SETH JONES IS COMING TO CHICAGO!!!!

This kid isn't going to get credit but he ABSOLUTELY had the trade and the details first. I don't know how, but he did and I like when the people outside the mainstream get their time in the sun so I congrats to @DontBeSaad20

Now..the full details

And of course as stated above

Let's start with what the Blackhawks gave up…

Adam Boqvist stinks. He just does. We don't have to sugar coat it anymore because he's not here anymore. Tantalizing shot, good skater, hockey IQ doesn't seem to be all there. Not physical. Not great at 5v5 to say the least. And the biggest feedback out there after the season from Colliton was that Boqvist wasn't in shape enough. Maybe some of that was covid-19 related but that was a knock on him the year before too. It's not like they were asking him to play 24 mins. At 20 years old he couldn't handle 15 mins just from an endurance stand point and he always got PP time so those weren't even "hard" minutes. I never liked him. Said so on draft night in 2018. I am THRILLED that this is the "big" piece heading back.

Let's say you are a Boqvist believer and you think he will develop into something meaningful at some point(which he very well could. He's a young kid, obviously. I hope he does). Well he's not better than Jones and he's not better than Connor Murphy. So at best he is your 3rd pair Dman. Mitchell or someone else can fill that 3rd pair spot on the right side. If Jones was getting added, Boqvist going the other way always made sense because Jones makes him completely expendable. 

The 11th pick would've been nice to have, but by all accounts this isn't the strongest draft AND it has been difficult to scout due to covid-19 travel restrictions and the fact that Canadian Major Junior had either truncated seasons or no season at all. It's not a normal draft year from an evaluation stand point. If it were between giving up this year's 1st or Reichel I am thrilled that they got to keep Reichel. 

The 2nd rounder got flipped to Carolina already for Jake Bean. That's a nice move for CBJ, but they'd much rather still have Jones. 

The 1st round pick in 2022 is a nice lottery ticket future to have. God willing the Blackhawks will be too good to worry about missing out on the top 3 of that draft who are supposed to be fantastic. 

Seth Jones is a STUD. Bonafide #1, first pairing Dman. Is he Victor Hedman? No. Will he win a Norris here? Probably not because that is EXTREMELY hard to do. He is a sure-fire top 20 defenseman in the league and anyone telling you he's not doesn't watch hockey and they don't know what they're looking at. They saw a chart with a flawed stat one time and now the haters think they're geniuses. They are going to have a RUDE awakening when they find out they're banned and not allowed to cheer for Jones and the Blackhawks. Here are two people who are smarter than them and they agree Jones is a beast

Oh you know, just Brad Marchand. One of the most dynamic, creative, and productive wings in the NHL for the last decade. Guys hate playing against him, he hates playing against Seth Jones

You think Brad Marchand is a stupid hockey player and you're smarter than him…Mike Kelly come on down

You have probably seen Mike Kelly on NHL Network if you're reading this blog. He works in media and also works for a cutting edge analytics company in Canada that sells their data to NHL teams. So you have Marchand on the record saying he's a beast and you have Mike Kelly crunching numbers confirming that Jones is indeed good. Both sides. The haters are going to be FURIOUS when they realize they shouldn't just blindly trust a red box that they don't fully understand. 

Now, people are all up in arms about the money for Jones. $9.5AAV. I understand the sticker shock. Here is what you need to realize though…

This year with a flat cap Jones will make $5.4M. Not bad at all for a #1D, obviously. 

The 2022-23 season things could get a little tight financially. Murphy will need a new deal. Perhaps de Haan if they elect to keep him. 

The only other guys under contract that first year of the Jones extension are Toews, Kane, Debrincat, Borgstrom, and Riley Stillman. Everyone else is off the books or RFAs. It's a much more manageable situation than people are making it out to be. 

The following year Toews, Kane, and Debrincat will be off the books. Debrincat will get a raise, but Toews and Kane will either be gone as free agents and the team is unrecognizable or they'll take reduced salaries and stay. They won't do that because they're nice boys looking for a hometown discount. They'll do that because they'll be 35 and nobody will be signing up to give them $10.5M. Dach will need a bump. The rest of the roster will need to be filled out, but again…they'll have some flexibility and they will be able to benefit from the cap going up with multiple years of gate and merch from Seattle kicked into the HRR pool, that sweet sweet ESPN/Turner money, and full buildings.

This is a good trade. The Blackhawks are better than they were an hour ago. They're closer to the playoffs than they were an hour ago. For a night we can feel good and we should. Fuck the haters. Buy a shirt