The Chicago Blackhawks have the Capital to Acquire Players, and Connor Bedard Needs a Deal

It’s still hard for the Chicago Blackhawks to lure top players … Could they target Matthew Knies if he’s available?

Sportsnet: Elliotte Friedman on 32 Thoughts: The Podcast – Who’s Out, Who’s In: The Full Breakdown episode, on the Chicago Blackhawks. It’s not easy to lure top free agents at this time, so they may have to look at the trade market. If he’s made available, Matthew Knies might be a target.

** NHLRumors.com transcription

“Now, a couple years ago, they took a shot at (Jake) Guentzel. At that time, is Guentzel going to Chicago, or is he going to Tampa? He wants to win. He’s going to Tampa.

It’s, it’s going to be hard for them until you’re like, like the Quinn Hughes thing this year, every player saw it. Wasn’t happy in his situation. Got himself out to a winning situation. Top players want to win.

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Chicago was at the bottom of their cycle. You know, it’s harder to get those guys to come to you when you’re like that. That’s why I think they’ve tried, but they’re not going to win those battles yet. I think they looked at making some trades. I don’t think they like the prices.

For me, the interesting guy is going to be a guy like (Matthew) Knies. If he is really still out there, I could see Chicago being the kind of team that would be like, what do we have to do to get that?

But again, they’re getting another high pick this year. They finished 31st, so the lowest, the lowest that pick is going to be is four Kyle. They’re getting another really good player. I just think they believe that as long as this is and as hard as this is, they are, they’re, they’ve got a super young team, and they still believe it’s going to work, even if it’s not as quick as everyone might like it.

And you know what, they’re going to have the capital to acquire guys. They got a lot of picks. They got a lot of prospects. And, you know, I don’t know how much you watched (Anton) Frondell, but I see why that guy was at the top of the draft. Like there’s, there’s a really good player there.”

Connor Bedard needs a new contract

Kyle Bukauskas: “Absolutely. So, how do you think they proceed with a new contract for Bedard?

Friedman: “You know, that’s a great question. I think they took a run at it last year. I think everybody wanted to wait and see how the market was going to go. Like, if you’re Chicago, you get in that. Like, I always say, when you have a guy like that, you pay him as much as you can for as long as you can. Like, the price never goes down.

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But the market’s been reset, right? Like, that was Kaprizov. I think they looked at him. I don’t think, I don’t necessarily think Bedard is going to be making 17, but you know what they were probably, what they were looking at last year, and I would bet it was in the eight figures. Like, this is my personal opinion, based on what I kind of heard out there. It was in like, the low eight-figure range. But now it’s different. And you know, we’ll see where, we’ll see where we go.”

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