UPDATE: Jonathan Toews released a statement Sunday afternoon discussing his absents from the team. He is dealing with symptoms of long covid and chronic immune response syndrome. With all this news it has also been made aware that neither Toews nor the Blackhawks will pursue a trade for the captain and they hope for him to return to the ice in March. If this is the final season for Toews I am glad he will finish up his career and retire as a Blackhawk. More on this as it comes out.
Original Blog
Friday night, Maple Leafs GM Kyle Dubas dropped a bombshell of a trade landing one of the bigger targets on the trading block in Ryan O’Reiley. Now this is huge because it meant another one of the few teams that have come to light as landing sports that interested Patrick Kane was essentially off the board. Much like the Tarasanko trade, you can not fault anyone but Patrick Kane here. He has dug his feet into the idea that he is waiting 7-10 days before the deadline to decide if/when his Hawks career comes to a close. GMs like Dubas, who is working on an expiring contract and is arguably fighting for his job, are not going to wait for the off chance that Kane waives and says move me to this team. What makes this situation sting a little bit more is once again the St. Louis Blues find a way to stick it to Chicago and get assets that could have been coming our way.
Personally, I do not see a route that would see Kane leaving Chicago now. My speculation is that he had teams in mind for different reasons, and now that they have already made their big moves, I can’t see him going to the other rumored teams. Carolina is a team that gets brought up a lot and it is one I would be really interested in seeing him play for. I think the distance from his family would be enough for him to say no. Again, this is strictly speculation, but I think a lot of things will have to align to make a trade happen now.
That brings me to my next thought, what to do with Kane if he isn’t dealt? The reports that he is currently battling a hip injury seems to have other teams wary of risking a lot to acquire him, and could he potentially just be battling though to show he can still play? Absolutely, so once the deadline passes and there is no longer anything to really play for, why not extend him for at least a year, shut him down for the rest of the season, and let him get any surgery he may need and extra months of rest. I think a healthy Kane next year will be more valuable to this team than a broken down version just playing to play at this point. Kane has a lot to play for still in his career from a personal stand point. He just passed Jeremey Roenick for 4th most points from an American player and he now sits 175 points away from passing Brett Hull on the all time list. Much like passing Mikita as the all time leader in Hawks history, this achievement means a lot to Kane. Lets rest up, heal, and turn it back up come October 2023.
Lots more news should come out this week regrading this team and the status of some of their potential trade pieces. With the complicated situation of Kane and the health concerns of Toews, I think as fans we need to focus on our secondary trade pieces and hopefully getting a fair return to make up for what is more than likely a loss in the Kane and Toews trades.
Chicago Blackhawks Blogger • 
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