If you didn’t know, the NHL has a trade freeze during the Olympic break. It runs from 2 PM CT on Feb. 4 (Blackhawks legend Denis Savard’s birthday) until 10:59 PM CT on Feb. 22. The 2026 NHL Trade Deadline (final) is set for Friday, March 6, 2026, at 2 PM CT, meaning there are less than two weeks from the conclusion of the Olympics and the final trade deadline for front offices to find every perfect fix for their potential postseason problems.
So… there might be some action between now and my, I mean Denis Savard’s, birthday. And Wednesday morning, Pierre LeBrun at The Athletic wrote about some of the buzz he’s hearing about teams maybe needing to do something sooner than later.
I’m hearing from an increasing number of buyers and contenders that they’re learning toward waiting until after the Olympic trade freeze to make their most impactful moves. …
So that’s fine if you’re a team that can afford to wait that long to make your No. 1 add. But some teams can’t afford that. Whether it’s because of injuries or being in need of a season-saving move, we’re also going to see deals between now and Feb. 4 because some teams that haven’t given up on the year have to plug holes as soon as possible and can’t afford to wait until after the Olympics. It might be too late by March 6 to save their season.
That gives us an early reason to start considering the players on the current Blackhawks roster who might start generating more buzz in trade rumors.
Blackhawks Pre-Olympics Trade Options
One specific Blackhawks player who might become an intriguing player who could potentially move before the Feb. 4 trade deadline is defenseman Matt Grzelcyk. He signed a PTO with the Blackhawks before training camp and then signed a one-year deal with a $1M cap hit at the start of the regular season. That minimal commitment could make him a player of interest for teams that don’t have a lot of cap space but do have a need on their blue line sooner than later.
Grzelcyk has been a great buy by the Blackhawks to provide veteran depth on a young blue line. Entering Wednesday (according to MoneyPuck), Grzelcyk ranks second on the Blackhawks behind Artyom Levshunov in on-ice shot attempt percentage in all situations (51 percent) and on-ice goals percentage (51.5 percent — excluding Sam Rinzel (56 percent) because he’s in Rockford).
Right now, Grzelcyk is quarterbacking the Blackhawks’ second power play unit. He’s been in that role since Rinzel was sent to Rockford to work on his game.
There are two reasons the Blackhawks might consider selling high on Grzelcyk before the Olympic trade deadline:
He’s affordable for a team to make an earlier move Kevin Korchinski Timothy T. Ludwig-Imagn ImagesIn our Wednesday morning Bullets, I shared comments from Scott Powers and Mark Lazerus in a recent piece at The Athletic in which they chatted with Blackhawks assistant general manager of player development Mark Eaton about Korchinski’s development this season. It sounds like the organization is very pleased with the trajectory of the 21-year-old defenseman, who is in the final year of his entry-level contract.
Eaton’s comments about Korchinski’s development, coupled with the assertion from Powers and Laz that Korchinski will probably see some NHL ice time this season — and the desire to get him back to the top level before working on his second contract — could give the Blackhawks reason to answer the phone if a team is interested in helping Chicago open up a spot on the left side of their blue line (and on one of their power play units).
The Blackhawks have 23 games between the conclusion of the Olympics break and the end of the regular season. That’s a decent sample size for the organization to get a more significant look at Korchinski at the NHL level.
Other Blackhawks Trade Pieces
The Blackhawks have some other veterans who will undoubtedly draw interest before the March 6 trade deadline. Connor Murphy, Ilya Mikheyev and Jason Dickinson are all in the final seasons of their respective contracts and play roles that contenders usually look to fill around the trade deadline.
When the Sharks signed center Alexander Wennberg to a three-year contract extension over the weekend, it took a veteran off the market. That could make Dickinson an attractive name on the market.
Mikheyev’s elite speed and exceptional defensive play — and ability to chip in some offense as well — will likely make him a guy who teams want for a playoff push.
And Murphy being a dependable veteran who can kill penalties and plays a physical game on the right side of the blue line will be noteworthy on a market where some of the other top defenseman already in rumors are more expensive. The Blackhawks might also be interested in opening up a spot on the right side of their blue line for Sam Rinzel to come back up.
Also, the fact that Korchinski and Rinzel have been skating together in Rockford could make them a tandem the Blackhawks consider keeping together in the NHL later in the regular season.
There will be fans who jump into the comments and replies with their analysis of these three veterans, likely saying they aren’t very good based on the numbers on the back of their respective hockey cards. But, as was the case with Seth Jones, the way their specific skills are viewed around the league is predictably more favorable than the perspective of fans. There will be interest in the three of them.
All three of these Blackhawks have a cap hit between $4-4.4M this season.
One other Blackhawk who could start to generate more buzz is goaltender Laurent Brossoit. He has now appeared in six games for the IceHogs as he comes back from a long sequence of injuries and setbacks. His .901 save percentage in the AHL is good enough that a team with serious concerns about their situation between the pipes might be willing to take a swing on a guy who was very good before he signed with the Blackhawks in 2024. He has a $3.3M cap hit on a deal that also expires at the end of this season.
As a reminder: the Blackhawks have two remaining salary retention spots they can use (Jones is still on the books).
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