract. He currently has a 9.5 million dollar cap hit through the 2029-30 season, which would obviously be hard to move.

However, as Blackhawks insider Ben Pope points out, if the team is willing to retain 50% of his contract, his value would skyrocket, especially with the salary cap expecting to increase substantially in the coming years.

Retaining on Jones would handcuff the team in terms of retention though as it would eat one of just three slots the team has for five years, which is not a short period of time.

"At 50% retained, however, Jones would become a very valuable asset. In that case, he would carry an affordable $4.25 million cap hit through 2030. Within the NHL's skyrocketing salary cap, that would be chump change. But that would occupy one of the Hawks' three retention slots for each of the next five seasons, limiting their flexibility to make trades far into the future."

That being said, moving on from Jones would probably be the best move for the team as they look to continue their rebuild.

After all, Jones does not really fit the team's timeline and he could be of much better use somewhere else.

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