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The Chicago Blackhawks are likely going to be sellers at the trade deadline. They might be in the market to trade Erik Gustaffson for some assets.
The Chicago Blackhawks probably made a mistake when they didn’t trade Erik Gustaffson at the end of the 2018-19 season. He had 60 points in a season that saw everything go right for him offensively. He was never very good defensively which gave all the signs that the Hawks should take advantage of his trade value is high. They didn’t and he is now having a far inferior season.
He has six goals and 20 assists for 26 points so far this season. That isn’t terrible production from a third pair defenseman but it isn’t what it was last season. He would still make a fine addition to a blue line on a Stanley Cup contender. He would need a coach to put him in a position to succeed but there are plenty out there that are capable of doing that.
Trading Gustaffson is something the Blackhawks absolutely need to do. He is on an expiring contract right now and you can’t expect to fix any of our problems defensively by giving him a big contract. He would have been fine on the Blackhawks about five years ago but right now he is not a fit at all. This team is not good defensively at all and need to do things to improve that fact.
The Blackhawks could probably get a decent return for him at this point too. It is, as mentioned before, not going to be the return they could have gotten last summer but it is still going to be good. These are the three packages that would make a lot of sense: