The Blackhawks made a trade on Wednesday. What will Thursday and beyond bring?
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The Blackhawks and Sam Lafferty’s agent are expected to meet in Las Vegas on Thursday. There’s obviously familiarity and comfort there for both sides, but it’s not a given they’ll come to a contract agreement.
Lafferty, who turned 29 in March, will likely look for some stability heading into his 30s and a pay increase coming off the two best seasons of his career. His expiring contract was a two-year deal with a $1.15 million cap hit.
On the other side, the Blackhawks like Lafferty enough to bring him back, but they’re also in rebuild mode. Will they offer more than a few years? They should be able to pay him over market value for at least a few seasons. Would that be enough?
Stay tuned.
The Blackhawks likely envision Mikheyev as a third-line winger and Lafferty a fourth-line center or wing. Both would be upgrades from what the Blackhawks had last season.
The Blackhawks’ bottom six would likely include
Jason Dickinson,
Nick Foligno,
Ryan Donato, Mikheyev and Lafferty.
Landon Slaggert will likely be in that mix, too. And depending on whom the Blackhawks add over the next week, that could bump other players down the lineup.
If the Blackhawks get a deal done with Lafferty, they would likely be close to finalizing their bottom six. You would think the focus at the start of free agency will be adding top-six players with more offensive upside.
It doesn’t sound like the Blackhawks have closed the door on re-signing
Joey Anderson, one of the Blackhawks’ best players based on analytics last season. Anderson would bring more competition to the lineup.
There’s a chance the Blackhawks could give him a qualifying offer before the upcoming deadline, but their preference is likely to complete a deal before then. A qualifying offer could open the door to Anderson opting for arbitration.