{"id":454623,"date":"2024-10-28T16:52:15","date_gmt":"2024-10-28T20:52:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/?p=454623"},"modified":"2024-10-28T16:52:15","modified_gmt":"2024-10-28T20:52:15","slug":"nhl-rumours-chicago-blackhawks-seek-depth-centre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2024\/10\/28\/nhl-rumours-chicago-blackhawks-seek-depth-centre\/","title":{"rendered":"NHL Rumours: Chicago Blackhawks Seek Depth Centre"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s time for another edition of NHL rumours. We&#8217;re almost to the end of October, but we&#8217;ve still got a ton of NHL rumours. General managers are looking to bolster their respective rosters in a multitude of ways. Some are willing to make signings, but others may do it via trades. One team looking to bolster their forward depth is the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2024\/09\/18\/chicago-blackhawks-name-35th-captain\/\" target=\"_self\">Chicago Blackhawks.<\/a> This edition of NHL rumours looks at the Blackhawks trying to add to their centre ranks.<\/p>\n<p>All NHL rumours come from the original source and are subject to change.<\/p>\n<h2>NHL Rumours<\/h2>\n<h3>Chicago Blackhawks Trying to Add Depth Centre<\/h3>\n<p><em>Rumour: A number of insiders, including Sportsnet&#8217;s Elliotte Friedman, said the Blackhawks are trying to add more depth down the middle of their lineup. This was mentioned in a<a  href=\"https:\/\/www.sportsnet.ca\/nhl\/article\/32-thoughts-wilds-kirill-kaprizov-should-be-in-hart-trophy-race\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> recent, written edition<\/a> of 32 Thoughts.<\/em><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Written 32: <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/BB2zaReSNq\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/t.co\/BB2zaReSNq<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/FriedgeHNIC\/status\/1849271681753239930?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">October 24, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><em>Analysis:<\/em> Friedman said the Blackhawks have been eyeing up pivots in recent weeks. Chicago made some moves to try to get up the standings. However, it&#8217;s still a bit of a slow go for the Blackhawks.<\/p>\n<p>Chicago is last in the Central Division with a 2-6-1 record heading into Monday&#8217;s action. The <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2024\/09\/06\/blackhawks-2024-puck-drop\/\" target=\"_self\">team made plenty of signings<\/a>, but the Blackhawks are still stuck to the bottom of the division.<\/p>\n<p>The team does have some <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2024\/08\/25\/chicago-blackhawks-top-prospects-2024-edition\/\" target=\"_self\">good young players,<\/a> but they&#8217;ll need time to develop. It seemed that Blackhawks General Manager Kyle Davidson tried to give the younger players some veteran help.<\/p>\n<h4>Using Your Capital<\/h4>\n<p>One way the Blackhawks could add a centre is via their numerous draft picks. Blackhawks <a  href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/BenPopeCST\/status\/1849298406461542555\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">beat writer Ben Pope<\/a> and podcast host Jay Zawaski brought up that the Blackhawks could use some of their plethora of draft picks too acquire some centre help.<\/p>\n<p>According to Pope, the team has 11 first and second-round draft choices spread across the next three NHL Drafts. That accumulation of selections could be used to getting a centre that&#8217;s in their mid 20s to add to the lineup.<\/p>\n<p>Chicago also has to worry about hitting the 50-contract limit as Pope mentions. The Blackhawks likely wont&#8217; be able to sign all of the players that would be drafted if they kept those picks. Packaging picks in a trade would be a good way to head off that possible problem.<\/p>\n<h4>Waiting for Development<\/h4>\n<p>There are some good young players on the roster. However, they have yet to step up and take the number-two centre spot. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/n\/nazarfr01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-10-28_hr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Frank Nazar<\/a> hasn&#8217;t won the second-line centre spot and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/k\/kurasph01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-10-28_hr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Philipp Kurashev<\/a> hasn&#8217;t impressed.<\/p>\n<p>Making a deal is the next progression in trying to improve Chicago&#8217;s lineup. However, Pope mentions that Davidson isn&#8217;t willing to give up any higher-end prospects. Davidson has a load of younger players developing in Rockford in the AHL and he probably doesn&#8217;t want to sacrifice any of them.<\/p>\n<p>There are a number of teams that are looking for centre help according to Friedman. Teams like the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2024\/09\/16\/puck-drop-preview-nashville-predators\/\" target=\"_self\">Nashville Predators<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2024\/10\/28\/flames-star-defencemans-hot-start-poses-future-questions\/\" target=\"_self\">Calgary Flames<\/a> could be in the mix to add depth down the middle. Chicago might be in a good spot to make a move thanks to having plenty of draft choices, but the clock is ticking on its season.<\/p>\n<p><em>Main photo by: Jamie Sabau-Imagn Images<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s time for another edition of NHL rumours. We&#8217;re almost to the end of October, but we&#8217;ve still got a ton of NHL rumours. General managers are looking to bolster their respective rosters in a multitude of ways. Some are willing to make signings, but others may do it via trades. One team looking to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2352,"featured_media":450862,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[27,4547,4548,4321],"tags":[5981,7134,7147],"class_list":["post-454623","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blackhawks","category-hockey","category-nhl","category-rumours","tag-chicago-blackhawks-rumours","tag-frank-nazar","tag-kyle-davidson"],"modified_by":"Dan Mount, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454623","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2352"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=454623"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454623\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/450862"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=454623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=454623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=454623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}